Let me keep this short - the BBG chewed me up and spit me out. I might have squeaked by and then again I might have not made the grade (depends if they grade on the curve) 
According to map quest, (gas station to gas station) I did 1507.68 miles in 23:58. That is about as close as you can get. My odometer read 1523 miles. My SS1K was a walk in the park - and I think that might have been part of the problem. I thought I was super prepared but in reality I wasn't. Four major things about did me in. First I found myself stopping at every rest stop for the first couple of hours to adjust this or fiddle with that. It seemed that a lot of little things were not just right and I kept trying to make them right - and even though each stop might have only been for a few minutes it all added up. Second and this was huge - the cold did me in. It was around 50 in the day and 35 at night. I had so many layers of clothes on and the heated vest that I was always fairly comfortable. But the problem was to do anything took a huge amount of time. My gas stops lasted for ever. I was taking my gloves off for any little thing. At each gas stop I had to unplug my heated vest but then when I repluged it I had to dig through layers of clothes and find all sorts of zippers to set the heat controller. I mean every thing i did just took waaaaaay tooooooo long - because I looked like the Michelin man. The third thing that nearly did me in was It never occurred to me to call my credit card banks to let them know that I was on a trip. I had problems with all three of the credit cards I took and was constantly having to go in to talk to the cashier (and wait in line, etc), What a hassle. Of course, if I paid my credit cards on time I might not have had that problem ! I aways call my bank before I go overseas and never have a problem - so I learned a lesson this time the hard way!!!! The fourth thing was that the route I choose was a BAD route. I tried to keep it simple - Sanford up to Jax on I-4 and then a clean run out I-10 to Lafayette, LA and back. The problem was that I-10 in the Gulf states was mostly just two lanes wide in each direction and it was a heavy truck route. So you would have some retard truck driver that could go .00001 mile per hour faster that his buddy and try to pass him. So what you had was a rolling road block for miles. Maybe the cops pay them to do that. I mean I have a million miles under my belt as a truck driver and it always irritated me then and it irritates me now. I'm even irritated as I type this. There should be a law or something. Now If I had just chosen my SS1K around Florida route and had just extended it out to the panhandle to get my 1500 miles it would have been easy. I didn't choose that route as you have to get fuel receipts in each of the corners so I thought the straight shot out I-10 would be faster - and was I wrong. Almost all of Florida's roads are 3 lanes each way and there is no heavy truck traffic. Besides it would have been warmer and perhaps I would not have had the hassle with all the cold weather gear or the credit card problems.
So bottom line I was always behind the 8-ball and playing catch up. On the way back I was running at a tad above the legal speed limit (use your imagination) and my credit card situation just kept getting worse. Then past midnight I started to get tired big time. I kept stopping and wetting my face with water. I would ride with the face shield open to let the cold air wake me up - and it helped. So here is the kicker of a story that happened to me around 2:30 am. I was on I-10 about 50 miles out of JAX. When you are tired very small things can start to bother you. Something was bothering me and I don't even remember what it was. I decided to pull of at an off ramp but i just stayed by the interstate. As I was coming to a stop somehow the bike got away from me and in slow motion over it went and landed on my boot. It was cocked at about a 45 degree angle and the motor never stopped. My leg was not hurting but I was pinned down and no matter what I tried I could't get the leverage to push the bike off of my foot. I thought about the man who had to cut off his arm to survive!!! So there I was sprayed out right on the edge of I-10 in my hi-viz jacket with all the motorcycle lights on - i figured surely somebody will see me. But at 2:30 am on a Sunday morning there was NO traffic. Nothing. Nada. Zip. I must have waiting for 10 minutes before the first car came along and it got off at the off ramp where I was and never even slowed. Eventually several other cars came high tailing along but also never slowed - no brake lights came on - nothing. I though about the Bible story of the Good Samaritan when everybody just passed by the wounded man. So finally I got mad, so the next car that came along I started waving like a mad man. The car slammed on his brakes and the guy came running over and asked if I was OK. I told him I was, but just pinned. He struggled to get the bike off of me and then both of us get it up right. I probably killed 20 minuets right there. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it! I did my usual mile run this morning and my foot never gave me a problem so somehow I was pinned with no real weight of the NT on me. On top of that I already wrote about my problems with the fuel mileage. Of course, I killed more time trying to find gas stations that turned out to not be open in the middle of the night. About the only thing open out in the Florida panhandle are the truck stops. As I was running down I-95 I could tell there was no way Jose that I was going to make it back to my starting gas station. I kept doing mental calculations and finally in a last ditch effort got fuel at Daytona Beach to stop the clock with 2 minutes to spare. I was frantic like a zombie trying to get the gas in the fuel tank in time.(of course my last credit card was declined with the wonderful news I had to go in and see the cashier). I ran in and brought the first thing I could see (beef jerky) just to have a receipt that beat the clock. This still left me with 33 miles to home where my two witnesses are. Will the IBA allow 33 miles between the mileage when the clock is stopped and my witnesses??? Time will tell. I guess I learned some lessons and maybe after a couple of days of rest I might be ready to get back on the proverbial horse after being kicked off. Of course, when I got home I had just one hour to rest before I headed off to work. Trust me, I took the cage! Wendell
