Riding Back to Tampa
I HATE Riding in Louisiana
I'm not going to get hurt, I'm Not Going to Get Hurt, I'M NOT GOING TO GET HURT . . .
May 31, 2003
I had two major worries as I was planning this trip - getting to Texas and getting back. The trip from Tampa to Texas actually wasn't that bad, though it was tiring. The fatigue actually comes in waves, at times I was just fine, sometimes even crisp, other times I was bordering on a coma. On the way to Texas I found myself more alert the closer I got to my goal. Managing my body temperature made a huge difference compared to other trips. It looks funny to other people, even a tad stupid, but riding with the rainjacket on, the leather vest, the electric jacket and then the regular T-shirt and jeans kept my body temperature stable. "Stable" in this context was just a little on the warm side when riding, and unbearably hot when stopped for too long. Even though I was working up a pretty serious sweat, I wasn't uncomfortable when riding.
While preparing for the ride back to Tampa I was filled mostly with a sense of sadness at the trip being over - not really that much dread or fear of getting hurt. I would be leaving early on a Saturday morning and by the plan would be back in Tampa sometime late that evening (around 11pm was the plan). Provided that traffic was light
I left Bill's house around 6am and started my trek home. Bill lives on the far northwest side of Austin, which kind of sucks. Getting from his house to Hwy 71 took something close to 45 minutes. That means that I would be on 71 around 7am instead of 6 or 6:30. No big deal, but I think next year I will book a hotel on 71 for the night, Garrett parties too much and Bill is a tad farther away than is ideal.
Anyhoo - I was about 1/2 awake through most of the early morning. The only major complaint I had was that I didn't have a radar detector and I really would rather have made better time through this portion of Texas. The sooner I got to I-10 the sooner I could make serious time getting home. I also think it might be a good idea for me to pack a 'camelback' for fluid replenishment, as dehydration adds to fatigue and if you can keep hydrated you can stay alert longer. Just a sip or two of cool water . . dunno, we'll see how it works out next year.
Riding down 71 hasn't changed much in the
last couple of years since I have been away. Bastrop continues to grow and
they have changed a couple of sections of highway, but otherwise
it
is a fairly simply little highway connecting I-35 to I-10. I pulled over
in Lagrange, TX to take a picture of the sunrise. It actually looked a lot
better than this in person, but that is probably because I had been hoping for
sunrise for a while to help wake me up.
I am not sure where I stopped to eat, or even if I did stop to eat. In hindsight, not stopping to eat is probably one of the reasons why the trip back got scary by the end. I probably rode straight through and only stopped for gas - as I have no recollection whatsoever of actually sitting down to eat. I stopped just outside of Beaumont, TX to get a throttle rocker, as my forearms were killing me by the time I got to Houston. My backside was sore, but not nearly as bad as my forearms - I had shooting pains up both arms, but especially on my right side. I stopped at a Harley dealer and for a mere $35 got myself a cheap piece of rubber to wrap around my throttle. It was a piece of junk - but it helped enough to let me keep going.
Traffic was heavier than I had anticipated, in fact in places it was downright thick. Crossing over to Louisiana I saw much more traffic (and a LOT more traffic cops too) than I had expected. Just before I got to Baton Rouge traffic came to a complete stop. Apparently, the geniuses at Louisiana Dept of Trans decided that Saturday was the best day of the week to work on the highway, and they had traffic down to one lane. I spent something like 2 hours steaming in the hot sun stuck in traffic with the smell of hot tar and diesel fumes soaking me through and through. I am buying a map of Louisiana for my next trip, as I am sure there was a way off the freeway that could have kept me moving and saved me considerable amounts of time. When I finally got moving again I was exhausted and my hand was killing me from stop and go clutch / gas operation. I was now exhausted, dehydrated, and two hours behind schedule.
The rest of the ride in Louisiana put me in a rotten mood. There are incredibly bad potholes on I-10 here and I bottomed out my suspension at 75 miles per hour in at least one of them. Crowded interstate, bad pavement, way behind schedule. Mississippi and Alabama were fairly non-descript experiences, the pavement got better and I tried to make up some time - though I don't think I was able to.
