The annual Iron Butt Association (IBA) Spring gathering was in Jacksonville, FL and scheduled to coincide with the end of Daytona Bike Week. Those who wanted to get their SS1000 certification could complete a planned ride on Thursday and have their certificates presented at an awards ceremony prior to the banquet.
The plan was to leave Wednesday the March 14th and ride to Jacksonville, FL with our riding companions Benny Quimby and Don Leemhuis. The Florida Mountain 1000 was scheduled to begin on Thursday morning at 5:30 AM. Yeah, I know - mountains in Florida?? Well, the rallymaster for this little ride had found some interesting locations that somewhat followed a mountain theme. More about them later.
We left early Wednesday morning and headed to Jacksonville. A stop in Prattville for breakfast then onward south following US Highway 82. Mary Leemhuis, Don's wife had taken a spill the evening before and thought she had sprained a wrist. Barbara took her to the doctor Wednesday morning and it turned out she had broken both wrists! Don turned around in Eufaula and headed home to take care of her while Benny, Cori, and I headed on to Jacksonville. We arrived without incident, checked in, had supper and soon headed to bed to be up and ready to go early Thursday morning.
4 AM came quickly and we had the bike prepped and ready to roll at 5:00. The hotel had a scrumptious breakfast buffet ready for all the riders so we ate our fill, had the mandatory riders meeting at 5:30 and were on the clock and on the road at 5:45. The planned route was 1054 miles and my intention was to complete the ride and be back in about 18 hours. We had to find and photograph 10 "mountain" bonus locations to document our ride and have a ending gas receipt in Jacksonville before 5:45 AM on Friday morning.
Mountain 2 was the Mount Pleasant Cemetery at 312 feet above sea level. This required a bit of a detour off the interstate down some scenic Florida roads. Once again, we were in and out quickly. There were a couple of possible monuments and and I know folks were taking pictures of the wrong one. Since this really wasn't a competition, the error of their ways was pointed out. It would be a shame not to finish a ride because you took the wrong picture! 212 miles into the trip now.
Cori has to be in all the pictures with our rally flag to prove she made the entire ride. And on that note, let me proudly say she was the youngest co-rider to finish the ride! So back to the interstate and onward to the next bonus.
Mountain 3 was the Mount Carmel Methodist Church in Jay, Florida - elevation 99 feet - a real mountain. 371 miles into the ride!
We are now at the 432 mile point and it is approximately 1:30 PM. We headed south through Defuniak Springs and hit I-10 once more. It was a bit disheartening to hit the interstate and have the GPS announce that your next turn is in 212 miles and it is over 300 to the next bonus. Nothing to do now but grin and bear it down I-10 and I-75. We made it back through Tallahassee and Gainesville with no problem. There was lots of police protection out on the interstate to make us feel safe!
If you have never experienced Florida interstates, they are some of the most boring roads in the country. Nothing to see for miles and miles except the tunnel of trees you are riding through. We had the radio going, Cori had her Ipod playing, and still boredom would take over. Several times I felt the bang of Cori's helmet hitting the back of mine as she would doze off. Luckily the driver wasn't having the same problem!
Mountain 5 was Mount Pedro Baptist Church near Ocala, Florida in the community of Micanopy. In and out was the theme. We noticed as the bonus location got further and further into the ride, the fewer riders we saw at each bonus. You have no way of knowing whether you are at the front of the pack, or are starting to bring up the rear. There were only 7 or so other bikes there when we arrived with a couple more showing up as we left.
It is still daylight and around 6:30 PM.
Mountain 6 was Sugar Loaf Mountain, the highest point on the peninsula of Florida at 312 feet. We had also now entered the world of Florida Toll Roads. We could have avoided the toll roads at the cost of additional miles and much more time so we elected to pay the piper. Cori was in charge of our toll money and would have the correct change ready as we hit each toll booth.
Mountain 7 is the Mount Dora Lighthouse which is at the end of a jetty. First we had to weave our way into the park, locate the lighthouse, then walk out to the jetty and try to figure out how to get a good picture. We took a couple just to be sure!
Mountain 8 was simply a road sign that said "Mt Plymouth". It was dark, the road was busy, and getting the photo was a little challenging. We made it without getting run over. Cars would slow and ask if everything was "OK" since there were all these folks in full motorcycle gear milling around.
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Mountain 9 is the highest point on the east coast of Florida at 83 feet. The county landfill is actually higher, but the US Geological Service does not consider that to be a land mass. Things are really thinning out now as there were only 2 other riders at this bonus when we arrived. And we are finally out of the toll road system thank goodness! I can't imagine paying to drive one of these roads - especially if you had to do it on a daily basis! We are only 10 miles from Cape Canaveral.
Mountain 10 is New Switzerland, Florida. We had to locate a historical marker which was almost completely concealed by bushes. There was one rider when we arrived. Now we really are wondering if we are way behind or out in front!
Total distance was 1069 miles by GPS. The extra mileage from the planned route was a couple of go arounds and off and on the interstate for gas. Total time: 18 hours 48 minutes. Benny was waiting for us as we pulled into the parking lot at the Ramada. It seemed we were one of the first back so I guess we had been running at the front of the pack. We wasted little time at bonus locations and only took one long gas stop for a snack. The rest of the time the wheels were rolling!
Cori was a real trooper and I will admit that I was impressed with her endurance. I rarely had to wait on her to get her gear back on, she never complained once and never asked for a stop when it wasn't planned. She really enjoyed searching for and finding the bonus locations. Now she wants to ride in one of the longer rallies.....but she will have to fight that one out with Barbara for the back seat!
We got checked in on Friday morning, got our ride verified, and Cori got her IBA number. She is number 50,127. When you think of the millions of motorcyclists that are out there, she is one of only 50,000 or so to have accomplished a certified IBA ride. That's something to be pretty proud of I think. I quite confident she is the only one in her senior class with an IBA certificate and she was the youngest on this ride. She got a nice round of applause when we went to get our certificates.
We spent part of Friday and Saturday checking out the sights in Daytona. The crowds seemed to be off from previous years but it was the very end of Bike Week so the crowds may have come and gone. Folks we talked to seemed to share our opinion that there were fewer attendees than in previous years.
As always, there are some interesting sights to see while in Daytona. Some pretty motorcycles, some not so pretty, and of course, people watching is always a favorite sport. You can see all you wanted and much more that you probably don't want to ever see again. Cori was a bit wide eyed at some of the sights!!
There were bikini babes!
There were not bikini babes!
Weird motorcycle people!
Lots and lots of people!
Rather strange nuns on a trike!
And some pretty custom jobs too!
After all the fun and games, we had to head home. We pulled out of Jacksonville at 5:00AM and headed back to the house. Another boring I-10 ride then up through Dothan, Troy, and Montgomery to the house.
You can see the full tracking of where we rode at Spotwalla.
The link is: http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=42674f5f2510c7da9
The next adventure is the upcoming Cape Fear Rally which starts April 20th.
