Ok well this is Brandon (Ross’s son for anyone unaware). I will write a post and then Alison has one.

First mine, well i am sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Colorado and the wind is HOWLING it must be blowing 40 mph or more and the receptionist said it doesn’t stop. the leader is down to 6 mph for this time station. I hope that my dad will pull through and make it to Annapolis.

-Brandon

… and now, for something completely different, in local news a Mancos farmer reports the loss of half his prized yak herd. Apparently a faulty high fidelity system caused ear drum rupture to his furry friends. Doubly discouraging was the fact that the loss was to the yaks he was training for Mel Brook’s screenplay Young Yakenstin. Sorry Ross we lost count of your calories because we where yakking…

On the climb to 10857 foot Wolf Creek Pass summit Ross said he would like to talk with his wife Sammi, we had good reception so handed the phone to Ross. Our RAMM veterian driver Jim Haltom said he had not seen anything like that.

Posted by Craig

TS2 – Photo
Arrived in Congress AZ, Time Station 6 about 12:15 – and waddled over to the kiddy pool to immerse myself.  It’s about 100 even here today, and I doubt it will be any cooler climbing the Yarnell Grade.  I am hoping to make Prescott in three hours after some lunch.

We’ve been fighting an uncooperative stomach since yesterday – The heat is creating a huge demand on my  stomach to process enough fluids and consequently there aint much capacity to deal with food.

Two quick notes about yesterday before my crew takes the computer away – up near Lake Henshaw I couln’t figure out why a patch of the road was brown, until I rode into a huge grasshopper storm, most of which were coating the road.  And then coming down the glass elevator, I fear I may have incurred a penalty, as I passed one of the officials loafing it donw the hill.

Slept pretty well last night, possibly better than Brandon did.  I did wake up feeling ready to go about 3:30, but managed to get back to a light sleep.

The crew is busy putting the final arrangments together in the vans, and keep yelling at me to stay out of the way.  I am definetly ready to ride, and am looking forward to riding out into the desert.

In an hour or two we head over to the start line and get a few photos – hopefully we can get these posted soon.

A quick word of thanks to everyone who got me here to Oceanside -  Bob and Larina Davis for helping make the de$icion to enter; Dad and Brandon for all the long training rides; Origin Nutrition for helping with my race fueling strategy; Scott’s Cycle for all the equipment help.

And a huge thank you to my crew for making these last three days go so smoothly:  sister and crew chief Alison Schenk, father Ron Muecke, son Brandon Muecke, brother-in-law Joel Schenk; friend and neighbour Milton Moorehead; Jim Haltom – who blindly jumped aboard our ship sight unseen; and of course Jim Reynolds out  in OK – see you soon.

A huge word of thanks to wife Sammi for all the encouragment and support,  one birthday present coming up!

Crew chief's uniform

 I’m pretty sure the beatings aren’t for the crew on this plan …..

Today is a rest day for me while my crew does their thing and gets my life s cheduled and sorted for the next ten days.  I  will spend a few minutes replaciing the door latch assembly on the secondary van, as it developed a terrible habit of not locking.  I don’t envy the crew their job at the moment – they have the task of trying to decide what to do when, what might change that plan, and how to make any adjustments for contingencies.  I get to just ride the bike the best I can and “enjoy” the short ride across the continent.