My 2nd BBG - during which I met an armadillo, several deer, an empty tank, and some ill advised racing.

Jim Craig

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#1
BBG.jpg
Yesterday I completed my 2nd 1500 BBG ride 1520 miles in 21 hours and 50 minutes. I've always stated my IBA rides early in the morning, but I'd heard good things about starting in the evening or in the middle of the night. I decided to start at 9PM, figuring I could get some sleep after I got off work before I started the ride. I did nap for an hour ate dinner and napped for another hour but I couldn't sleep any more since the neighbor decided to mow his lawn. I started at 8PM.

The ride went well, mostly. I had a close encounter with an armadillo somewhere around Blytheville AR. I was doing about 75 and suddenly there it was in the middle of my lane. Felt like I'd run over a cable in the road, so I figure I must of run over it's tail. I was talking to my daughter (she's in college) on my cell (using my head set) when it happened and I scared her pretty good when I screamed (AAAHH!) which was about all I had time to do before I ran over it.

Things went well until about 4AM, when I started having difficulty staying awake and started noticing deer beside the road. Loud rock music on the headphones and Hairbo sour gummy bears kept me awake but I was covering the brake lever all the way from Jackson MS to Shreveport LA.

The next excitement came in OK on the Indian Nation Turnpike. I had planned all my gas stops before at left at 250 mile increments. The trouble was that I decided during the ride to push things as far as possible on each tank, so by the time I was at 1000 miles near Hugo OK, I still had more than 40 miles range remaining in the tank so I skipped getting gas in Hugo. By the time the low fuel light came on there weren't any gas stations nearby. The GPS said the nearest gas was 29 miles away in Stringtown OK. The GPS lied. It was 17 miles to the exit and the gas station was 18 miles west on Hwy 43 once I got off the exit. As I got closer to Stringtown I had 0 miles range left. Then it started raining, hard. So hard that the car in front of me slowed to 20 mph. When I got on to Hwy 69, it was raining so hard I couldn't see more than 10 feet ahead and the GPS kept trying to route me down a dirt road. I could not find the gas station. Finally I asked Siri where the nearest station was, it was 7 miles south in Atoka OK. So I have no gas and I can barely see the road and the right lane is under 6" of water. I made it to Atoka, filled the tank and the pump refused to spit out a receipt! For the record I got 287 miles out of that tank and I had about 1/3 of a gallon left when I filled up.

When I drove back north on Hwy 69, the rain had stopped and the station the GPS had tired to guide me to was only about a block from where I got on Hwy 69. I had passed it, just couldn't see it. Oh, and I wear an Olympia riding suit which is fully waterproof, EXCEPT when you're riding through deep puddles and the water sloshes along your boot and straight up the leg of your suit. I'm not sure any suit is waterproof when that happens.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, mostly. I passed 1500 miles in Villa Ridge MO and stopped an got a receipt at 1520 miles. I also got a receipt closer to home at 1558 miles (just in case). I ended up going further than I intended to since I missed my exit on I-44. For some reason I was thinking it was a good idea to try to keep up with this kid on a sport bike and a Camaro who were racing down 44. By the time I had let them go I noticed that the numbers on the exits didn't look right. I'd passed my exit by 10 miles.

The problem for me with leaving in the evening is that I get up at 4AM every morning. By the time I was finishing the ride I'd been up for 36 hours with only two short naps (before I left). The mind can play a few tricks on you when you're up that long limited sleep. Next time I do a BBG I think I'll start at 2AM so that I can get at least 4 hours of solid sleep before I leave.

If you 'd like to see my route you can view it here https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=1fd175d5ef8833eaa4
 

Marc11

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#2
Oh can the mind play tricks. I've done a few 36 runs with only a couple of 20 mins stops. You start seeing things, questioning your route and making changes and other scary stuff.
 

Marc11

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#3
Oh can the mind play tricks. I've done a few 36 runs with only a couple of 20 mins stops. You start seeing things, questioning your route and making changes and other scary stuff.

Nice ride, congrats, lesson learned about assuming fuel is ahead eh? Been there!
 

Jim Craig

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#4
Oh can the mind play tricks. I've done a few 36 runs with only a couple of 20 mins stops. You start seeing things, questioning your route and making changes and other scary stuff.

Nice ride, congrats, lesson learned about assuming fuel is ahead eh? Been there!
Next time I'll follow the plan instead of improvising while I'm on the road.
 

cacomly

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#5
I personally like staying close to my normal time for waking up. If I had plans to leave at 9 PM I would never sleep. I have gotten up at midnight and left at 1am and can do it, but prefer to start fresh.

Next time I'll follow the plan instead of improvising while I'm on the road.
The benefit of having a plan and following it is you don't need to make decisions when you are tired.