Day Something

Note: This blog was written on June 15, but with no generator on the RV I have not had internet access until today, June 17, at a hotel in Columbus, IN, where we stopped for a quick shower and an hour of AC before we get back on the bikes.

Day Something

It is 6:25 pm, Race Time, Tuesday, June 15, 2010.

It is my wife’s birthday.

It is 5:25 pm Central Standard Time in Montezuma, Kansas, at Time Station 24, where our team of four pulled in an hour ago.

It is the end of my riding shift. It is time to eat dinner and go to bed for four hours. And then it will be time to get up and get back on the bikes a little after midnight.

The Hebrews told time this way: There was evening, there was morning, another day. Here on the RAAM trip, we tell time this way: There was riding, there was resting and eating, another shift. There’s no stopping either. Shift upon shift upon shift. Relentless.

Our team of four got to do our first morning ride today. In about eight hours we covered more than 170 miles across southern Colorado and Kansas. Lots of wheat fields and grain silos, but mostly lots of sky and nothing much as far as one can see. We got ourselves into a good rhythm, riding shorter shifts to maximize speed.

Tired and hot, but glad to be doing this.