George's SaddleSore 1000-in-1 2002

Nov 15, 2002

It all started kinda innocently while we were sitting around the campfire at Sturgis. I mentioned to Jim that it was unfashionable to be wearing so much basic black before Labor Day. Then he wanted to know if I thought it made his butt look too big. Roger wasn't drinking, so he tried to assure him that his butt was OK. Roger said that's the kind of butt you get after thousands of miles on a bike, and that's what reminded me of the Iron Butt Association. We talked about doing a SaddleSore 1000 and decided we should wait until it cooled off a bit.

     Well, it's cool now, really cool. The three of us were joined by Bland and some guy named Tony (Walls) who showed up on a Yamaha. Tony said his mom was making us sandwiches, so then he was OK.

     Friday Nov 15th was the day. We left Albertson's at 5 AM, and we're fortunate that the weather had warmed up to 40. By the time we made Barstow our fingers were cold but the sun was up now. A cup of coffee and we were on our way.

     We rode from Barstow to Needles to Seligman where we had lunch. If you've ever ridden this stretch of road you know what I mean when I say the best part is that I managed to stay awake. In Bellemont, AZ we stopped for Bland to get a t-shirt from Grand Canyon HD and decided to top off our tanks while we were there.

     On the way to the way to Flagstaff, we stopped and gave some gas to a bro who just had his bike serviced and the mechanic had put his petcock on reserve.

     Just before we got to Flagstaff, we hit construction work. Traffic was one lane and backed up for miles. Nobody knew for sure if it was legal to split lanes in AZ, but after walking our bikes along for a few minutes, we decided to go for it. Jim went up the right side and a big rig went after him. Thinking that the rig was pulling over to let us get by, Roger split lane up the left and the rig went after him. The rest of us took advantage of this and shot up the right side. Roger finally managed to squeeze by, and we all finally got grouped back together just as we made the turn towards Phoenix.

     The weather was really nice now as we headed to Goodyear, AZ, just to the west of Phoenix -- our longest run of around 163 miles. We stopped at a place called Brenda, AZ, where we had dinner with Tony's Mom. She runs an Elvis shrine/massage parlor! I'm pretty sure that alien abductions have occurred there or soon will.

     Our next stop was Quartzsite. Man this place has really grown -- some day it'll be a real town! When we got to Palm Springs it was around 9 PM and time to put the warm clothes on again for the ride up Cajon Pass. We stopped at Four Corners to top off our tanks one last time. It was just after 11 PM and starting to get cold again.

     We arrived back in Ridgecrest at 12:05 AM, 1,023 miles later, and just over 19 hours from our start time. We went to DJ's for a beer to celebrate! Jim said Deb was cooking up some dogs and sausages, but after one drink I was ready for a hot shower and bed.

     My butt was fine, but my elbows and wrists were so sore that I had forgotten all about how much my lower back was hurting. I guess I should have tried some of that Red Dog stuff that everybody else was drinking. It had been so cool for most of the ride that I didn't drink enough water. I didn't realize till the next morning how dehydrated I had gotten, till I woke up craving water instead of coffee.

     We didn't pass a lot of other bikes on the journey. Four or five went by us at Seligman on Rt. 66, and we passed a few on the Interstate. A lot of people came up and asked where we were heading. When we told them what we were doing, some were impressed, and others looked at us funny and told their children to get in the car.

     The ride was fun and 1000 miles isn't too much. I do wish that we'd done it few weeks earlier while it was a little warmer. Roger is already talking about doing something like this again this summer. So if anyone is interested, let us know. Maybe we can make it more challenging and do a Bun Burner 1500.

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