eemsreno said:
I have never considered riding a 1,000 mile day just for the fun of it. There is nothing fun about riding interstates all day and seeing nothing.
You might be on the wrong interstates.
NorCal up thru OR and WA is very scenic. Even I-10 offers many wonderful vistas that are often vast and ever changing as you ride along.
In terms of the IBA, you have 24 hours to do the 1000 miles in. No bonus points for doing it shorter, it's not a race. Most people average about 18 hours for their Saddle Sore rides. What I'm getting at here is that nothing says you have to ride interstate. I've ridden many 1k days that had almost no interstate as part of the route. It's a matter of planning the ride you want to ride, going where you want to go and seeing what you want to see. I've ridden thru canyons at night that were spectacular by the light of the bike and seen everything from shooting stars to battleships fully lit up at night while riding. Not to mention the forest fires and lightning storms I've witnessed while on 1k rides that were epic experiences that just happened to be during a long ride.
Many of us simply need to get from point A to point B in a limited amount of time when we are riding a long day. It doesn't have to be painful or boring. I always get a laugh when people complain about riding interstate or say it's boring. Any day riding the bike is fun. Considering the amount of distance in 1000 miles, how could you not be impacted by all the things you see along the way? I've gone from desert to forest to grasslands and in and over, (multiple), mountain ranges in a single ride. Sure, you can run around in a big circle or do and out and back of nothing but the same interstate you are familiar with, but it's more fun to see things you don't see all the time, imho.
The joke is that every state looks the same in the dark. It's not usually true, but sure, crossing Nebraska and Kansas can feel pretty boring on the interstate.
Is it Spring yet, you ask? Err, no.
And I live in the desert where we get around 330 days of sunshine a year.