Iron Butt - SaddleSore 1000

I completed an Iron Butt - SaddleSore 1000 this past Sunday, (Now I have to get certified by the Iron Butt Association and that should happen!). Sent all my paperwork in on Tuesday of this week. My longest day of riding up to this point has been around 800 miles. Got my motivation from a friend out in Washington who also completed his USA4CT this past May. He did a SS1000 down I-5 from Seattle to Weed, CA and back in one day a few weeks ago.

 Heading into last Sunday the weather forecast was shaping up nice along the East Coast from Virginia to Georgia along I-95. This was my planned route for 500 miles down and 500 miles back. Here is my planned route. Wanted to keep my route on I-95 to keep my average speed up and lessen the chances of animal encounters during the overnight riding!!!

Decided to leave around midnight on Sunday morning to get the night riding done early. I tried to get some sleep Saturday evening but didn't get much in anticipation of the ride! So I was ready to go around 10:30 pm on Saturday evening!! Got my wife to sign off on my starting witness sheet and I was ready to go. Stopped at a nearby Sheetz gas station to get my official starting gas receipt. The time stamp was 10:45 pm, so that set it in place that I needed to be back at least by 10:45 pm on Sunday!

Off I went into the night. This was the first time I had ridden any distance at night with my LED headlight and stop light setup. They were really nice and truly lit up the road and sides nicely. All night I only spotted one deer on the side of the road, so that was good!

I did really well riding through the night until around 3 am. Started to get tired and a little sleepy about every hour, so I stopped to use the restroom and get a cup of coffee. One thing for sure, the truck stops along the interstate have great fresh strong coffee at that time of the morning!!

After about 6 am I began to see daylight and as the sun came up I felt completely rejuvenated, alert and awake!!

I had sent a message to my friend Harold in Charleston, SC that I was officially on my SS1000 before I left home on Saturday night. I had a message back from him that he would meet me at the South Carolina Visitor Center just north of the Georgia border around 9 am.

I made it to Exit 58 in Georgia which was the Townsend/Eulonia exit. Stopped at a Shell station and got my "turn around" gas receipt with a time stamp of 8:06 am. Felt kinda good to know I was heading home now. Like on the downhill slope!

Met Harold at the SC Visitor Center northbound on I95. Got a guy that had stopped to get our picture!

I had been wanting to have lunch for some time with Harold at a place he recommended, Schoolhouse BBQ in Scranton, SC. I checked my GPS with it added and I would still get home by 8 pm, so off we went for lunch!

It was pretty crowded as it looked like every person within 50 miles that went to church decided to come to Schoolhouse BBQ to eat today! It is a buffet the line was moving along pretty fast. As Harold and I were standing in line, we started to talk about places we ate on our USA4CT. I mentioned BBQ Depot in Vidor, TX and the lady in front of us turned around and said "I've been there!". She had lived in Kansas for several years and travelled to Texas. BBQ Depot in Vidor was one of her favorite places. She and her family had moved to South Carolina 7 years ago and now the Schoolhouse BBQ was one of their favorites.

Here was the result of traveling through the buffet line!! I could have used some "side boards" on my plate!! It was excellent. A real nice, clean place with great service and food. I would highly recommend it!!

Harold continued with me to the exit to "South of the Border" where he exited to head back to Charleston. I really appreciated him meeting up with me and riding in SC. That really helped pass the time and make that portion of the SS1000 just seem like another great normal Sunday ride with a friend!!

Other than stopping for gas, I headed straight back. Got to the Sheetz gas station for the completion at 7:15 pm. My GPS showed 1,069.6 miles and my bike odometer showed 1,095.5 miles. Interested that the Google map calculation of the same route showed 1,070 miles. So it looks like the bike odometer is about 2.3% off. That appears to be about right as I normally notice my speedometer is about 1-2 mph faster than my GPS.

I arrived back home at 7:35 pm and had my wife witness my arrival form.

Got all my documentation together and packaged the next day and mailed off to the Iron Butt Association. Hopefully everything is in order and I will get certified!! Overall a great ride and definitely glad I did it!