My name is Keith Martin, and my buddies name is Wayne Nixon. I’m the better-looking guy! LOL.
Our trip planning started in August of 2022 when we decided to do a ride challenge. We first considered doing the IBC but at the time a 1,000-mile challenge seemed to be unattainable due to both of us having back issues. We decided to back off until we could work up to that type of ride. Then, we found the LDR challenge. The 500-mile challenge seemed to be more in line to try. Boy, are we glad we did.
Our ride took us from Longs, SC to Spartanburg, SC and up to Charlotte, NC over to Lumberton NC, back down to Florence, SC and back to Longs, SC. It turned out to be an awesome 10-hour experience. All I can say is…You can plan as much as you want but if you don’t stay flexible in your plans you can be making a BIG mistake before you even start. First and foremost, before you get on your bike and head off, take the 5 or 10 minutes it takes to double check the days traffic patterns on your cell phone. If we hadn’t done this, our challenge would have ended in complete failure in less than 4 hours into our ride.
Luckily, we decided to reverse our route because of all the road construction we saw. We passed 1 construction area on the opposite side of I-20 that had traffic backed up for 9 miles and then another construction area on I-85 that was backed up for 5 miles. Both areas were dead stopped. Second of all…Don’t lag around at your stops if you don’t need to. We call it “GET and GO” because you never know what’s going to happen up the interstate at any time. Shortly after our 5th gas stop, we headed south on I-95 and wouldn’t you know it; We hit a 2-mile traffic back up. Luckily the traffic was slowly moving off and on. It took about 30 to 40 minutes to get through it, but you just never know. Once we got home, we realized neither of us were tired nor sore at all.
Since that ride, we decided to start making plans for our 1,000-mile challenge in the Fall. We’ll let you know how that ride turns out!