Saturday, March 20, 2010
A California In-State SaddleSore 1000
My friend Doug has a lot of big rides this summer, including the IBR5000 in August, and I have dreams of finally doing my BBG. A few months ago, we were talking about our plans, and I told him that we should do some training rides together. His great idea was for us to do an California In-State SaddleSore 1000, one of the rides certified by the Iron Butt Association. Nothing fancy - just up I-5 for 500 miles or so to Corning, then back home.
He met me at my house at 5:30am this morning. Justin had stayed up all night after work to sign our witness forms, and he rode with us up to the 76 station for our starting receipts. It was pretty cold, and we knew it would get colder over the Grapevine, but even though I'd prepped everything the night before I didn't set out the cord to my heated vest, and I just couldn't find it. Doug was having problems with his heated gear too, so we bundled up as best we could, and headed out. Justin rode with us up to Sunland, but he didn't wear his warm gear, and turned off there.
We banged out the miles up to Harris Ranch for the first fuel stop. Doug has a nice auxiliary fuel tank on his '06 FJR, but I'm stock, and with my wind screen up high to battle the cold I only get 200-220 miles per tank. I told Doug about the first time I came to this gas station on my bike -- to meet up for the start of the Central Coast Romp back in April, 2006, my first big FJR group ride. We filled up, emptied out, and got back on the road.
More miles, all the way to Williams for a splash-and-go -- Doug, with his 400 mile fuel range, didn't even dismount. 60 miles later, we hit the turn-around point in Corning.
After fueling, we pushed (literally) on over to The Olive Pit, a local landmark that sells every kind of olive you can imagine. We borrowed one of their outside tables and ate a quick lunch from our saddlebags, then went in to stock up on olives for various friends and family. I'm not an olive fan, but my brother-in-law Randy is a big olive guy, so I picked up a couple of bottles for him - one of the hottest kind of green olive they sell, and one with black olives.
Outside, we talked for a while with an old guy on a 1971 Honda. He said he'd taken it past 200,000 miles, shipping it to Panama and Puerto Rico, and he had the look about him to support it.
After an hour-long stop, we hit the road again for Lathrop, south of Stockton. The Tower Mart there is another landmark, with an alien spaceship crashed into the roof of the building, and lots of green aliens all about. We were supposed to meet up with our friend Jerry there, but he had last-minute family obligations that prevented him from meeting up with us. Doug came up with some cool ways to tease him about it, too. More fuel, then back to the road.
The next stop was in Lost HIlls, at I-5 and SR-46. We stretched our legs for a while, then hit the road for the last stint of the day.
After another high-speed blast, Justin met us back at the 76 station by my house. My wife was tracking us on the SPOT site, and when Justin got back from his ride of the day she told him to ride up the gas station. We got a final receipts, 15 hours and 34 minutes after we left that morning.
We dragged ourselves back to my house for a little R&R, and I felt bad that Doug had to ride back to El Segundo. He said he was cool with it, so I wished him the best as he left.
After the fact, I found that the IBA has a special Four Seasons certification, for riding an SS1K on the first day of each of four consecutive seasons, Through sheer coincidence, our ride today was on the first day of spring. When I e-mailed Doug about it, we decided to try to finish our Four Seasons rides. We may have to get a new witness, though &em; Justin says he wants to join us for the whole ride next time.