An Iron Butt and Indy 500 all in the same 5 days!
After putting the laundry
in the dryer, digging out my motorcycle luggage, and starting the process, next
thing you know it was 3:30AM and I was finally getting ready to wind down and
head to bed. I set the alarm clock for 4:45 AM and fell asleep shortly after
setting it. A meer hour and 15 minutes later I woke up feeling more energized and
I expected and ready to get this trip on the road! I had the bike all packed,
all I needed to do was organize a few things around the house, pull the car in
the garage, and meet the girls at the holiday gas station stop not too far
away. The plan was to meet at five 5:45 AM, get all of our stuff prepared get
situated, find a witness for mileage, and then gas up to get ready to
go. We all arrived shortly after 6 AM got situated, and went inside to get a
witness for our mileage. Turns out as the guy at the checkout was signing the
first mileage sheet, my bestie recognized him, and asked if he graduated
high school with us. Turns out he did!
20 years later who thought we’d run into him at this point in time, and having him sign our witness form for an iron butt award. Such a small world! After we got all of our forms signed we gassed up, got a receipt, took pictures, and that set our starting time. 6:35 AM.
We now had 24
hours to complete 1000 miles. We headed south on 35 towards Iowa, and into Missouri.
Our plan was to swing through Oklahoma, then Arkansas and into Tennessee, where
would hit 1000 miles near or around Union City, TN. But first, Iowa.
We got just short of
the Arkansas state border and noted the GINORMOUS thundering black clouds ahead.
We pulled up the radar and realize that we are riding right into a huge storm
that was spinning off of the same storm that Florida was getting hurricane warnings from.
We decided to reroute because we did not want to spend the next 12 hours riding through the pouring rain since we didn’t HAVE to go that route. Taking a look at the
map, we spun back around and headed north back up towards Kansas City, and
then east from there toward St. Louis. We ended the trip at 1036 miles in Cape
Girardeau Missouri at around 1am. We found a hotel online, made our final gas stop for our ending receipt, and had the gal who is working at the gas station sign our witness forms. She could not believe we had just done 1000 miles and left Minnesota this
morning. It’s hard for a lot of people to understand I guess! We are exhausted,
our eyes bloodshot red, our bodies ready for sleep, and our ‘old Lady’
legs ready to be elevated. We showered and passed out after successful Iron but
run.
The
next morning we set an alarm, got packed, and headed out. We are overzealous
and that we had planned on riding a little bit of the fun roads in southern
Missouri, but didn’t realize just how far we had ahead of us to get to the
Indy 500 area.
We arrived at the campground around 9 PM, and as were driving down the side streets looking for
the gates to our campground, Coke lot C, we spied our friends waving their
arms high in the air and yelling our names. But, we were still kind of out of it- so
we bypassed them, turned around and then entered our campground area. We were
We got “Escorted“ to our
camping site by one of the girls who literally ran in front of us the entire
way to show us where to go. Unfortunately she was so fast that we lost sight of
her briefly and another friend took over and he let us in to the wrong row. So
at 9:30 PM having ridden several hundreds of miles in the last two days we are
now riding over bumpy terrain, between grass and gravel, and dive-balling people
who were drunk and trying to high five us or invite us to play their yard games.
It was a little bit of a stressful six blocks into our camping site but once we
saw the site, it was awesome!!
We finally got to park the bikes, and the tent was
surprisingly already set up for us. So all we had to do was unload our gear
and throw in the tent- then we were set for the night. Time for a
cold beer. Or a few!!
The campground is huge and people are very much alive and
partying. There were bags games, ring toss, beer pong, and a variety of other
drinking games going on around us. There was music from every angle, and people
laughing joking, and making new friends everywhere we turned. The campground itself
went on and on and on and connected to other campground so the people were
sprawled out across many acres and it was a lot of fun to be a part of. Bestie and I partied well into the night and ended our night by whooping some Chicago PD Blackhawk fans in bags... it was great!
Saturday
it was Daisy Dukes day. We had made a Walmart run prior so we are ready for our
ugly Daisy Dukes. We woke up hung out with the crew, showered in the RV, and
got on with her day. Nothing like cracking a beer at noon screams a good time.
We hung around on the campground, talking to her friends, and enjoying the
sunshine. A few of us decided to go for a walk, and walk towards the grandstand
area. Two of the girls had to Pee so off they went to go find a bathroom while
the rest of us stood on the sidewalk near the grandstands. As I was standing
there a guy and a few other folks walked up and offered me free tickets to the
Sam Hunt concert. I politely declined thinking it was a scam, or that he was
trying to scalp them. He offered again and the girl with him reiterated that
they were free. So I accepted the tickets and as the girls are walking out from
the bathroom- I held the four tickets and for VIP wristbands up in the air for
them to see. We were beyond ecstatic!
We made our way into the concert grounds
through the speedway area, then started to bullnose our way from the back of
the crowd to the front. When we got all the way to the front we realize there
were still people ahead of us behind a gate, and looked at each other thinking
that these were with the wristbands must be for. So we made our way out to the
side and then into the pit area which wasn’t deed right in front of the stage.
It was epic!
We
walked around met new people, and watch checked out the damage that it happened
when the storm rolled through the campground. There were straight-line winds
and many tents were mangled- poles bent, tents sideways Or upside down,
canvases ripped apart at the seams. It was surreal as we had no idea how bad
the storms were because we were inside the vfw as they rolled thru. We continued the evening of wandering through the campgrounds, making new friends, and checking out the shenanigans... well into the 4am hour!
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