Team Millenium/IRSA
Terry Zmrhal and Tracy McKay
Of course, we also began to wonder if we'd have
to go with just 4 or 5 crew , since the day shift had still not
passed, and it was getting well into the afternoon ! We knew they
would eventually show up, so we just kept going. We planned another
sleep/massage break for the riders in Craig. We booked a motel
and sent Tracy up the road in the van. Terry would ride in.
While following Terry, Muffy got a call from Anne
Marie, and she updated her on rider progress. While they were
chatting, we ran over something, which suddenly made an awful
scraping noise. Muffy told Anne Marie we had just run over something
that was wedged under the van and she'd call back. We stopped,
and I managed to free a large heavy bit of wire fencing from around
the wheel, and we got back on the road. I suggested Muffy should
call Anne Marie back and tell her that it wasn't Terry that we
had run over!
We soon began to notice these giant cricket-like things on the
road. We stopped to have a closer look and discovered they were
locusts.
These two seemed to be dragging a dead one off the road.
It seemed almost kind to drag the dead ones away, until we realized
they were actually eating the dead ones!
Terry tried to run over a few.
Then he decided to try to drown them.
Would this make a good RAAM crew vehicle?
Finally Da Bus came by. They radio'd back
and we told them of our plan to go to Craig for rider sleep. They
continued on up to Craig. At some point Michael phoned and apologized
for not doing a crew exchange when they passed, but we said we'd
just do it in Craig. However some confusion erupted and Tracy
and crew checked out of the motel. We arrived, did the exchange
and checked back in, so Terry could get his massage, shower and
sleep, and the rest of the crew could get some sleep.
Da Bus was off shopping and doing laundry
when we arrived. We managed to get most of them back and after
Terry conferred a bit with Mary, Michael and Mary then relieved
the Typhoon crew, and James and Philip tried to sleep for
a few hours.
Unfortunately neither Muffy, Terry or I could
sleep. Discussions continued about crew discord, and we talked
lots with Sharon and got some feedback from Chris. At this point
Michael was up the road and unfortunately left out of the discussion
- as was Tracy.
Just as we were trying to plan out the evenings
shifts, Steve came in and asked outright if he was going to be
asked to leave. Muffy told him he was a good guy, but just wasn't
meshing well with the crew, and we thought it was best for crew
harmony if he left us. We had hoped to coordinate this with Lulu's
arrival, so he would have a car right away, but circumstances
were otherwise. We needed to get Terry up the road, so Muffy,
Chris and I headed off with Terry to relieve Tracy. This was the
first time I worked with Chris and it was a real pleasure. She
was quite well organized, and really worked hard. She had an aversion
to peeing outside, and needed sleep at regular intervals, but
truly was a great asset to the crew and great support for both
Terry and Tracy.
Muffy, in the meantime, tried to coordinate all
she had going on at home, work, kids, etc., and figure out how
to get Steve a plane ticket.
We then began the climb up Tennessee Pass. We
planned short pulls, with each rider doing about 1300 vertical
feet. Da Bus arrived at the top of Tennessee Pass, just
at Tracy broke through our toilet paper line. It was really great
to have everyone there to cheer the guys across the highest point
of RAAM. It's all downhill from here!
We actually took a break for a photo-op. We certainly
wouldn't be winning the prime to Leadville. But given all the
time we'd lost in bad rider exchanges and such, we thought the
opportunity to have the whole crew see the riders reach the highest
point on the course was worth a few lost minutes.
At this point night crew went back to work. We
were short a crew member and only had three fresh crew, so with
instructions that I not drive, I went into my third shift - knowing
we'd hook up with Lulu soon!
The rest of the crew headed off to Leadville for
well earned sleep!
|
