Friday, April 20, 2007
At least we won't stink after TS 41!
When I first announced on bikeforums.net that we were looking for crew and money for Race Across America, I received a private message from John, one of the members. He said that he'd be "happy to help with food or whatever" when we roll through his area. He happens to be in Indiana between Time Stations 41 and 42. I thanked him for his offer and told him that we would definitely take him up on it. Tonight I went searching for that PM and found it, replying again to see if John was still up to helping us out. Sure enough, he said that he was and I thought I'd push it one step farther and ask..."hey...do you think we could use your shower?" Now whatever is a pretty broad and all encompassing term...you can't blame me for asking. What a guy...he agreed, so now we'll have full bellies and a little less stench in our lives after TS 41. Thanks John!
Rainy day blahs...
I think that I'm on RAAM overload. My dreams the last two nights have been taken over by thoughts of Small Town, USA mini-marts and having to eat Cheeto's and Ho-Ho's instead of real food. My dreams are often influenced by whatever I'm doing or reading right before I fall asleep, and I'm pretty sure that all of the crew and rider emails were the last thing on my mind.
Speaking of crew, I can't remember when I last updated, but we are now up to seven crew members! All of the crew bios with the exception of Herman's (who is in Georgia marshaling the Tour de Georgia with crew member Shari) are up now on the 360cycling.com website, so be sure to check them out.
Speaking of crew, I can't remember when I last updated, but we are now up to seven crew members! All of the crew bios with the exception of Herman's (who is in Georgia marshaling the Tour de Georgia with crew member Shari) are up now on the 360cycling.com website, so be sure to check them out.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
To poop or not to poop...
that is the question. The great debate for the Beat Cancer RAAM team for the day...
Whether or not to allow pooping in the motor home bathroom. We've been advised against it, in an effort to control the stinkage factor. I mean really, we'll have seven to ten ripe crew members and two extremely sweaty and stinky riders smelling the place up already. Do we really need to add more waste product odor to the mix? My vote is no.
Whether or not to allow pooping in the motor home bathroom. We've been advised against it, in an effort to control the stinkage factor. I mean really, we'll have seven to ten ripe crew members and two extremely sweaty and stinky riders smelling the place up already. Do we really need to add more waste product odor to the mix? My vote is no.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Latest news...
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!
~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!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Please note...
Jason's (faithful crew member) reaction to finding out (via this blog, no less) that I have been appointed interim crew chief...
who the hell died and made you crew chief?!
Can you feel the love?
who the hell died and made you crew chief?!
Can you feel the love?
63 days to go...
If you read the crew bio page on our website, you'll see that I was suckered into crewing for the Team Beat Cancer two person Race Across America team by none other than George Vargas, one of the two riders that we will be supporting on this adventure. He offered to let me stare at his lycra clad butt for a week and I thought that sounded like fun?!?!?!? I don't know, looking back, I may or may not have been hitting the bottle a little bit the night that I agreed to that. I'm committed now and there's no backing out, so he'd better put on a good show, or I'm demanding my money back. ;)
So...here's how it's supposed to go. Two riders, six crew members...wait. Back it up. We only have what? Three crew commitments? RAAM is when? 63 days from now? Crisis number one. 63 days out we have three solid crew commitments. We're all pretty bad-ass if I do say so myself, but we can't do the work of six and safety for the riders dictates that we need a crew of at least six to pull this off. Our fearless leader Rick says not to panic yet, but I'll admit that I'm doing enough of that for the entire team. You see, I've emailed countless numbers of cycling clubs in the area, and even expanded my search to outside of southern California in hopes that I can find three more people who want to spend a couple of weeks in a cramped SUV and motor home, being harassed by cranky riders and stinky fellow crew members while traveling slowly from Oceanside, Ca. to Atlantic City, NJ. Why that isn't appealing to the masses, I'm not sure. Why doesn't anyone want to spend all that time with me? I swear that I don't smell...yet! There's still time and if I have to I'll start stalking the local colleges in search of young slackers that have no job and want to go on a road trip. It's not ideal, but hey...if you have a drivers license and can read a map, you're okay in our book at this point.
