BBG 3000

August 4, 2017 - August 6, 2017

Ride To Mexico And Back On the Weekend
3000+ Miles
Yea, We DID That

We did it! We completed the BBG 3000 at 8:45 AM August 6, 2017

This is not a ride report about how we blasted across the country and back ( even though I have been accused of that in the past and I may be a little guilty ) but this is a ride report about enduring and endurance and how you can endure hard things and be successful.

Wow what a ride! This ride encompassed everything but snow but we still had a great ride. It was a hard and demanding endurance ride as it tested our determination and we had to reach down deep to pull this off.

I had been planning this ride since I DNF’ed in the 2017 Iron Butt Rally. I was looking for a hard ride to help get me out of the dumps and riding to Mexico and back from south Florida on the weekend was just the ticket. Once I had my ride planned I reached out to Dan Thaler and a few others to see if they were interested in doing the ride with me. Dan said yes before I finished asking him if he wanted to go so I knew he was all in.

 I had some things I wanted to accomplish with this ride to help me get out of the dumps and I came up with 5 things I hope to accomplish with this ride.

1: Ride some hard miles and burn a lot of gas. ( I am sure it is going to be HOT and RAINING, its Texas in the summer ) - Done

2: Complete my 42 & 43 BBG's. - Done

3: Ride to Mexico, if only for a couple miles. ( I have an urge to ride to Mexico for a couple years with a couple different rides planned butt... ) - Done

4: Get back in the saddle after my DNF in the 2017 Iron Butt Rally, it still stings. ( I have not ridden since ) - Done

5: Do a ride with another rider and get the team failure off my back. - Done

BBG 3000 - Planning

Our starting location was the Racetrac gas station on Broward Blvd and I-95 in Fort Lauderdale, FL and we rode to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico where we turned around and rode right back into Laredo, TX to get a ending receipt for the first BBG ( 1500+ miles in less than 24 hour ). Our goal is to arrive in Nuevo Laredo in the early AM around 5:00 AM thinking everyone will still be sleeping ( read below how we did ). We will be staying in a hotel in Laredo, TX after completing our first BBG hopefully getting a few hours of sleep before we start the second BBG back to Fort Lauderdale, FL. We will use the first BBG ending location ( Exxon ) to get a starting receipt for the start of the second BBG riding back to the Racetrac in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Part of our ride documentation are the receipts you get for paying the toll on the US side to cross the Juarez Lincoln International Bridge into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico at the end of I-35 and the receipt on the Mexican side of the bridge on the return back to the US. This will be the proof that we rode to Mexico during the BBG 3000 ride.

Since we would be crossing the border and returning back to the US we needed to have approved ID’s for border crossings, I have a passport but Dan did not. The US allows a ID that is considered a REAL ID to be acceptable to cross the border back into the US from Mexico, this is one of the few places a passport is not yet required. The Florida driver’s license is one of the few states that are also REAL ID’s but Dan’s current driver’s license was old and not one of the new ones that are a REAL ID. Dan had to obtain a certified copy of his birth certificate and go stand in line to renew his license and get a new one that was a REAL ID.

Some of the things I do before a big ride is to check the states DOT websites looking for things that may slow me down on my ride. Leading up to this ride Dan and I both were monitoring the states highway websites looking for large scale construction zones so we would not be surprised when we came up on them. Another thing I do is I put together a list of gas stops and the state lines we would be crossing along with the times we wanted to be at each one and we put this list in our tank bags so we could keep up with how we were doing compared to our plan.

