MTF 50/100CC Iron Butt Association Ride
Michael Glass & Viktoria Juodenaite
100CCC Ride Report March 2003
Part 5
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MTF 50/100CC Iron Butt Association Ride
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JUNCTION TO SAN DIEGO (EAST-WEST) "TROUBLE IN
PARADISE"
The Meanie wakes me out of a deep sleep early Tuesday morning. The four hours
sleep made a big difference and I was ready to go.
Vik and I prepare to leave the motel but there is already trouble in paradise.
The night before we got into a fight as soon as we hit the motel room. Vik
wanted to unpack and organize gear, and I just wanted to sleep. It carried over
into the morning and we got on the bike hardly talking.
Vik and I leave Junction behind but not our fight the night
before. (Photo by Viktoria)
Riding while not communicating is not what you want. And you
really don’t want it on a 100ccc. Gas stops now became even longer as our
coordination deteriorates.
We have ten gas stops on the way to San Diego and two long
"relationship" stops.
10 gas stops from Junction to San Diego. (Photo by Viktoria)
Filling out the log book. (Photo by Viktoria)
The Busa looks impatient as Vik and I take a "relationship" stop.
(Photo by Viktoria)
Not surprisingly, nerves are getting raw from lack of sleep as
well as the physical demands of the ride. By this time Vik’s right knee was
aching and her butt sore. In my case it was hamstrings. It’s not unusual for
my hamstrings to tighten after about 12 hours of riding the Busa. A little walk
and a good night’s sleep and they are as good as new. But with no time to
walk, and only four-hours sleep, they didn’t recover. Between Vik’s knees
and butt, and my hamstrings, the two of us were shifting positions more often
than a politician losing an election.
Adding to the our problems was the Autocom setup. Vik was now wearing foam ear
plugs to cut down on the wind noise and couldn’t hear what I was saying. I was
also now having trouble hearing her through the wind noise.
So picture Vik, looking at maps and gas charts blowing around on the back of the
bike, trying to tell me to get off at the next exit cause there isn’t another
gas stop for 70 miles. But I don’t hear a thing so I keep right on riding.
Next thing I know I get a sharp rap on my helmet. So I try and explain to Vik
that I didn’t hear what she was saying, but of course she doesn’t hear me.
Did I mention how strong Vik is? My head hurts now just thinking about it!
Arizona (Photo by Viktoria)
At 7:30PM we in Eloy Arizona, just outside of Tuscon. Traffic
was congested. All of a sudden, three or four 2X4’s come flying out of a
pickup truck, heading right for MS Busa.
Fortunately, lady Busa splits wood as well as she splits lanes -- cause there
was no room to go anywhere but right over them. We pull off the highway to look
for damage. Nothing broken so we push on.
In a short while we take our second "relationship" stop, pulling off
the highway to see if we can fix our own personal damage. Everything finally
resolved, we ride off toward San Diego as a team again. I guess these things are
bound to happen when you ride a two-up 100ccc on a sportsbike. We’ll have to
wait for the next couple who does it to compare notes.
Sunset heading West (Photos by Viktoria)
We hit the road again but missing are all our maps and gas
charts. No time to turn around, we just keep riding.
Around 11PM we hit the mountains east of San Diego. It’s cold, dark, raining
and swimming in fog. Ahead we see the lights of another rider. It turned out to
be Bruce Harris in his 2000 BMW1200LT. We follow his lights and spirited pace
all the way into the city.
We reach San Diego but cannot find the Shell station. We ride in circles for
about twenty minutes and then we finally see it. It is now just before midnight.
That makes it 18 hours since we left Junction, Texas.
Hey…we made it to San Diego!
Waiting for us at the Shell Station is BMWRT.com’ own Jamie
Edmunds (KMG 365) of the "Dry-Town" San Diego crew. Jamie, both a
firefighter and paramedic, gives us a warm greeting and signs our witness forms.
I grab some Mexican food at a nearby food stand and Vik and I start wolfing it
down. Jamie then offers to escort us to the Motel 6 where we will be staying. He
makes one of the snappiest parking lot turns I’ve seen, and leads the way on
his ’03 Black RT. This BMWRT.com guy really know how to ride!
We were pretty tired by this time, so it was great having Jamie as a guide.
There must have been about twenty turns on the way -- more than we had on our
entire trip so far! Without Jamie I’m sure Vik and I would still be in San
Diego looking for the motel.
We arrive at the motel and wait to be checked in. We see a lot of bikes in the
parking lot but most of the riders were already asleep. By the time we unpack
the bike and hit the sack it’s after 1AM.
I had been thinking about our San Diego sleep strategy since we left Junction,
Texas. My initial thought was to take a solid six-hours sleep in San Diego so
Vik and I could fully recover. The problem with this plan is that it left very
little sleep for the trip East if we needed it.
In the end, I decide to set the Meanie to wake us up in three hours. This would
put us only an hour behind the main pack and still leave us 49 hours to get back
to Jacksonville. It also left us some time to sleep in Junction, where we had
already made a motel reservation.
The Meanie wakes us and we we start packing the bike. BMWRT.com’s Jerry Mather
(JerryMather) comes over and introduces himself. Jerry gives us a hearty welcome
and signs our paperwork.
Hey, we're leaving San Diego!
Another rider comes along and also asks Jerry if he would
witness his ride. I recognize this fellow as one of the rabbits I followed
earlier in the ride. Mounted on his Goldwing was a Samson fuel cell. I remarked
how handy that must be and he produced a six-foot auxiliary hose, offering to
fuel me on the fly. Don’t know if he was serious but I politely decline after
considering the offer a little longer than I should have.
Jerry then leads us to the starters area to double-check the paperwork. He then
escorts us to the beach to get our sample from the Pacific. Everyone (especially
Viktoria) seemed to get a big kick out of me getting my pants wet trying to get
the water sand into the little bottle.
The starter’s area: name? Idenification? Bike serial
number? Can you tell us what country you’re in please?
Vik got a big kick out of me getting wet.
Still following Jerry, we go to back to the Shell gas station
for our required West-East time stamp. At the station we notice that
Viktoria’s Gerbing cable was wrapped around the rear axle. Jerry takes out
some tools and performs a Gerbindectomy. We now only have my Gerbing thermostat,
but fortunately it has dual controls. The Gerbing factory told me that I
shouldn’t use the dual thermostat for a second person. That it’s just for
additional plug-ins like gloves. We plug Vik’s jacket into the thermostat
anyway.
Jerry asks if he can ride with us out of town. I was later to read that Jerry
thought my pace was erratic as I rode between "60 to what some would
consider excessive speeds, back and forth." Actually, the pace was
according to the rabbits I had or didn’t have in front of me. So far my rabbit
strategy had worked -- no speeding tickets so far and I didn’t want to start
now.
We ride through the blinding sunrise and let Jerry take the lead. Part of me
wants to hoon with Jerry through the majestic mountain sweepers, but the Busa
was riding very heavy and we decided to stay back. With a long day ahead it was
not time to play. About 120 miles later we pull into El Centro for gas. We fill
our tanks and part ways.
Jerry leads the way out of Dodge. (Photo by Viktoria)
Thanks again to BMWRT.com’s Jamie Edmunds and Jerry Mather for being there for us. We were strangers in a strange land on a strange trip and it meant a lot to both Vik and myself.
