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It's been a few days, so I'll recap what's been going on...

~Thursday night George and I went to the home of Pam and Marvin Atwood, RAAM veterans who hold the 4 Person Team Mixed 50+ record. They were kind enough to welcome us into their home so they could scare the crap out of us, errr...I mean...give us a reality check on what to expect. First concern, our target number for crew was too few in their opinion. For their four person team, they had a crew of 12...that's double what we were planning for. Second concern was that we need a third vehicle to act as a shuttle vehicle between the follow vehicle and the motor home. Of course, one more vehicle means the need for more crew, neither of which we had! They shared the ins and outs of their experience and I walked away from the meeting more excited on one hand and totally overwhelmed on the other hand. The meeting was well worth our time and Marvin and Pam will be a valuable source of information for us as we move forward.

~Thursday I also received a call from Shari, who is the current president of the Channel Islands Bike Club. She had received an email plea from my friend Jim, asking for RAAM crew and she was not only interested...she was excited! I must have thanked her at least ten times, the relief of having one more crew member was unbelievable. We were up to four now...which is still not what we needed, but it's better than three!

~Friday afternoon I was driving up to Calabasas for the Mulholland Challenge and I decide to call and pester my friend James. He's been on the fence for about a month, waiting to hear if he gets to join TEAM NO J.O.B. and the unemployment line. Not that I should be wishing unemployment on my friends, but damn...I'm getting desperate here and when James expressed interest in crewing, I was thrilled at the thought of having him along. He has an amazing eye for photography and he's just a cool and witty kinda guy. I may or may not have been crossing my fingers in hopes that he would lose his job. I'll never admit to it. Anyhow...he sent me a teaser email earlier that day and then left me in suspense, so I decided to call him while I sat in LA traffic. He told me that there was good and bad news...bad news...he's joined TEAM NO J.O.B. and good news...he's joined the crew! YAY!!!!

~Sunday afternoon I was providing support to one of our riders, George Vargas, who after doing the Mulholland Double on Saturday (205 miles and 17,000 ft of climbing) is out there torturing himself less than twelve hours later by riding the Mulholland Challenge route (110 miles 12,000 ft of climbing) that I had done the day before. When I pulled over to wait for him at the top of a climb, I checked my voice mail and there was a message from Shari, who was in Georgia volunteering as a traveling marshal for the Tour de Georgia. She had recruited another crew member for us...way to go Shari! So in just four days, we've doubled our crew!!

~James secured a third vehicle for us that we can leave on the east coast! Unfortunately, we still need the money to gas the thing up and get it across the country. We also need at least two additional crew members and the money to feed them!

~Last but not least...big huge thanks go out to the southern California members of www.bikeforums.net We have received several donations in the last 24 hours and we greatly appreciate the support that we have received. You're all the best and I love ya! :)

With the added expenses of additional crew and a third vehicle, we're still in need of donations to the expense fund, so keep them coming!

Send mo' money puh-lease!