Dan's Ride Notes

I hadn’t ridden a BBG since June, so when Greg approached me with the idea of a BBG3000, of course, I committed. What really got me excited was the idea of a border crossing – especially a border not as “tame” as our border to the north. During planning, I quickly realized that I’d need the newest Florida DL called Real ID to satisfy US border reentry requirements. Panic set in when I realized that my 46 year old birth certificate was MIA.  There is almost nothing money can’t fix, as there are services that offer expedited birth certificate and passport services ( for a steep fee of course ). As expected, once I hit “pay now,” my original birth certificate turned up. Hey it’s just money! With new DL / Real ID in hand, gear checked, checked again and rechecked, I’m itching to get the wheels turning. Riding with Greg means that I’ll be the beneficiary of some of the best planning available. NASA should be so fortunate! I’m sure that a lot of you have figured out long distance endurance touring on your own, with the help of the internet, the sorely missed IBA magazines, etc., but I’m blessed to live about 14 miles from Greg. I’ve learned so much in so little time. Mistakes that Greg learned from, the hard way – I don’t have to make. Every now and then, I’ll get a little cocky and think I know more, so I’ll buy something that Greg found out 25 years ago dosen’t work, but for the most part, I am a grateful student.

Here a link to the BBG 3000 ride planning webpage where I list the planned stops and other information.

BBG 3000 Ride To Mexico Planning

BBG 3000 – Start

Dan and I both arrived around 9:20 AM at the starting location for our ride to Mexico, we had a couple things we wanted to do before we started the ride. One of them was that we had to pair our Sena 20S headsets so we could communicate during the ride and for some reason it took a little longer than usual and a few try’s before the headsets paired. Once they did pair they stayed paired for the entire ride. On this ride I was also going to test my new BMW Nav 6 GPS as a possible replacement for the Dezl 770. I had purchased the new BMW Nav 6 with the four button cradle so I could mount it on the handlebar where the Dezl 770 was mounted. I wanted a GPS with buttons like the old days as I used to find it easier to operate the GPS’s when it had buttons, especially when wearing gloves. I also checked the weather radar and I saw some pretty heavy rain in the Florida Panhandle along I-10 and I was hoping it would be gone by the time we reached that area.

Eventually we were ready to ride and it was getting close to 10:00 AM, our planned starting time so we pulled the bikes up to the gas pumps so we could fill up and get a start receipt. I zeroed out my two GPS’s so I could track our ride timing. We bought gas filling up our AUX tanks and the main tanks and got our starting receipts. Our first planned gas stop was not until 325 miles up the highway. All of the planned gas stops were about 325 miles apart so we needed to be sure we filled both tanks at each gas stop.

Dan's Ride Notes

I’d been looking forward to this ride for weeks and the moment had finally arrived. I may have gotten into a rut, and hadn’t looked forward to a BBG for awhile. I’ve done plenty recently that I started the ride thinking, “why am I doing this?” I didn’t go thru that with this ride – I really was anxious and confident. After a SENA technical issue we were fuelled up and moving.

BBG One – Mexico Here We Come

The ride started out hot and sunny in south Florida as temperatures rose to 98 degrees in Florida before we reached the rain in the Florida panhandle and the humidity was also very high and the feels like temperature was around 105 degrees.

We had set a pretty aggressive pace as we wanted to finish the first BBG with enough time to get some sleep before starting the second BBG. Since we started at 10:00 AM the south Florida rush hour was over and traffic was not bad heading up I-95 to Jupiter, FL where we would get on the Florida Turnpike and take it to where it merges with I-75 just south of Ocala, FL. We were moving along pretty good when all of a sudden our defense gear went crazy with beeps and lights flashing. We had just been hit by laser and it woke us up real quick. We weren’t moving that quick but it sure had us grabbing a handful of brakes. As we rode by I waved at the officer and Dan said they were giving us the OK thumbs look. This would turn out to be the theme for the rest of the ride. We got settled back in and was making good time when we came up on a unmarked car with lots of LED lights. I eased up to the car and the officer moved over a lane and pretty much waved us on by. We waved as we passed and eased the throttle back to the where it was.

The ride was going well and we was making good time and on track of our ride plan until we were just south of Orlando where there is construction on the Florida Turnpike. We came to a stop and then a crawl as we inched up the road. I was watching the time as the minutes started to add up as we were passing through the construction zone. After 15 minutes of this we came up on an accident in the construction zone and this is what was really slowing us down. We got passed the accident and eased back on the throttle but we were now 15 minutes behind our schedule. For this ride every minute was accounted for as we really needed to finish the first BBG in around 20 hours so we could get around 3 hours sleep between the BBG’s.

