Bruce Arnold Hits wedge Paseo Long Distance Motorcycle Riding 5-0 Benchmark
Of the tens of millions of riders here and abroad, only 50,000 more or less have been certified as riding over 1,000 miles in less than 24 hours in the Iron Butt Association (IBA). Of these, only 11 have completed more 20 certificates at a distance and endurance races and qualified as members of the IBA Mile Eater Gold Club. And of these, only BMW and LDR Shoalmire legend Jack is credited with 50 or more certifications. My resume riding today pales in comparison to Jack, but nonetheless, at 10:46 pm on Saturday (June 19, 2010) I connected a Publix / Presto ATM slip to mark the successful completion of what must be certified as my fifth in 2000 and my 50th Iron Horsemen Ride cap. And once that is, to the founder and president Mike Kneebone IBA, which is the first time a Harley-Davidson rider has hit the benchmark 50-ride, and first time a driver to wedge certified has completed 50 tours in the same motorcycle.
I intended something more ambitious "Ride 5-0" that consists of two Riders 2000 round trip to nowhere. But times are what they are, I am fortunate and grateful to be doing any distance on all the rides … Anyway, the SS2000 requires you travel over 2000 miles in less than 48 hours. On this particular trip, I covered 2087 miles in 40 hours total time of 27 minutes or 30 hours 3 minutes riding time. In the first leg (one day), I rode in Miami Beach FL GA Cecil and back across Alligator Alley and IH-75, covering a distance of 1,048 miles in 14 hours 44 minutes for a MTH of 71.13. In the second part (two days), I rode round trip from Miami Beach FL Ridgeland, SC, and again through the IH-95, covering a distance of 1039 miles in 15 hours 19 minutes for a MTH of 67.83. No world records or personal bests in any of these statistics. But it was a safe and successful trip, and must be met you. Here are the highlights:
Stage 1: a round trip from Miami Beach FL GA Cecil
Sleepy signatures of witnesses gathered at 6:19 am Friday June 18, 2010, I took a card of a Wachovia ATM in SoBe and recorded the beginning of my journey. It was a sultry summer morning typical South Florida. But once we got rolling, the wind evaporates the sweat and had cold running throughout the western way through a nearly empty Alligator Alley. Workday traffic in the morning I slowed as I headed north on IH-75 through Naples and Fort Myers, but once traffic had thinned perfect condition all the way to Tampa. Just north of there, I reached the first of three major traffic jams associated with accidents and decelerations Rubberneck (which seem to occur every time you travel on that stretch of interstate). These rail lines some definition creative mandate to maintain an acceptable pace forward. However, from my gas station in Alachua north Georgia, all cagers kept their eyes on the road and its sides are shiny, which let me navigate on my back in the Cecil more or irritation uninterrupted beyond the seemingly perpetual road construction along that route.
Title back to south Florida, was midafternoon when I arrived in Ocala. In Central Florida in the summer, it rains almost every afternoon, and this day was no exception. Big drops of cold rain storm cloud were a relief from sweltering heat. But after a couple of hundred miles, which had all the help he needed. The downpour and finally began to dissipate around the curve toward Alligator Alley just after 7:00 pm. From that moment, the red-orange sun hangs low in the west behind of me seemed to be fighting a new band of clouds ahead of me by the dominance of the turbulent skies in the Everglades. And from this natural ancestral conflict Kodak moment came when I regret not having a camera:
I was nearing the end of the Callejon de Broward and home when a mirror that glows in the left Hidalgo mirror caught my attention. I looked to see the reflection of a round red sun sitting on the center strip of bright blue daylight limited by the horizon below and above a cloud bank. He looked like a postcard mirror framed in chrome. More dramatic, however, was what I saw when I looked back up: An enormous rainbow thick perfectly focused on the road before me, framed within an arch of it led by the dark clouds that seemed intermittent lightning flash directly from the rainbow. It was as if God was preparing a rock concert, and it was almost time for the band …
The 2nd stage: Round trip from Miami Beach FL Ridgeland SC
After taking in my portion of skim milk, scrambled eggs and Don Francisco de Colombia Supremo, I went down to the fifth street and filled Shell my tank, clearing the reception and the start of leg 2 at 7:27 am. From there I made the short journey on the road and headed north on IH-95. Being a Saturday, Traffic was light and had wind behind throughout the tri-county metropolitan area of southern Florida and north to my first stop in Vero Beach. In fact, I had good time, open and easy road riding all the way through Jacksonville, Georgia and South Carolina.
I reached my tipping point in Ridgeland SC at 3:08 pm … as the first of several summer showers and thunderstorms would be riding on as I headed back south. Just GA North Brunswick, the rain started coming down in sheets inclined reduced me to 15 mph for several minutes. But once punched through, that was the worst of it.
Sunset was approaching when I stopped for gas in Titusville FL at 7:30 pm. The clouds covering the sky from the rest of the night, but I was south of the rain had roads dry and then to Miami. "Dry" ways, yes, but not necessarily "safe" ways … Somewhere near Mile Marker 100 as to Stuart 9:00 pm, I hit something lying in the road that looked, felt and sounded like a garbage either heavy metal can lid or cover of a sewer overturned. It was dark in color, and lying on the black asphalt under a night sky without stars, so I did not see him until I was above it. The impact tore the spring I took my easel, my speedometer and odometer. Fortunately, however, I was still upright and rolling, and there was not any other damage. So in my next and final stop for gas in Jupiter, bungie me then the home side stand mounted safely to SoBe.
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Read more here: http://distanceriding.ldrlongdistancerider.com
About the Author
Bruce Arnold is a record-holding long distance motorcycle rider, bikers’ rights activist, political agitator targeting social injustice and institutionalized corruption, and a philosophical anarchist who sees the state as a necessary evil under which the best government is less government.
ChopperExchange.com: 2006 FXDBI Dyna Street Bob Harley-Davidson
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