I'd been thinking about trying a BBG for awhile now, after this years TarButt I thought I was ready. During this years TarButt I did just over 1200 miles in 23 1/2 hours, butt I made 18 stops and took 300 miles of back roads. I made very quick gas stops and felt pretty good at the end of the ride so I figured that I could do the BBG if I stayed off the back roads. I planed my trip pretty quickly as it just seemed to jump out at me and I ended up with 1550+-10 miles on the mapping programs. I figured I had a good route that I knew a little more than 3/4 of the roads.

My route was

I-270 from Germantown, MD to I-70 to I-68 to Mogantown, WV

I-79 to Charleston, WV

I-64 to Louisville, KY

I-65 to Nashville, TN

I-40 to Greensboro, NC

I-85 to I-95 to I-495 to I-270 back to Germantown.

During the week I kept my eye on the weather to make sure I wouldn't get much rain and was pleased to see that there was only supposed to be scattered thunder showers in KY/TN area everything else was under a high pressure system.

On Sat morning the SO and I got up around 6:30 to eat and get ready. I personally like leaving at around 8 so I didn't want to get out earlier. We meet Roy Collins at the local gas stop to have our odometer checked then we were off.

The ride to Morgantown was uneventful, we managed to hold a steady 75mph the majority of the way and ended up getting to Morgantown around 15 mintues early. The only problem that I had was finding a gas station IN Morgantown on I-79. I didn't want to stop on I-68 and decided to get on I-79 first. I ended up around 10 miles south of Morgantown to get gas, at least I wasn't out of gas but it didn't say Morgantown on the reciept. Not wanting to waste time especially on the first couple of stops we left pretty quickly, probably no more than 10 mintues maybe less.

With the excpetion of a few constuction areas I-79 was quick to Charleston. Again I waited until I got on I-64 to get gas, no problems here except when I got off the highway I ended up backtracking to the gas station. Had I gotten off two exits before I would have been in the same place. Again not to waste time we got out pretty quick.

I-64 to Louisville would be the longest on bike time for the whole trip, around 240 miles. After abour 50 miles the skies became black and I knew we would hit the thunderstorms, I wasn't too worried as we were slightly above schedule. The rains were light but made us slow down some. The rains continued for around 70 miles or so and we ended up being back on schedule instead of ahead. In Louisville around 5 we took a few minutes to eat and rest. I took a look at the map and found that instead of going through town I could take I-264 so we did, I think this cut around 10 miles off the trip though that shouldn't have mattered much.

The road to Nashville was also pretty uneventful, no problems and we got a few mintues ahead again. Again we took very little time stopping because night was coming and I knew we'd have to slow down a bit.

I-40 would be the longest spent on any one road, 450 miles or so. I had originaly planned only one stop but figured that it would be better to stop twice then try and push it late at night. The next stop was just outside of Knoxville, a little more than 150 miles. Back onto I-40 and into North Carolina and something I had totally forgotten about I-40 near the boarder of NC and TN is VERY twisty. Also at this point we had gotten to 1000 miles in 15 hours, I felt pretty good about that as we were still right were we needed to be. The almost 20 miles of curves got to me a little and slowed us down some. The curves were not what got us though, it was the rain.

Right after all the fun curves it began to rain. It wasn't the thin kind either it was a nice heavy downpour plus it was cold. The rain would come and go. Getting to Black Mt east of Asheville I was hoping to get rid of the rain, but of course it got worse. Black Mt is a great interstate because of the corners, but in the rain I slowed down to around 40 going down the mountain, it was just to slippery and everyone else on the road was crazy.

The rain settled down and stopped by Statesville our next stop. By now I knew I was pushing getting back on time though I thought I still had some spare time. My next stop I planned on was to be Petersburg, VA around 250 miles or so. When we got off of I-40 and onto I-85 I was near my longest day of 1200 miles. Around this time I started to get tired, or at least I started to see the signs. I wasn't falling asleep or closing my eyes but my speeds were varing and small signs like that. Around 3:30 I was getting ready to call it quits as I figured it was smarter to stop than have an accident, the only problem is there is not much at all on I-85. I got lucky and found a rest area a few minutes later so I pulled off to check into my first Iron Butt Motel. I knew from riding the train to/from work that I could sleep for 20-30 mintues or so and feel pretty good afterwards so I decided to try it and see what happened. For the first couple of minutes I didn't think I could get to sleep but I must have because my alarm went off in what felt like after 30 seconds. I got up and felt pretty good and with a couple of quick calculations I figured I could still make it if I could keep 65.

I still had one stop left to make in Petersburg. However, I ended up going to reserve 20 miles sooner than I had hoped and I was still 50 miles from Petersburg so instead of trying to push it I started to look for gas. I-85 in VA is no better than in NC and it took me a couple of exits to find a 24 hour gas station. When I came back from the bathroom I found my passenger asleep leaning on the gas pump, I really should have taken a picture but I didn't. I let her sleep for a couple of minutes and then we left. Getting on I-95 I had to keep the speeds down to around 65 since near Richmond the limit is 55 and I really didn't want to blow it by getting stopped.

Then in Richmond it happened again, the rains came back. I couldn't believe it, I was hoping for a nice sun rise and all I got was rain. It rained the whole way back, around 120 miles. the only good thing was the HOV lanes, which are seperated and work both ways, on I-95 were open going North. I was in them by my self, away from all the crazies. We ended up getting back with two minutes to spare for a total of 1555 uncorrected miles.

I think without the rain at the end I would have gotten back around 30 minutes early, almost in the time that I had originally planned. All in all I'm happy with how I did. At least now I know I can do them.

Bryan Main

PS sorry I didn't respond to all of you that congradulated me, there were WAY too many of them, so I thank you now.