Once we were passed Orlando the traffic was good and we were making good time. We came to our first gas stop about 15 minutes behind schedule but we felt good about our progress. We gassed up took a restroom break and got back on the road headed for our next gas stop just west of Pensacola about 320 miles down the road. It was about a 40 mile ride to the I-75 / I-10 interchange and we made good time getting there. Once we turned west on I-10 I noticed the sky turning dark and I had already checked the weather radar on my GPS and knew we was going to be running into rain soon.

Sure enough a few miles down the road it started to rain and shortly after that it really started to rain to where many drivers had their four way flashers on or they had pulled off to the side of the road. ( after we returned home I checked Spotwalla tracking and turned on the speed display option and I noticed for this stretch of highway we were averaging around 50 MPH, not good for a BBG ). I kept checking the weather radar and the rain seemed to be spreading farther west and it looked like it was going to be raining all the way to Mississippi. Every once in a while the rain would ease up and we would pick up the pace only to have to slow back down when the rain picked up.

I had not done a good job of protecting some of my electronic gear and a couple things got wet and stopped working. I knew these would be important for the rest of the ride so Dan and I decided to make a quick stop at a rest area to see what I could do to dry them out. We pulled in at the next rest area and it was a mistake to pick that one as it was really on the other side of I-10 and a long ride to the rest area. Once we got there I took out the two failed components and water drained out of them. That was not a good sign but I was not going to give up on bringing them back to life. We spent 15 minutes taking the components offline and trying to dry them out some. We got back on the road and since it was still raining I was not to concerned that these were not working since we would not be using them anytime soon do to the heavy rain.

We were now 30 minutes behind our planned next gas stop and we was not going to be able to make any of it up before we got west of Baton Rouge since it was raining all the way to Mississippi and there was a lot of Friday afternoon / evening traffic with people traveling to weekend getaways. It was going to be long after dark before traffic thinned out and we could keep a good pace.

I wanted to try and get my electronics dried out by the time we got out of the rain so I was holding them up in the air and using the forced air to help dry the components. I did this for both parts and I would not know until later but this worked and surprisingly both of them worked fine for the rest of the ride. Of course I put plastic bags around them both to protect them from the rain I knew we would encounter on the rest of the ride.

We arrived at our second planned gas stop 30 minutes behind our planned time just west of Pensacola at exit 5 on I-10 and this was the only stop that was not a large gas station or truck stop. Fortunately there was open gas pumps and we was able to pull up to a pump and get gas quickly. We made a quick bio break and got back on the road in less than 10 minutes. Our next gas stop would be in Louisiana.

Back on the road we entered Alabama quickly and I was glad to see traffic was not too heavy especially once we were on the bay bridge and crossing through the tunnel in Mobile. The rain had eased up and it was now just light rain and we was able to get back on pace and crossed through Alabama pretty quickly. We entered Mississippi and there was a little more traffic and some construction on the way to Biloxi where the casinos are. Once we passed the I-110 exit the traffic got lighter and about 10 more miles down the road we rode out of the rain. Getting out of the rain was a big pick me up and we felt pretty good about getting back on our planned timing. Soon we was leaving Mississippi and entering Louisiana heading for I-10 / I-12 split.

Once I-12 we ran into a few construction zones but nothing that caused more than a few minutes delay, of course this added to our already 30 minutes of delay. We arrived in Baton Rouge where I-12 and I-10 merge back together and then crossed over the Mississippi river bridge. I was hoping once we got across the bridge the traffic would lighten up and we could pick up the pace and cut into the delay. Of course this did not happen as we came upon construction where we were reduced to one lane and there was a long backup. The minutes were starting to add up when we finally passed this construction only to come up on another construction zone where again it was reduced to one lane. Now we were 1 hour behind our planned time and this was going to have us at the border later when traffic would be picking up crossing back into the US.

