50 CC Quest

50 CC Quest

One of the many challenging rides sponsored by the Iron Butt Association is the 50CC Quest.  Quite simply, this entails riding from one coast of the United States to the other coast in 50 hours or less.  The most popular route is from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA which when mapped out equates to 2372.6 miles. 

Simple math says to finish the trip, you must maintain an average speed of 47.45 miles per hour over the course of 50 hours.  This includes time spent resting, eating, fueling, etc.  Speeding is not required but keeping the wheels rolling is the solution. 

The Motorcycle Tourer’s Forum was sponsoring the ride providing witnesses in both Jacksonville and San Diego and assisting in completing and submitting the required paperwork to the Iron Butt Association.  Nine bikes were starting the trip with only one two-up….yep, that’s us.  Two riders were completing a 100 CC Quest going from coast to coast to coast in 100 hours or less.  Happily, we can report that everyone accomplished the mission, including the 100CC riders.  Kudos!

We planned the trip in great detail.  Gas stops were planned for every 180 miles with a 20 minute rest break at each stop.  A rest break of 8 hours in duration was planned for Junction, TX.  This would break the trip into 2 segments of 1205 miles the first day and 1167 the 2^nd day.  Planned total time for the trip was 44 hours and 11 minutes.  That was the plan.  The plan does not take into account variables such as weather and traffic.  An old saying goes something like:  The best plan in the world goes out the window after the first shot of the battle is fired.  Luckily for us, our battle plan remained pretty much intact.

Planning for any motorcycle trip involves a lot of watching the Weather Channel and the news was not promising for the first leg of the trip.  Heavy rains were forecast for Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi.  Radar indicated the front was moving northeast so we hoped it would pass before our arrival.  Ha!    We met at the start point only a couple of blocks from the Atlantic ocean and after getting paperwork completed, a last minute potty stop, and that crucial start receipt we were off.  

Departure was from Jacksonville on Sunday March 16^th at 5:16 AM.   We quickly covered the distance to Tallahassee for a gas stop and then onward to Milton for our second stop.  I-10 through Florida is boring and even more boring in the dark. 

Conditions started to deteriorate shortly after leaving Milton with wind gusts and torrential rain.  Weather band radio was broadcasting tornado warnings with the accompanying lightning and thunder of a good ole spring storm.  Good waterproof gear kept us dry and heated gloves and jacket liners kept us warm as we slowed but kept rolling.  Lightning flashes, rumbling thunder, accompanied by the heavy rain and wind gusts kept us entertained.   I’m not a big fan of tunnels, but the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile was a short break from the wind and rain. 

The skies started to clear as we entered Mississippi which was a welcome relief from the pummeling we had taken for the last 100 miles or so.  In place of the rain, we now had to deal with winds.  Crosswinds are tough on a motorcycle.  They tend to push you around, rattle your head, and generally make riding much less pleasant.  Louisiana is not normally a windy place, but it certainly was today. 

We rolled into Slidell, LA for our 3^rd gas stop about 550 miles into the trip.  Surprisingly we were still pretty much on schedule even with the wind and rain.  As we approached Baton Rouge,  traffic slowed and then stopped.  It took us over an hour to get through the disaster that is the highway system with merging highways and heavy traffic for a Sunday afternoon.  The only good point was the weather was pleasant and we didn’t cook in the heat.  Exhaust fumes were enough to deal with.

We feared Houston traffic would be an issue, but we sailed through without a glitch.  In Sealy, TX we stopped for gas and a quick meal at McDonalds, our first meal of the day.  Hamburgers tasted much better than they were supposed to!

The next obstacle to overcome is to get through the deer infested country west of San Antonio.   We saw several herds grazing peacefully along the interstate not even raising their heads to note our passing. 

Junction, TX is simply a small waypoint along the interstate in West Texas but a welcome sight it was to find our motel for the night.  1205 miles down and only 1 hour behind schedule at this point, all attributed to the Baton Rouge traffic fiasco.  Sleep was easy to find and the alarm not so pleasant the next morning!  The Legends Inn is a nice mom and pop motel with good rates and comfortable rooms.  Highly recommended as a stopover point. 

We cut our planned 8 hour rest to 7 and around 7:00 AM CDT we rolled out of Junction headed west after fueling up another tasty McDonalds meal.  Now we are fighting good ole West Texas headwinds which caused a serious drop in gas mileage.  Our average to this point was around 35mpg which dropped to less than 30 for this leg. 

Gas stops in Fort Stockton and Van Horn got us through the remainder of Texas and into New Mexico.  El Paso traffic was heavy but we stayed on the move.  We cruised across New Mexico into Arizona, stopping in Wilcox for gas and a Subway sandwich and another gas stop in Gila Bend, AZ.

El Centro, CA was our last stop before the push into San Diego. We also had to tolerate California gas prices at $4.20 for regular.   It is now 9:30 Pacific time and the last obstacle of the trip was crossing the mountains to the west coast of the United States.  As we started the climb across the Sierra Madre Mountains, we saw what appeared to be hundreds of red lights blinking in unison in the distance.  We’ve seen lots of wind turbine farms at night but never one that had all the lights blinking at the same time.  Quite the unusual sight. 

Winds in the Sierra Madre Mountains are notorious for gusting through the canyons and hitting you from every direction.  There was no disappointment to be had this night as one gust caught us so severely that it basically levitated the bike across two lanes of traffic and onto the rumble strips of the median.  Let me assure you, this is a butt clincher!

Temperatures plummeted from the 60’s of the desert floor to a low of 28 as we crossed the summit.  Thank goodness for the heated gear we put on in El Centro.

We broke over the mountains to the welcome lights of San Diego.  Traffic was light as we made our way to the final stop of our 50 CC Quest.  At 11:36 PM we got our final receipt proving that we had traveled from Atlantic to Pacific in 45 hours and 30 minutes. 

Mileage was 2,434 miles by the motorcycle odometer, 2372 miles by map, and 2,366 by GPS.  The motorcycle was moving for 33 hours and 4 minutes, stopped for 12 hours and 14 minutes.  Overall average speed was 52 mph with a moving average of 72 miles per hour.   

The Goldwing consumed 73.8 gallons of gas over the course of the trip.  Longest stretch between gas stops was 222 miles with the shortest at 98 between Junction and Fort Stockton.  Gas prices ranged from a low of $3.22 in Slidell, LA to the high of $4.20 in El Centro.  Overall average gas mileage was 33 miles per gallon which isn’t bad considering a heavily loaded motorcycle  with both rider and passenger, fighting winds most of the way.    

After getting our ending receipt, we found the beach and in the darkness  got our water and sand from the Pacific Ocean.  It was a short trip to the Days Inn for a fairly short nights sleep before rising to meet our witnesses verifying the completion of our trip.

Pacific Ocean!

Now all we had to do was get home but that is another story!