BBG, Part Seven: The Hardest Miles

Part Seven:  The Hardest Miles

After what I thought was my final gas stop, I saddled up and headed southeast towards Minneapolis.  Suddenly, I felt like someone whacked the right side of my head with a bat and the bike jumped a third of a lane to the left.

Wind.  Unrelenting, gust, strong, powerful, disruptive wind.  The strongest sustained oblique wind I have ever ridden through.  The level of focus required went through the roof.  I became even more aware of my lane position and surrounding traffic, maximizing the buffer zone of space around my bike.

The wind was beating on me, buffeting me, tossing me around.  “Please stop pummeling me, I’m just trying to get done,” I said aloud in my helmet.  It was hard, hard riding.

Physical issues started to manifest.  I developed a helmet pressure ridge around my forehead, driving me insane.  I would tuck in behind the screen and push up on my helmet with my left hand to relieve the pressure, but I wasn’t comfortable doing that for long because of that unceasing wind.

I flicked over to instant average fuel economy and saw that it was holding pretty steady in the mid-thirties.  That meant another stop was in my future, and I made it not long after the turn for Saint Cloud.  Although I hadn’t planned on it, it felt so good to simply get off the bike and get out of the wind.

It’s amazing how refreshing it is to simply get out of the wind for 10 minutes.  Not having that constant buffeting and just walking in to use the bathroom provides full body relief.

The temptation to linger wasn’t there for me, I was looking forward to getting done.  I was feeling very good still, focused, looking forward to getting done, and wary of getting complacent at the end of a long ride, approaching a metro area notorious for a crazy highway system.

I don’t have a clear memory as to the moment when the oblique pummeling stopped.  I do remember that I was so incredibly thankful that it did.  Light was starting to fade a bit, so I slid up my sun visor and kept moving:

The ride into Eagan was uneventful, with only one navigational error.  I made the final gas stop, got the receipt, met my cousin and his wife who served as my end witnesses, and felt an elated wave of accomplishment flow through me.  The odometer said 1577, which I got done in just under 22 hours.  Thank you Yamaha for making such an amazing motorcycle which let me accomplish this!

A five minute ride transported me off the bike to my cousin’s house. Entering his neighborhood, two deer were standing in the middle of the road. I slowed and smiled, thinking of how I saw their cousin on the shoulder of I-80 way back at the beginning of my trip, just when I was beginning my journey. I'm glad that we successfully avoided contact with each other.

My goddaughter and nephew were still awake and really happy to see me.  I was still feeling great - we feasted, talked, laughed, put the kids to bed, grabbed a beer, and sat outside by the fire pit.  

A couple minutes later,  the wave of exhaustion hit me.  I said goodnight, brushed my teeth, lay down, and didn’t move for ten, blissful hours.