Florida was where I made my 'last hurrah' for this trip. There are very long stretches of highway (a mile or two at least) where the highway is divided by forest and the road is straight. I wound up the bike more than a couple of times on this stretch. I hit some very serious speed on this section of the road and held it for minutes at a time. At high speed the BMW is solid as a rock.
I pulled over just outside of Tallahassee to
take a picture of the sunset. My energy level and alertness at this point
wasn't bad at all, though I could feel fatigue setting in. I should have
taken an hour at this point to eat and drink. The only things I remember
eating were beef jerky
and Diet Coke - clearly I needed refreshment. I pulled over at a gas
station after taking this shot and met a couple who had seen me last at the
Louisiana / Texas border. It was interesting talking to these folks, but I
realized that I was way behind schedule by now.
I pulled off of I-10, called Tonya and gassed up. By the time I got to Hwy 19 south the sun had set and I was beginning to really feel fatigue. This was a bad sign, and in hindsight I REALLY should have pulled over and taken the time to rest while I could. Home was literally 2 gas tanks away, but it would be the hardest 2 tanks of gas I have ever ridden.
The trip home was basically Hwy 19 south all the way home. Now it was Saturday evening and I was riding through 'speed trap central.' There were speed traps literally everywhere, and cops hiding practically around every corner waiting to write a ticket. At around 10pm I felt myself starting to slip so I decided to pull my helmet off and ride with my face in the wind to help wake me up. That was perhaps the stupidest thing I could have done. It was cool out, but not cold and I thought the brisk night air would wake me back up, instead it made my head really cold and made my response time much slower than it should have been. Since I had been boiling in my roadgear all day long my exposed head suddenly became the point where heat would escape my body, and it did just that. Now, I had a frozen face / head, slowed reaction time, and wasn't any more alert than I was before. I am not kidding, you could have punched me in the face and I was so numb I doubt I would have felt much - I just would have fallen over. I now had an exposed skull that would burst like a watermelon if I fell off of my bike - great - Things just got scary . . .
I kept repeating to myself, "I am not going to get hurt, I am not going to get hurt, slow down, keep moving, not that much farther" but it was farther. The truth be told it didn't matter if I was 10 miles from home, at this point I needed to stop and pull over and I needed to do it NOW.
As I rode along I began to see things, cars in my side mirror that weren't there, cars approaching on the other side of the highway that weren't there too. I reallized I was in REAL trouble when I weaved and wobbled my way through a corner. It was then that I thought "I am going to get hurt out here, I have to pull over." I put my hazards on and hoped that around each corner there would be a stop light, a gas station, pretty much anything. I limped along, somewhere around 35 miles per hour, and actually hoped I might find a cop willing to help a citizen in need. Fat chance. I am SURE that if I were doing 5mph over the speed limit there would be cops all over the place, but more about that later.
I finally saw a stoplight up ahead and pulled over as quickly as I could. I had stopped in Ingliss, Florida. In Ingliss there is a litte 'stop and rob' at what appears to be the only stoplight in the town. I pulled up, basically fell off my bike, and went inside to eat, catch my breath, and let my skull thaw out a bit. When I stepped out and sat on the bench in front of the store there were literally 4 patrol cars in the parking lot pulling people over left and right. In addition to pulling people over, they had a drug sniffing dog with them that was searching every car they stopped. Is that legal? The sad part is that probably 90% of the people they pulled over got cuffed and stuck in the back of the patrol car for possession of a controlled substance - they must have a SERIOUS drug problem in Ingliss. I called Tonya, ate a sandwich, drank a bottle of water, stomped around, stretched and finally woke up enough to keep moving.
The last hour home was very uneventful. I was alert again, I was fed and hydrated and my helmet was back ON. I arrived home around 2am EST - right at 20 hours from when I had left Texas. I was more than glad to see Tonya, and delighted and relieved to sleep in my own bed.
In hindsight, I should have stopped and rested earlier. I should have eaten at least one real meal on the way home, I shouldn't have taken off my helmet and I should have kept my fluids up better. We plan on doing another trip like this next year, and this time I will be more careful on the way back.
Ride free, Ride safe
Scott