Once past this last construction zone we had smooth riding and we were making a good pace to our next planned gas stop in at a Loves at exit 92 on I-10 in Rayne, LA. This was a large truck stop with a fast food place and since we were 960 miles into our first BBG we decided to take a quick break and get sandwich. We went inside and actually sat down for a few minutes and we were at this stop for almost 18 minutes. It felt good to take a few minutes break and it energized us for the rest of the ride to Mexico. Of course the food didn’t hurt either.

It was not long once we were back on the road that we entered Texas around 12:40 AM Central time. Once we entered Texas Dan wanted to make a quick stop so we stopped at a Flying J truck stop and got something to drink. We were back on the road in 8 minutes heading for our next gas stop at a Buc-ee’s. These are very large gas stations usually with 50 or more gas pumps and very large convenience stores and big bathrooms. For me this was one of the highlights of the ride. We rode hard all the way to the gas stop surprisingly making good time through Houston.

When we arrived at Buc-ee’s Dan was surprised at the size of this place as he had never seen a Buc-ee’s. We pulled up to one of the many gas pumps and filled up and went inside. It was hard not to want to hang around and check this place out but we were way behind our schedule and needed to get back on the road. As it was we was there almost 15 minutes burning time.

We pulled out heading for San Antonio where we would turn on to I-35 headed south to Laredo. We had a planned gas stop just south of San Antonio to get a receipt to prove the corner of our route as there was a shorter ( but longer in time ) route and we wanted to be sure we could prove our route with receipts. Soon we was pulling into a Loves at exit 127 on I-35 in Devine, TX. We needed a few minutes off the bike as it was 5:24 AM and we had been riding all night for 19 hours. This was also our last stop before entering Mexico and we wanted to be sure we had our ID’s and bridge toll money ready before heading out. We took 15 minutes to rest and get our stuff in order to cross the border.

Once back on the road we keep a good pace all the way to Laredo knowing we were about 1.5 hours behind our 20 hour pace and we was going to be crossing the border much later than we had hoped. We arrived in Laredo and rode straight to the end of I-35 which is about 1 mile from the border. We arrived at the border and there is a $3.50 toll you have to pay on the US side of the bridge over the Rio Grande river. Once you pay this toll you are on the bridge and into Mexico. We pulled up to the Mexican border checkpoint with big speed bumps and a lot of oil and diesel on the road. There is a stop sign where you are supposed to stop and Mexican border guards should be checking your paperwork. We stopped at the stop sign and no one came out of the building or anywhere else. We stayed there for a minute or so and decided to ride on so we entered Mexico with no one checking our passports or anything. I had heard this sometimes happens because if something happens to you Mexico does not want to admit you were even there.

We rode past the border and came up on some trucks stopped in the middle of the road and a couple guys with M-16’s, not sure what was going on we quickly rode between the trucks and passed the guys with M-16’s and headed for our turn around point. A dog started chasing Dan and we just kept going. We reached the turnaround point and started headed back to the border. On the Mexican side of the border you have to pay a toll to cross the bridge just like on the American side when crossing into Mexico. We paid the $1.65 toll and started jockeying around in traffic trying to move up in traffic as there was a lot of traffic crossing into the US.

This is a dangerous place for motorcycles as the road is covered in oil and diesel fuel and it is very slippery. I guess the oil and diesel is from all of the trucks and busses stuck in line waiting to cross the border. It was some hard riding just keeping the motorcycles upright as we dog paddled across the bridge creeping up on the US border checkpoint. We would move for a few feet and then stop. It took 40 minutes to reach the checkpoint to where Dan was next in line. It was very stressful there in this line and to make it worse, when we got in line it was still dark but the sun came up and the temperature started rising and it got damn hot quick sitting there in our Aerostich gear. I let Dan go first since he did not have a passport and was a little worried about what the customs officer would say.

