Three memorable moments I'll share, in my quest to obtain my Iron Butt Association (IBA) certification by riding at least 1000 miles in under 24 hours.
The ride organizer took this photo prior to the start.
Really, it was just another ride. Those three things of interest on this ride are:
East of the lunch/fuel stop I made in Gallup, I pulled off to put on my Frog Toggs rain gear. It was the blue bag...oh, wait - there were two blue bags one was mine...and those weren't the ones on the bike. With great difficulty, I put on Grace's set of Frog Toggs, then headed east into the dark, dreary sky...
About 15 minutes later, a cold, heavy rain started to fall. As I was nearing the Continental Divide along Interstate 40, my hands began to take a pounding - from the pea-sized hail that was covering the roadway. As soon as I figured out what was happening, a four-wheeler headed west slowly lost control and headed into the median. I also quickly figured out that I was soooo close to wiping out -- as the front-end was really squirrely on the hail. I had no choice but to press on and try to ride it out. Truckers were yelling at me via the CB radio that there was hail on the road, look at the crazy guy on the motorcycle...yeah, I earned this one.
After the fuel stop at Albuquerque, New Mexico, I knew my next opportunity would be at the ride corner in Hatch, and that's probably about where I'd run into the rain I knew I was facing on this ride. I wanted to hustle down there as quickly as I could, knowing that the rest of the ride would be much slower paced, due to a combination of rain and darkness. Just a bit south of Socorro was my afternoon companion - rain. The rain I had ran into earlier up north was fairly quick, so I thought that I'd ignore the ill-fitting rain gear I had, and just tough it out. Well, that rain lasted until ten miles before the Hatch turn off; still warm temps and not super hard rain, and I dried fairly quickly.
Well, minding my manners regarding speed along NM-26, I press on toward Deming. As it's getting darker, the lightning storms that are all around me in the mountains are intense. "Oh, crap" kept on rattling my brain. I think the rain hit me again around 30 miles west of Deming, but knowing my next fuel stop was Willcox, I wasn't in the mood at the time to stop. So I didn't. And, it was dark.
Wet, with periods of hard rain, followed by a few miles of drizzle - or nothing. With the Pirelli rear car tire I'm using, I had zero hydroplaning issues, even running close to the speed limit on wet and dark roads. If there was ever a place where I was being watched, it was along there.
The rain stopped about Bowie. Stopped at the TA in Willcox. I was smart enough to also pack my Gerbings heated jacket liner and another shirt. Went inside, changed out of my wet shirt, put on the dry one along with the Gerbings liner, and I was good to go! More rain just west of Willcox, and it didn't let up until Texas Canyon...but I was much more comfortable, with temps hovering around the low to mid 60's for that last three hours or so.
I took a bit over 16 hours to complete the ride, I think the ride organizer said that the route distance is 1030, so that puts the on the clock average velocity at around 64 MPH.
Addendum: 1029 miles, per the IBA. The route as described on the certificate is inverted.
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