After trying to sleep for a couple of hours when I arrived back in St. Augustine from Key West, I only managed to sleep for about an hour. Even with how tired I was, the excitement of the journey ahead had me too amped up to fall asleep.

When I woke up and had a sudden panic attack that maybe I didn’t have a full 1,000 miles ridden within 24 hours (The Iron Butt Association recommends you ride over the milage to account for calibration issues between your speedometer and actual miles ridden), so I left home and road an additional 18 miles to ensure I had at least 1,000+ miles within 24 hours. This was my first time attemping an Iron Butt ride and I didn’t want to risk not having it accepted.

I left home around 7am on July 23 to head to St. Louis. I still needed to complete 1500 within 36 hours so I could claim my Iron Butt 1500. The morning weather was hot and the day would be long and with no relief in sight for the blister heat as I headed northwest.