Once Dan pulled up to the Customs officer they were great, but a little confused why we'd been in the country for less than an hour ( most of it waiting in this line ).  Dan spoke and the Customs Officer and joked for a long time as the officer kept asking him where the drugs were and if I had them. They finally let Dan pass and it was my turn to pull up to the Customs Officer. I was straddling one of those big steel speed bumps and I eased off the brake and gave it some gas and the rear tire just spun on the steel speed bump because of all of the oil and diesel fuel. I had to back up and get a run at it to get over the speed bump. I pulled up gave the officer my passport and he asked a couple quick questions and said have a nice day. We pulled away from the border and headed for the Exxon which was our final gas stop for the first BBG.

Wow, we did it but it took 22.5 hours, adding a Mexico border crossing in a BBG ride is not a good idea. We were almost 2.5 hours behind our schedule. We decided to go to the hotel anyway and use an hour of the second BBG to get cleaned up and some rest. I had a reservation at the Residence Inn there and we checked in and tried to get some rest.

Dan's Ride Notes

Hot Florida temps as expected and we were not disappointed. We seemed to come upon a few unmarked law enforcement SUV’s throughout this trip and were given either a nod or a discreet wave. Not sure if these were locals or state patrols, but we were grateful. Speeds were within reason, but if we are being honest here, all of us are happy to move along safely a few mph above the posted speed limit. I believe that safe riders, wearing appropriate gear (hi-viz Dariens) goes a long way with LEO's. We always show our respect to them and they seem to reciprocate ( except those darn local yokels on 75 in GA last year!!! ). We hit the rain in the panhandle of FL and it followed us all the way to MS. The rain ranged from raining to monsooning. We stopped at the worst choice of rest stops ever to work on the electronics. Scenic stop waaaaaaayyyy off the highway. We were able to safely make our way thru a few major traffic backups without incident, we couldn’t afford not to. We turned south at San Antonio on I-35 and made one more stop to get everything ready for a border crossing. I decided to turned off all routing so I could hear the intercom uninterrupted as Greg had his one GPS providing directions through the RT's speakers. I am proud to say that I raced a local hare scramble and enduro series before I got bitten by the LD bug and it paid off at this exact moment. The speed bumps were like whoop de doo’s were the beginning of the challenge. Next was outrunning the rabid dog and avoiding the orange vested money changers and roadside insurance salesman. Finally lining up in traffic we faced the next hurdle; oil & diesel puddles. The pavement was so saturated it was an environmental disaster. The fumes were stifling from the busses lined up.  Hot and no moving air to add. I’m not a whiner ( at least not to Greg, my wife would strongly disagree ), so I took it all in. The Border Patrol tried to get me to confess that because I was clean, Greg had our stash. They are master judges of expression, so I tried to be right to the point. After they let me thru, I watched and heard Greg spinning his oil soaked rear tire on the final monster speed hump. I am 5’5” so keeping my loaded GSA upright on that slick pavement was a challenge that I’ll never forget.

Juarez Lincoln International Bridge Receipts

The BBG headed back to Fort Lauderdale was supposed to be easier as we did not have to cross the border, of course things don't always follow well made plans. My alarm went off after two and a half hours and we got up with our asses were dragging. It took us a couple minutes to get moving and gear up as we were already on the clock and about an hour into the 24 hours we have to complete the second BBG. Within 15 minutes we were at the bikes putting our GPS's back in their mounts and turning on our SPOT trackers. The Exxon gas station was half a mile from the hotel so we rode over and prepared to start the second BBG heading home. It was already hot and we needed to fill our water jugs so I went in a bought a gallon of water and a bag of ice and we filed our jugs with fresh water and ice. I also bought both of us a honey bun for breakfast, it was not bacon and eggs but enough sugar to give us a pick me up.

We bought gas and got our starting receipt knowing we only had 23 hours to complete this BBG since we had decided to sleep 1 hour into our time for the second BBG. We felt comfortable with this since we had completed many BBG's in less time. Of course this left little time for issue to come up so we knew we had to be on our game the whole ride home.