Let's move on because if there is a crisis number one, then surely, you're thinking...there's a crisis number two, right? Of course there is and it's the almighty dollar. We need more of them. We're at bare bones now and can afford to get there, but we might be eating donated Power Bars along the way. By the way, please don't tell any potential crew members that I said that. ;) Again, our fearless leader says that there is still time to beg for money, and really, it isn't that bad, I'm sure that we'll have real meals...we just need some wiggle room in the budget for unexpected expenses that we will incur along the way. So...at this point I will shamelessly add the expense fund link so you can open your heart and your wallet to help us out. C'mon...you know you want to!
Could there possibly be a crisis number three? Say it ain't so. While some people wouldn't consider this a true crisis, I regret to inform you that I've been named crew chief for the time being. STOP LAUGHING! NOW! No really, you need to stop laughing, you're hurting my feelings. :( See now, I was hoping that we would attract some experienced RAAM crewperson that we could stick with that title. Someone that we could blame when things go wrong. Basically...someone other than yours truly. This could go one of two ways...either I'll be replaced by a more suitable alternative or I'll be the one taking the blame for all of the misadventures. Either way, this blog will keep you informed of my fate.
In closing my inaugural post, I beg you to send money or your firstborn (if they can drive and read a map) to help us out!
So...here's how it's supposed to go. Two riders, six crew members...wait. Back it up. We only have what? Three crew commitments? RAAM is when? 63 days from now? Crisis number one. 63 days out we have three solid crew commitments. We're all pretty bad-ass if I do say so myself, but we can't do the work of six and safety for the riders dictates that we need a crew of at least six to pull this off. Our fearless leader Rick says not to panic yet, but I'll admit that I'm doing enough of that for the entire team. You see, I've emailed countless numbers of cycling clubs in the area, and even expanded my search to outside of southern California in hopes that I can find three more people who want to spend a couple of weeks in a cramped SUV and motor home, being harassed by cranky riders and stinky fellow crew members while traveling slowly from Oceanside, Ca. to Atlantic City, NJ. Why that isn't appealing to the masses, I'm not sure. Why doesn't anyone want to spend all that time with me? I swear that I don't smell...yet! There's still time and if I have to I'll start stalking the local colleges in search of young slackers that have no job and want to go on a road trip. It's not ideal, but hey...if you have a drivers license and can read a map, you're okay in our book at this point.
Let's move on because if there is a crisis number one, then surely, you're thinking...there's a crisis number two, right? Of course there is and it's the almighty dollar. We need more of them. We're at bare bones now and can afford to get there, but we might be eating donated Power Bars along the way. By the way, please don't tell any potential crew members that I said that. ;) Again, our fearless leader says that there is still time to beg for money, and really, it isn't that bad, I'm sure that we'll have real meals...we just need some wiggle room in the budget for unexpected expenses that we will incur along the way. So...at this point I will shamelessly add the expense fund link so you can open your heart and your wallet to help us out. C'mon...you know you want to!
Could there possibly be a crisis number three? Say it ain't so. While some people wouldn't consider this a true crisis, I regret to inform you that I've been named crew chief for the time being. STOP LAUGHING! NOW! No really, you need to stop laughing, you're hurting my feelings. :( See now, I was hoping that we would attract some experienced RAAM crewperson that we could stick with that title. Someone that we could blame when things go wrong. Basically...someone other than yours truly. This could go one of two ways...either I'll be replaced by a more suitable alternative or I'll be the one taking the blame for all of the misadventures. Either way, this blog will keep you informed of my fate.
In closing my inaugural post, I beg you to send money or your firstborn (if they can drive and read a map) to help us out!
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