1000 Miles in 24 Hours

.....I had been thinking about riding a thousand miles in under twenty-four hours since winter started. I tried to plan my route to avoid ice and stay out of big cities during rush hours. I figured that it would be good to have a full moon for traveling at night, unfortunately there was only a sliver of moon and it came up just before dawn.
.....My route was east to Sacramento, South to Bakersfield, East over the Tehachapi Mountains to Barstow, then South to San Barnardio, West to Ventura and North on Hwy 101 to home. According to Map Quest a distance of just under 1100 miles.

I got my first receipt at 0152 hours and left for Scaramento. There was heavy fog but it didn't last. There was very little traffic on Hwy 80, that was part of the plan. I made good time and made the turn south on Hwy 5, then stopped for gas at Florin Rd., time 0331.

.....The next gas stop was at Santa Nella at 0505. California's Central Valley can be really cold during the winter and by the time I reached Kettleman City 0645 for my next gas stop I was chilled. I was also getting really sleepy, so I got a cup of hot coffee and that helped both the chill and the drowsiness.
.....I stopped in East Bakersfield for breakfast at 0831 hrs., and while I ate, I repaired the plug on my Widder Electric Chaps. When I left I felt refreshed and a lot warmer. It was a good thing that I repaired the electric chaps, because the Tehachapi Mountains were covered with snow and it was even colder as I went up the mountains.

.....I was glad I had planned to be the mountains during the day as there was no ice on the road. I pulled into the Town of Tehachapi at 0923 for gas. It must have snowed recently as there was snow on many of the roofs and on cars that were driving around.

.....It was cold, damn cold! It's hard to take photos when you are trying to make time and even harder in cold weather gear. I did take a couple of photos in Tehachapi.

From Tehachapi, Hwy 58 continues through the mountains, past Mojave and Boron, to my next stop at Barstow. It was good to be on the desert even thought it was still cold. The desert in winter is beautiful. There was a misty rain, just enough to wet the windshield. I saw another motorcycle, a two up Harley, headed to where I just been. This was the first other bike I had seen so far. I arrived in Barstow for gas at 1053.
.....From Barstow I headed to San Bernardino, then west on the 210. I stopped for gas in La Verne at 1215 hrs. L.A. was warmer, I saw a sign that said 61 degrees. I also saw a lot of people riding in t-shirts, but I kept my heavy gear on and just kept going. I started to get drowsy again around Santa Barbara, so I stopped for gas (1417 hrs.) at Goleta and had a Coke. That seemed to wake me up and I had no more problems with fatigue.
.....The 400 or so miles left seemed like a long way, it turned out to be fairly easy. I stopped for gas at 1630 hrs in San Miguel and again in Gilroy at 1824 hrs. My final gas stop was in my home town at 2104 hrs. I asked a local Police Officer to sign my end form for the Iron Butt Association, then rode home and fell asleep in front of the television.
.....The total trip took just over 18 hrs and was just under 1100 miles. I submitted the documentation to the IBA. Believe me I do not have an iron butt or an iron back, but both held up better than I expected.