We pulled out heading north on I-35 heading to a Loves truck stop 130 miles up the road, this was the same Loves we stopped at on the way to Mexico as it was our stop to prove we rode all the way to San Antonio instead of taking a shorter ( but longer in time ) route. It was hot and quickly the temperature rose to 98.9 degrees and we were feeling it.

A few miles north of Laredo there is US Customs checkpoint where you have to pull off the road and pass by a US Customs Officer who basically ask if you area US Citizen, as long as you say yes you are good to go. There was also some enforcement by Texas State Troopers but nothing that we was worried about. It was not long before we arrived at the Loves, we filled up got our receipt and was back on the road pretty quick.

Once back on the road it was 25 miles to the I-35 / I-10 interchange where we turn on to I-10 for the long ride back to Florida. Traffic was pretty light and we had no problem passing through San Antonio. Once on I-10 it was hot and we was hoping for a little rain to cool us off. It was not long before we was feeling like we needed a stop so we found a Loves truck stop at exit 682 on I-10 and we decided to make a quick stop and get a sandwich as we was hungry and thought eating something would help get us going. There was a Wendy's at the Loves so it was convenient and the food made us feel better.

Back on the road we felt good and we noticed light rain up ahead on the GPS weather radar so we cooled off and was able to ride the 310 miles before our next gas stop. We were moving pretty good coming into Houston where we were moving over to the left lane to get in the HOV lane and then the Katy Freeway Toll road when all of a sudden our V1's went crazy and we were getting hit with radar at point blank range. Fortunately the V1 has arrows and I quickly noticed the arrow was pointing to the rear and I looked in my mirror and there was a Texas State Trooper in a big ass SUV right on Dan's tail blasting us with radar ( I am not sure how he snuck up on Dan ). Once we got our composure and realized we was toast the trooper turned off his radar and pulled up beside us and waved and smiled. Then the trooper pulled ahead of us and we laughed our asses off thinking we were going to jail. We pulled in behind the trooper and followed him all the way through Houston at a nice clip. When he pulled off the highway on the ramp he gave us the thumbs up and pointed down the road giving us the green light.

On the east side of Houston it started raining again and I could see from the weather radar that there had been some heavy rain in the area before we arrived. In the stretch between Houston and Beaumont there was 3 big accidents that really slowed us down. I guess the accidents happened because the road was a little slippery from the rain that was in the area. These 3 accidents cost us 30 minutes of lost time and we could not lose to much more the rest of the ride.

Shortly after crossing into Louisiana there was another accident where a 18 wheeler had left the roadway and was jackknifed into a ditch. It looked like he was moving pretty quick as the truck was pretty mashed up. Thank fully there was not much of a delay though for this accident. We decided to make a gas stop at a Pilot truck stop at exit 109 just east of Lafayette. We took a nice 15 minute break here and it felt good to relax for a few minutes.

At this point we were a little unsure if we were going to make it back in time due to the accidents and rain and we started doing some math in our heads which was not so easy since we were running on empty. Eventually we got the numbers right and realized we had time and this really gave us the energy to push on. On long LD rides there is almost always a point where you start to wonder and this was the point in time for us that this happened.

Once back on the road traffic was moving well and we were making good time. We crossed over the Mississippi river bridge in Baton Rouge and quickly was on I-12 heading east. We rode hard all the way to Alabama passing through Mississippi in about an hour. We made our next gas stop at a Shell gas station east of Mobile at exit 44 on I-10. This was a quick stop and we were back on the road crossing into Florida.

