48 States in 10 Days?
June 3-11, 2021
The time is here! I have been dreaming, planning, and more planning to do the Iron Butt Association’s 48 State Challenge for over a year. I searched out those that have gone before, reading their blogs, and forum posts and comparing routes they have been willing to share. I use a web-based software program
called “furkot” with the addition of Google Maps. |
| My Route |
The 48 State Challenge is riding into each of the 48 continental states and obtaining a business receipt that documents the date, time, and address as proof that I was there. The next challenge is to plan a route that is as efficient in time and distance as possible. My route, at least as planned, will be 7,483 miles. It starts in St. George, UT, and ends in Hermiston, OR. I will ride it in a counter-clockwise direction. This makes for an average of 833 miles a day. I also planned to do this ride as a 49 States in 10 Days, but the border into Canada was closed and I didn’t want to put the ride off any longer.
My bike is a 2019 Harley-Davidson Ultra limited and her name is Marley. I have slowly been adding some additional accessories, or farkles, for these types of trips. New this year, I added a set of LED driving lights, an auxiliary five-gallon gas tank, and an additional GPS (Garmin Zumo LT).
Last year, in May I rode another Iron Butt Association ride called 100 CCC. Check out my web page to read my report on my 100 CCC. It was during the plague which made for very few vehicles on the road and motels were cheap. The route I took was from San Diego, CA, to Jacksonville, FL, then back to San Diego, CA in less than 100 hours. That trip was about 1200+ miles a day, for four days. So, with this ride and many other long-distance/timed rides, I have a good sense of what these long-distance rides entail.
On this 48 States ride, I will also be working on another Iron Butt Association's ride called the National Parks Tour. I have been working on this ride for almost a year and am not sure whether or not I will be able to accomplish it in the time frame allowed. The Association gives you a year to finish it, but getting to 25 states and finding 50 National Park type locations is a real challenge when I’m still working full-time. Living in the west makes for some long-distance and there are only 21 states west of the Mississippi River. So, I have researched some locations along my route that I can make a quick stop at and get the documentation that I need, thus killing two birds so to speak. Hopefully, I will be successful on both rides.
I finally
made plans to start the ride on Thursday, June 3, 2021. I worked the three days
before, and if I took my next work week off (three days, 12-hour shifts) I
would be back in time for work on June 14th. I started putting my
checklists together so I could remember to set my GPS, Spot tracker, and bike
trip odometer. Oh, and of course take a picture and get my receipt. Speaking of
which, I put together a photo book with each stop in it. I then planned on
putting the all-important receipts in the proper place and would have a visual
reference that I had been to each state.
Thursday morning finally arrived; I was so jazzed about the trip. I have ridden about five or six other Iron Butt rides, but this one I was excited like a kid at Christmas. My wife has joined me on several of those rides as a pillion but was not interested in 800 plus miles a day for nine days (which turned out to be a good thing). So, I followed my checklist, I know I would have forgotten something if I hadn’t and off I went.
This first
day was on roads that I have been on before. I made all of the stops as planned
and arrived in Las Vegas, New Mexico. This Las Vegas is way different than the
one in Nevada. I didn’t make any motel reservations because I was not sure how
far I would be willing to ride each day or how traffic or weather might delay
me. I did look up cheap hotels at planned stopping points just to help keep me
organized. Tonight, it didn’t matter, I couldn’t find the motel I had planned
to stay at and found another. In Las Vegas, New Mexico, at 9:30 pm, there is
not much in the way of restaurants and this town was still on a lockdown of
some sort. I finally got the crew of some restaurant drive-thru to come to the
window, I was walking, I asked what I could order as they were cleaning up and
I was starving. They said they had some chicken wings left, that was all, so
ten bucks later and a very large pile of wings I walked back to the hotel to
enjoy my dinner.
The following day,
I grabbed a receipt and some gas as I headed out of town for a quick trip up to
Trinidad, Colorado, for my next receipt. Trinidad looked like a cool place to
check out on a future trip. I headed southeast back to I-40 to get a receipt in
Texas. This is where my trip takes a pretty dramatic change.
I just got
onto I-40 and was traveling in the outside lane. Traffic was light and I was
cruising along planning my next stop about an hour down the road, it was time
for lunch and fuel. I came through a cut in the road, I remember some orange-colored
grass-topped hills, and then a gust of wind slammed into me from my right side.
I was instantly moved into the inside lane. I had no choice, it happened in a
fraction of a second. I guessed the gust to be around 60+ mph. Living in the
west I am used to riding in gusting winds that push you around, even on a 1,000-pound
bike. I have never felt one this strong and it was out of nowhere. I don’t even
remember it being windy at all. Then once again, life was good and peaceful, with
no wind whatsoever and so I just cruised down the road enjoying life and
scratching my head wondering what that was all about.
Well, I few
miles further down the road I passed a red vehicle, I think it was a van. I was
well past it, traveling now in the inside lane enjoying life, and looking
forward to the ride today. That was the last thing I remember…until about six
pm later that evening.
According to
a witness, I believe it was the driver of the red van, another gust of wind
hit. He said, he had also felt the wind gust, I was in the lane then I was in
the middle of the median. I know I was traveling around 80 mph. So, I surmise
that I was now traveling 80 mph in the dirt median. The witness said I was
breaking and trying to keep the bike under control and started to head back to
the pavement. Just short of the pavement, he said the bike flipped and went to
the left. I continued alongside the freeway doing cartwheels.
I was life-flighted
to the hospital in Amarillo, Texas, where I was checked over. They had a hard
time connecting with my wife and finally made contact. I don’t remember this
conversation, but apparently, I didn’t know why I was in Texas or what I was
doing. Later, at about 6:00 pm I called her and checked to see if she had made arrangements
to come to Texas and I had much more clarity of where I was and what was going
on.
I fractured
my neck and my back. I received a concussion and I had minimal road rash. My
protective gear had worked. I was numb from the chest level down to my toes. In
the next few days, I had surgery and the doctors fused my back from T-2 to T-8.
In addition, I wore a neck brace with torso support for the next twelve weeks.
Today, I
ride a powered wheelchair. I’m lucky that I’m alive. I can use my arms and
hands, a miracle considering the neck fracture. After spending 42 days in the
hospital the real work began when I went home, especially for my wife. She took
the place of two or three health care workers who had been there 24/7. We have home healthcare coming in and that has helped for the hour they are in the
home. It’s a whole new lifestyle.
So, my 48
States in 10 Days ride was cut short with me doing cartwheels down the freeway.
I am grateful to be alive. I know that I have an amazing, loving wife and
family. I still wish I could get on the bike and ride. I miss that freedom.
No comments:
Post a Comment