I think I just may be the newest newby on the forum. Even though I have 5 IBA certificated hanging on my wall, I still feel very inadequate when I am around real IBA folks. With that in mind, I was a little hesitant to post this, but vanity won out once more.

Jim’s BunBurner 1500

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Back in October while visiting my daughter in Phoenix, the germ of this ride was planted. We were shopping in Scottsdale and drifted into the Rusty Spur Saloon for lunch. When we questioned the décor. (Lots of dollar bills attached to the walls) the server gave us a brochure on the bar and a flyer promoting a poker run on November 30. With the riding season winding down, I started thinking about one last Iron Butt ride for the year. A BunBurner 1500 would be a great way to finish off the year and the rear tire on the Voyager. Over the next few weeks, I plotted and planned out the ride. I knew I had to cross Texas in the daytime due to their 65 MPH speed limit at night, so I planned on leaving the evening of November 27, Thanksgiving. The next thing was the route. I-40 across Arkansas, Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico and Arizona to Flagstaff was out due to winter in Flagstaff. Flagstaff gets lots of snow sitting there at about a mile high. So I looked at I-40 to I-30 to I-20 to !-10, the next shortest route. But cold and rain on Thanksgiving made me decide on the longer I-20 across Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas to I-10.

As planned, I finished Thanksgiving dinner and hit the sack about 3:00pm to grab a few winks before leaving. I got up about 9:30 to find it was raining. Checking the Weather Channel on the Internet, I saw that the rain was to clear out about 10:30 or so. Sure enough the rain stopped and I headed out. First stop the Tupelo Police dept. for a witness, since this hopefully would turn out to be a BunBurner Gold ride (1500 Miles in 24 hours). I got out of town about 11:00 and was smiling like a Cheshire Cat as I headed down US45 to Meridian to pick up I-20. Just north of West Point, less than 45 miles from home the rain started again. Damn you Weather Channel! Cold rain! Thank goodness for my BelStaff jacket and rain paints, thermal underwear and waterproof Wolverine boots. I decided to change my route and take US 82 west to I-55 figuring I would do better on the interstate.

I arrived at Winona, MS at 12:28 AM and made my first stop. This was where the BunBurner Gold went out the window. The %#$^@^& "waterproof" Wolverine boots ain’t. So there I was cold and miserable and thinking of aborting the ride. I stopped, filled up the gas tank and changed my socks. Feeling a little better, I decided to soldier on. I got on I-55 and headed south to Jackson and I-20. The next stop was at a rest area on I-55 just to take a short breath and trey to warm up. Cold feet suck.

Next stop was Tallulah, LA at about 4:00AM. Gassed up, changed socks again, and set around to warm up. Bundled up and headed out again about 5:00. Still plenty darn cold but I am still determined even if the BunBurner Gold is now out of the question.

Only got to Ruston, LA when I had to stop again. Still cold, so I gassed up, had breakfast and waited until daylight before heading out again

Shreveport, LA was the next gas stop. Serious headwind is killing my gas mileage. Voyager usually gets in excess of 40 MPG but with this headwind and running around 75 MPH my mileage was down to about 30-35 MPG. However it was warming up and now I was really looking forward to TEXAS.

Terrell, TX is my next stop. Strictly a gas and go. Warmer now, temps in the mid to high 50s. Cisco, TX around 12:30 for gas, and a water bottle full of coffee and back on the road. Big Springs TX and the Rip Griffin Truck Stop looked like a good place to stop for dinner since it was now around 4:30. However the restaurant was closed for remodeling. They did have a Subway sandwich shop there, so I got a foot long tuna sub and a coke for dinner. I could only eat half of the sub so I put the remainder in my trunk (which acted like a freezer) for later. Between Big Springs and Pecos, my GPS unit turned over 1000 miles at mile post 96 on I-20. YEE HAW!!!! 1000 miles in about 18 hours. That is just over 55 MPH , no record but pretty darn respectable.

The next gas stop was in Pecos, TX and very routine. Gas, Potty & Go. However, I was getting pretty darned tired and it was getting cold again, so I decided to stop at the next town for a little sleep.

Serria Blanca Texas: End of the line for today. That is 1182 miles by my odometer and should qualify for a SaddleSore 1000 (1000 miles in 24 hr.) even though I forgot to write down the GPS mileage. I checked in to the Serria Blanca Motel about 7:30 PM and hit the sack. Interesting thing about the motel, the owner collected antique saddles and had several in the lobby and one in my room. Since I was tired and cold, I did not spend much time discussing the saddles, but I vowed to stop back there on my return trip and set some information about his strange (to me) hobby.

