Team Millenium/IRSA
Terry Zmrhal and Tracy McKay
We caught the racers fairly early and offered to call in the next
time station in John Day. We'd been sitting at the time station
for a while, when Michael pointed out the humorous billboard across
the way. This gave us chuckles throughout the race! I miss
my lung, Bob!
We rolled into town in search of a diner open early enough for
breakfast. (Local time was two hours earlier, so we were looking
for food pretty darn early.) Mary was still pretty tired and slept
in the van a bit longer. Our waitress had ridden Seattle to Portland
a couple of times, and was not totally shocked by what we were
up to!
Instead of the typical mirror over the sink, this time station
toilet had one of my favorite signs of the trip, one appropriate
for both riders and crew!
Terry had meticulously prepared his van. He had bought a set of
halogen amber lights to use as flashers for the back. Unfortunately
these were blindingly bright. At one point when we called in a
time station, we were asked to try to tone them down a bit. Our
first attempt involved putting a few strips of electrical tape
over the lights. By the end, we practically had them covered in
tape, and they were still very bright. I suggested in the future
that Terry move these to the front as supplemental front lights,
and get some dimmer amber lights for the rear, or maybe replace
the halogen bulbs with regular bulbs.
Here you can also see my clothing choice for early
on. The temperatures varied widely as we crossed the country.
It was quite cold overnight for the first half. It would warm
a bit during the day, but my wool tights worked out quite well
for most of the first half. I wore a wool tank top, and supplemented
with a long sleeve wool sweater at night. Once into Oklahoma,
I shed the tights for quick dry shorts, and packed away the long
sleeve sweater. I wore a bum bag the whole time, with my digital
camera, wallet and phone. Keys were wore on a chain around our
necks. The keys were really just door keys, since many newer car
keys come with a microchip which keeps duplicates from being used
in the ignition. In Zephyr, we loosely cable tied the keys
in place so no one would be tempted to walk away with them. This
was supposed to happen in all the vehicles, but didn't initially,
and there were a few panic situations and at least one time I
had to rudely wake someone up to find ignition keys!
Terry still thinks it cool enough for wool and a vest! And as
ever, he is smiling!
The long road to Savannah, uh I mean Pensacola. We started joking
early on about our goal to get the boys to Savannah - a previous
RAAM finish line. After a few days I finally was able to say Pensacola
!
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