According to map quest, (gas station to gas station) I did 1507.68 miles in 23:58. That is about as close as you can get. My odometer read 1523 miles. My SS1K was a walk in the park - and I think that might have been part of the problem. I thought I was super prepared but in reality I wasn't. Four major things about did me in. First I found myself stopping at every rest stop for the first couple of hours to adjust this or fiddle with that. It seemed that a lot of little things were not just right and I kept trying to make them right - and even though each stop might have only been for a few minutes it all added up. Second and this was huge - the cold did me in. It was around 50 in the day and 35 at night. I had so many layers of clothes on and the heated vest that I was always fairly comfortable. But the problem was to do anything took a huge amount of time. My gas stops lasted for ever. I was taking my gloves off for any little thing. At each gas stop I had to unplug my heated vest but then when I repluged it I had to dig through layers of clothes and find all sorts of zippers to set the heat controller. I mean every thing i did just took waaaaaay tooooooo long - because I looked like the Michelin man. The third thing that nearly did me in was It never occurred to me to call my credit card banks to let them know that I was on a trip. I had problems with all three of the credit cards I took and was constantly having to go in to talk to the cashier (and wait in line, etc), What a hassle. Of course, if I paid my credit cards on time I might not have had that problem ! I aways call my bank before I go overseas and never have a problem - so I learned a lesson this time the hard way!!!! The fourth thing was that the route I choose was a BAD route. I tried to keep it simple - Sanford up to Jax on I-4 and then a clean run out I-10 to Lafayette, LA and back. The problem was that I-10 in the Gulf states was mostly just two lanes wide in each direction and it was a heavy truck route. So you would have some retard truck driver that could go .00001 mile per hour faster that his buddy and try to pass him. So what you had was a rolling road block for miles. Maybe the cops pay them to do that. I mean I have a million miles under my belt as a truck driver and it always irritated me then and it irritates me now. I'm even irritated as I type this. There should be a law or something. Now If I had just chosen my SS1K around Florida route and had just extended it out to the panhandle to get my 1500 miles it would have been easy. I didn't choose that route as you have to get fuel receipts in each of the corners so I thought the straight shot out I-10 would be faster - and was I wrong. Almost all of Florida's roads are 3 lanes each way and there is no heavy truck traffic. Besides it would have been warmer and perhaps I would not have had the hassle with all the cold weather gear or the credit card problems.So bottom line I was always behind the 8-ball and playing catch up. On the way back I was running at a tad above the legal speed limit (use your imagination) and my credit card situation just kept getting worse. Then past midnight I started to get tired big time. I kept stopping and wetting my face with water. I would ride with the face shield open to let the cold air wake me up - and it helped. So here is the kicker of a story that happened to me around 2:30 am. I was on I-10 about 50 miles out of JAX. When you are tired very small things can start to bother you. Something was bothering me and I don't even remember what it was. I decided to pull of at an off ramp but i just stayed by the interstate. As I was coming to a stop somehow the bike got away from me and in slow motion over it went and landed on my boot. It was cocked at about a 45 degree angle and the motor never stopped. My leg was not hurting but I was pinned down and no matter what I tried I could't get the leverage to push the bike off of my foot. I thought about the man who had to cut off his arm to survive!!! So there I was sprayed out right on the edge of I-10 in my hi-viz jacket with all the motorcycle lights on - i figured surely somebody will see me. But at 2:30 am on a Sunday morning there was NO traffic. Nothing. Nada. Zip. I must have waiting for 10 minutes before the first car came along and it got off at the off ramp where I was and never even slowed. Eventually several other cars came high tailing along but also never slowed - no brake lights came on - nothing. I though about the Bible story of the Good Samaritan when everybody just passed by the wounded man. So finally I got mad, so the next car that came along I started waving like a mad man. The car slammed on his brakes and the guy came running over and asked if I was OK. I told him I was, but just pinned. He struggled to get the bike off of me and then both of us get it up right. I probably killed 20 minuets right there. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it! I did my usual mile run this morning and my foot never gave me a problem so somehow I was pinned with no real weight of the NT on me. On top of that I already wrote about my problems with the fuel mileage. Of course, I killed more time trying to find gas stations that turned out to not be open in the middle of the night. About the only thing open out in the Florida panhandle are the truck stops. As I was running down I-95 I could tell there was no way Jose that I was going to make it back to my starting gas station. I kept doing mental calculations and finally in a last ditch effort got fuel at Daytona Beach to stop the clock with 2 minutes to spare. I was frantic like a zombie trying to get the gas in the fuel tank in time.(of course my last credit card was declined with the wonderful news I had to go in and see the cashier). I ran in and brought the first thing I could see (beef jerky) just to have a receipt that beat the clock. This still left me with 33 miles to home where my two witnesses are. Will the IBA allow 33 miles between the mileage when the clock is stopped and my witnesses??? Time will tell. I guess I learned some lessons and maybe after a couple of days of rest I might be ready to get back on the proverbial horse after being kicked off. Of course, when I got home I had just one hour to rest before I headed off to work. Trust me, I took the cage! Wendell
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