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Idle Hands Are the Devil's Playground

August 1^st, 2007

muse@bikerenews.com

When I was just a young lad living outside Louisville, I had two favorite foods - White Castle Hamburgers and Big Red Cream Soda. I'll get back to this in a little while.

As least two of my readers know that I've wanted to go on an Iron Butt Ride for a while. The shortest of these rides is the Saddlesore 1,000, which covers 1,000 miles in less than 24 hours. This itch got worst when our Biker eNew's Senior Roving Reporter participated in the SEAL 160 Iron Butt ride a couple of months ago.

This issue came up among some riding buddies and we agreed to check out our riding availability for a 24 hour slot to complete the ride. Unfortunately for me, by the time we got the info together, I had learned that every one of my weekends was booked until after Labor Day.

I was in a general funk about another riding season passing me by without trying a long distance ride. It was last Thursday when one of those cosmic events occurred. I was supposed to have Friday off, which was going to be spent on assembling a plastic shed in the backyard. Wednesday night before we went to bed, my wife mentioned that she was going to take our kids and nephew from Spain to Bush Gardens for the day. This meant that I would have to put the shed together by myself.

The next morning, a thought was placed in my head by the Devil. Since I wasn't going to be able to make a long distance ride over the weekend for the next couple of months, why didn't I do it on Friday? Well after a short internal argument with myself, I figured "what the heck."

I had done enough earlier planning to know that I would take I-64 West from Virginia Beach to Olive Hill, KY and then return to Virginia Beach. However, I didn't have any of the logistics planned out. Using my lunch hour and that evening, I used the AAA website to plan out potential gas stops, and to make a short list of traveling necessities.

To make a hectic story short, I pulled everything together and headed off to bed around 10:00 PM. I decided I'd get up at 3:00 AM Friday and make my final preps prior to getting my required time stamped gas receipt before officially starting. Of course, I spent most of night tossing and turning, and trying to think of what I might be forgetting. 3:00 AM came and I headed to my start point (the 7/11 on Northhampton Blvd close to I-64). The time stamp on my 7/11 receipt read 3:54 AM. I was off.

The first segment took me to Richmond. Not much to say about this section. It was dark, but the flow of traffic was moving at 75 mph. The best segment of the trip was from Richmond to Charleston, WV. The traffic flow was a little quicker, and the scenery was great. The stretch around Charleston (WV Turnpike) got a little busier, but not anything like around the Tidewater area. The rest of the way to Olive Hill, KY was easy going. I got there a little after noon. After a gas refill and a head break, I was back on the road.

The return trip started out like the first half. KY to Charleston was an easy ride. It got congested around the WV Turnpike, and opened back up in the eastern portion of WV. I was cruising pretty well until I hit a Hail / Thunderstorm outside of Lexington, VA. That brought me to a stop for a while. At first, I stopped under an overpass. Then I stopped at a Burger King in Lexington. This was the first meal of the ride (about 6:00 PM).

After Lexington, the ride flowed and I only stopped to fill up (a frequent problem). By the time I exited the I-295 Beltway around Richmond onto I-64 it was dark. Once again I rode this segment in the dark. Of course, as most of you know, the traffic on I-64 on a Friday night is pretty thick. The good news was that there weren't any wrecks to slow down the traffic. I reached the 7/11 on Northhampton Blvd at 10:14 PM (18 hours and 20 minutes after getting started).

So, what about the Big Red? Well, while I was at the gas station in Olive Hill, I walked past the cooler with all the drinks in them. To my surprise, there was Big Red. I immediately took a six-pack to the counter and asked the lady if there was a White Castle Hamburger joint in Olive Hill. Sadly, she told me the closest one was in Winchester, KY (near Lexington) to the west of Olive Hill. Unhappy that I was on a schedule, I carried my prize out to the bike. I threw my leg over the saddle and headed back east to Virginia Beach.

During the next article, I'll try to review some of the "Do's" and "Don'ts" of my Iron Butt experience. Until then, if the Devil gives you some idle hands, go play on the monkey bars - you're still a kid.

Ride Safe

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