It was almost midnight when we passed through Pensacola and traffic was light and there was no enforcement so we keep riding hard heading for Tallahassee. Once east of Tallahassee our paln was to stop at a Loves truck stop at exit 262 on I-10. Before we made it to the exit we came upon a Florida State Trooper sitting in the median and I think we kind of surprised him as he turned on his radar as we was passing by. We waved and he waved back and we rode on to the next planned gas stop. This was a quick gas stop as we could not wait to reach the I-10 / I-75 interchange 35 miles farther down the road were we would turn south on I-75 heading home. At this gas stop I bought me some sour Skittles to munch on as they are a good way to provide me a little pick me up.

It was a nice pick me up knowing we were in Florida heading south and about 360 miles from the finish. Once we comfortable that we were on pace to complete the BBG 3000 with an hour or so to spare we made a few extra stops to take a break for a few minutes so that we could finish the ride safely. We made two extra stops in Florida on the Florida turnpike at turnpike service plazas to have a drink and catch our breath. These two stops really helped us stay alert and be safe on the rode. For me I have always found it is better to take a few stops for rest and then twist the throttle a little extra to make up that time.

We had one more encounter with a Florida State Trooper on I-75 between Gainesville and Ocala where we again kind of surprised the trooper who was looking down reading something when I passed by. He looked up about the time Dan was passing buy and he looked at Dan and then hit us with laser from the rear. We was a couple miles over the speed limit but not enough for the trooper to come after us.

When we were in the home stretch and we knew we was going to finish the ride I told Dan that there are not too many other riders who could complete this ride if they rode the same ride with the same circumstances. This BBG 3000 was the hardest IBA ride I have ever done. I have ridden a lot of BBG's ( 43 ) and done many other IBA rides but I was not pushed as hard on those rides as I was on this ride. Even the BBG Quattro ( 4 BBG's in a row ) was not as hard as this ride. It was all of the things we encountered that made this ride hard including the 400 miles of rain, many accidents, long slow construction zones and a tough border crossing.

We made it! We pulled into the Racetrac and got our receipt at 8:45 AM, we had 1 hour and 15 minutes to spare. We high-fived a few times and congratulated each other. Of course we started talking about what's next.

Dan's Ride Notes

We showered and slept ( separately ) back in the USA at the Residence Inn. It was a fitful sleep for me and I’m sure that I didn’t sleep for even half an hour straight. We were so far behind at this point that I started rationalizing contingency certificates in my head. We could always just claim 2 BBG’s or ideas along those lines. Not willing to settle, we decide to press on, and keep pressing until it someone or something stopped us. Fortunately, this never happened. We rode thru intense heat and then some more rain. I can say that I got in a groove and nothing bothered me. We saw a few wrecks and the LD Higher Ups smiled on us and let us pass without delay. Fatigue hit me personally around the AL-FL line. I used every bit of skill that I’ve learned and safely followed Greg until the junction of I-10 and I-75. The turn south gave me a much needed boost. A few extra stops along the FL Turnpike were called for. I thank Greg for recognizing when a partner needs a break. Greg and I now have over 10,500 miles ridden together and he made it clear from our first ride that breaks can be squeezed in to any rides at any time. There is no shame in asking for a break, in fact, quite the opposite. It finally hit me around Lake Okeechobee that this could be a successful ride! Less than 2 hours later we proved that true! WE DID IT!  We celebrated like two guys who had ridden 48 hours would. Fist bumps, high fives, handshakes and maybe even a hug. This was an enormous ride for me – not for the distance, I’d ridden a BBG3000 before. It was such a monumental ride for me, because of what it took to be successful. Every big ride comes with moments where you doubt yourself, but this one reinforced the never give up attitude that all successful LD Riders possess. This ride makes my 12th & 13th Bun Burner Gold, I’m just a young pup at this. My first SaddleSore was 22 August 2015, so this was nearly a two year anniversary ride for me. I’m truly honored that Greg thought enough of me to invite me to ride this with him. I hope there is something that I can offer somebody, someday to payback what has been shared and passed on to me. Thanks for reading. Dan Thaler

Here is a link to my website with a lot more ride reports and LD riding informatiom.

http://www.gregrice.com/

Our Spotwalla Tracking For BBG Two - The Green Locations Are Stops