I set my phone alarm for 3:00, figuring I could get on the road by 4:00 and still make my BunBurner1500 (1500 miles in 36 hours) before 11:00 AM Central time. However, I woke up about 1:30 AM and decided to go ahead and hit the road. Gas stop in Fort Hancock, TX was a routine gas, pee and go except it was really cold and the station was closed except for the gas pumps. I love Pay at the Pump. By the time I got to Deming, NM, I was very very cold and needed to spend about 30 minutes warming up. The attendant was a real butthead. The only non hospitable person I ran into on the entire ride. My next stop was just for coffee and a warm-up at a truck stop. I was only there 10 minutes or so, but it was memorable because of how nice the folks there were. They sent me into the Truckers lounge to warm up with a cup of coffee and they did not charge me for the coffee. Back on the highway, things are going swimmingly until my GPS unit started reading "Poor Coverage" and quit showing my mileage for about 30 miles. Boy doe this screw up my plans. No GPS reading to verify mileage. Next was the gas stop at The Thing in Benson, AZ. At mile post 322.The Thing is a tourist trap with something called The Thing in a back room that you can see if you pay a buck. . Needless to say, I didn’t.

At this point. I had my 1500 miles in but with the GPS not doing it’s thing I wanted to get on to Tucson to make sure I had it.

9:13 AM MST in Marana, AZ on the west side of Tucson, I finished the BunBurner 1500. My GPS showed 1550 miles ( which is 30 miles + or – low) and my odometer showed 1602 miles. Yah Hoo!!!!

Now all I have to worry about is, my witnesses verifying my start and finish and Mike and the folks at the Iron Butt Association agreeing with me that it was worthy of a license plate frame and a certificate.

I had the 1500, but I still had to get to my daughter’s house in Peoria another 150 or so miles. I made that by 11:30 MST and kicked back all afternoon and evening. I did call an old riding buddy who has retired to Phoenix to see if he wanted to go on the poker run on Sunday. Of course he did.

I met him at his house at 8:00 and we rode to Scottsdale and the Rusty Spur Saloon. Of course there were some who were skeptical about my coming that far, just for a poker run. But they do not understand the Iron Butt Association and how it’s members think and operate. We can tell you what we do, but most of us cannot tell you why we do it. The poker run was fun, about 150 miles with stops at bars like, Jake’sO’Mine in Apache Junction, Norton’s Country Corner in Queen Creek, Yolanda’s Chuckwagon in Florence, Sandy’s Dirty Drummer in Tempe and back to the Rusty Spur in Scottsdale.

All old saloons, no bars or taverns here, these are saloons and pretty cool. Weather was perfect, mid 70s with clear skies. Just beautiful. I did notice a few things about the Phoenix area or the Valley of the Sun as the locals call it. Their rivers ain’t got no water. Their roads ain’t got no curves. They ain’t got no trees. And their beach is a long way from the ocean. But it sure was nice Saturday and Sunday. As we were leaving Sandy’s Dirty Drummer, my battery light came on indicating low electrolyte in the battery. We went back to the Rusty Spur to finish our poker hands. Of course, I had a bad hand but not bad enough to qualify for the low hand prize. In addition I did not win any of the door prizes nor the Whizzer motorbike they had as a door prize. So we had a couple of beers and headed to my daughter’s to check out my battery. Sure enough the water was low in the battery; I bought some distilled water and filled the battery. The light went out and the battery seems as good as ever.

Monday morning, about 8:00, I headed out for home. Again the skies were clear and the temperatures were in the mid 70s. Just a great day to be riding. Not having any deadlines like I did riding out, I just cruised along at the speed limit and stopped three or four times just to see who or what was there. I made it to Sierra Blanca, Texas for the night. Back to the Sierra Blanca Motel and the collections of antique saddles. This time I asked the owner about them. Very interesting! Old Bronc busting saddles, work saddles, pleasure saddles, kids saddles, army saddles. I found out there was a difference between an enlisted man’s saddle and an officer’s saddle. (The officer’s saddle was a few inches longer.) Cool stuff.

The town of Sierra Blanca is just what you would expect for an old town in Southwest Texas. Dusty and very sleepy with a big Mexican influence and no water. Their water has to be piped in from Van Horn Texas about 50 miles away.

The next day, Tuesday my goal was Lake Charles, LA and some Cajun food. This made for a pretty long day since I left Sierra Blanca about 6:00AM and would get into Lake Charles around 8:00. Tuesday was an uneventful day, just riding and gassing up and riding and gassing up some more. I had to gas up in Vidor, Texas and gave up on the Cajun food there. The truck stop I gassed up at had a Denny’s restaurant right next to it, so I gave in to a Denny’s ultimate omelet. Good omelet but it ruined any chance I had for Cajun food later. I checked in the Motel 6 in Lake Charles about 8:00, had a hot shower, watched a little TV and hit the sack early.

Wednesday morning, I again hit the road around 6:00 AM. Nice and warm in the morning, but there were some ominous clouds to the north and west moving east. Another uneventful day just riding and gassing until I got just south of Meridian when it started raining. If figures, I started this thing in the rain and it looks like I was going to finish it in the rain.

I stopped at the truck stop in Scubba (yes Virginia, there is a Scubba, Mississippi) for a cup of coffee to warm up and let the rain slow up. After 30 minutes or so the rain had stopped, so I continued on. Next stop was in West Point for gas, and then I continued on to Tupelo. Just south of Tupelo the rain started again, harder and colder, but I was too close to home to stop now. I continued on home, riding very carefully and completed my wonderful adventure at 4:00PM.

Five days and 3500 miles made for a wonderful finish to the 2003 riding season and the rear tire.

Jim Jaudon

Tupelo, MS