Up at 2:30 am for a 4:00 am start. I had all of my gear laid out the night before as well as a checklist of everything I needed to do before leaving. It's good that I did - I got maybe 3-4 hours of sleep at best and would have ridden off without any number of things if I didn't have a list handy.
On our scooters and ready to go at a few minutes before 4:00. Someone notices that my headlight isn't working. I have a high beam but no low. I'm not about to take the time to put in a new bulb so I leave hoping that I don't have a failure along the way and have to figure out a way to complete the ride in the dark.
The first 50-60 miles is a bit pucker-inducing because it's pitch dark out and we're in the middle of deer country. Having hit a deer on my scooter before I'm more than a little paranoid about doing it again. It turns out that we didn't see any deer on that stretch but it took until it was fully light out before I began to relax.
The first hitch in my well-laid plans came early on. I had all of our fuel stops plotted out for the entire route. Some were far enough apart that we'd be close to empty but still able to make it as long as we were willing and able to ignore the low fuel light that would likely be on for a good 20-25 miles before each stop. As I figured, our lights came on well short of the first gas station and we chickened out rather than soldiering on. The only problem with this is that it threw us off for the remainder of the stops. It turned out not to be a problem in the end but I knew we would have some bits of road with little on them in the late hours of our run.
We discovered pretty quickly that we hadn't dressed properly for the weather. All three of us were dressed for the expected daytime highs but not for the morning and evening lows. The first few hours on the road were cold and we were all chilled to the bone. As we climbed in elevation it got colder even as the sun got higher in the sky. Good lesson learned. Pay better attention to the weather and dress accordingly. It's easy to remove layers but it's not possible to add layers if you didn't bring the gear along with you.
After my fears of deer in the dark didn't manifest, the deer did come out once it was light. The first one appeared out of nowhere and ran across the road between the first and second riders (I was third in line). Several miles later there was another deer standing in the right lane of the interstate and it didn't budge until we were pretty close. That was the end of the live deer for the rest of the trip.
A bit beyond the midway point we had a planned rest stop where we were met by a fellow rider, wmak from Modern Vespa. He rode for a couple of hours just to come down to have a quick meal with three tired and distracted riders. He also served as a witness at the westernmost point in our route. This could come in handy if the people who certify the ride have any questions about whether we actually did it or not.
Within the first 100 miles after our rest stop I really hit the wall. My eyes were crossing and I found myself in a downward spiral of negative thoughts. While I wasn't telling myself that I couldn't do it, I was questioning just how the hell I'd be able to make it while feeling that poorly.
Part II to follow....
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