How to minimize the "I" in first person

[MarkButler]

I'm writing a first person journal of my travels across country. I've noticed in some crits that the number of "I's" are closely monitored and was wondering if there were some general techniques to reduce them. I've noticed quite a few are in my own writing, for example these 4 paragraphs contain 20 I's but short of switching to a 3rd person, what do people do when writing diary-style writing?

While I was struggling with the earplug, and getting madder by the minute, an older man in full riding gear walked over to offer a suggestion. He showed me his set, tiny tubular ones that he squeezed down to a nub and inserted far into his ear with practiced ease. Engrossed in my own thoughts I barely gave a grunt of acknowledgment. After talking about the earplugs for a minute, he hesitated and gave me a long questioning look. He obviously wanted to talk about riding and traveling, but I was still cross about missing the other couple, mad about the earplug and unsettled in my intestines so I did not take the obvious hint. Finally, he shrugged and walked away. As he rolled out of the parking lot, I noticed he had an ‘Iron Butt Association’ license plate holder on the back of his Goldwing. Stunned, I watched him disappear into the distance.

My stomach churned as I realized whom I had just ignored, one of the legendary one-thousand-miles-in-one-day riders. He stood right in front of me and wanted to talk about cross-country riding. What did I do? I shrugged him off as if I was not interested in his ideas or experience. With a grand total of two-thousand miles on a motorcycle, I snubbed him.

I sat on the curb, holding my treacherous earplug for several long minutes wishing something would go right. Cars came and went but no Iron Butt riders appeared. There was a brief moment of hope as I saw what I thought was a gang of biker chicks who were coming to set up a lingerie show in the parking lot to try to lift my spirits but it turned out to be a semi-trailer carrying sod.

Suddenly, I did not want to stay any longer in Grass Valley. The place was obviously jinxed and the longer I was in town the worse it would get. I told my earplug that one more failure and it would go into my pocket even if I went deaf. The threat must have worked because it went in on the first try and I slowly crept out of the station and headed east hoping I would not have any more stomach problems.

Is it better to simply eliminate the I's and keep the tone? for example, instead of "headed east hoping I would not have any more stomach problems" could become "headed east hoping for a settled stomach." It eliminates the I but I don't know if it reads any better.
Mark

[Button]

Take out the "I noticed" ... "I saw".

If it's first person, we don't need that.

For example:

Instead of: I saw she was wearing a green dress.

Try: She wore a green dress.

We know the main character can 'see' this without the pretense.

This eliminates lots of "I's".

[maestrowork]

Like BtC said, cut all the filtering. Also, externalize more and internalize less. Show more than tell. The only problem you will encounter is action -- there's just not a lot to do without saying "I jumped" or "I ran." Obviously, we can do some creative narrative work to elminate those as well, e.g. "The jump took only a second" or "Running would be a good thing to do now." But I think if we try too hard to eliminate every "I" with something like that, the prose would become stilted. Besides, first person narration should sound like the narrator is telling a story to you -- so it's okay to have some I's, to keep it intimate -- that's the purpose of first person.