Follow the Yellow Grain Road

This latest update comes to you live from our favorite office, McDonald's. (Can you tell by the Big Mac and Large Fries in the middle of the picture that Jody and I are sharing?)

This particular McD's happens to be in Ulysses, Kansas, so we are now on Central Time. We are just down the road from Time Station 23 (of 55) and are well clear of all the lead riders. At some point today, we expected the lead solo male, Reto, to pass the lead solo female, Trix (she started out one day before the solo men), but he's still roughly 4 hours behind her, so maybe he won't pass her until sometime tomorrow.

In any case, it doesn't really matter if and when Trix gets passed by males, because they are in a different racing category, which means she is really about 250 miles ahead of her nearest competitor.

Because we get to see the lead riders up close, I can tell you that I have yet to see any of them look tired at all. They are really amazing athletes.

As I've mentioned before, most of the time when we pass a rider, I roll the window and ask them how they are doing. Some are more talkative than others, but the one thing they all have in common is that they almost always smile and they almost all look like they are just going for a bike ride down the street. That might be hard to believe, but it's true.

I do remember seeing Cassie Schumacher looking pretty darn exhausted one time, but that was because she was nearing the top of a really long and exhausting climb and it was probably about 100 degrees. She may be last among the four women at the moment, but she's still having a great ride from what we can tell.

Anyway, after I finished blogging earlier today, Jody and I headed back to Time Station 20 (Trinidad) to wait for Reto to arrive. While we waited, we chatted with his crew as well as with the members of Trix's crew who had stuck around even though she way past us. (Most riders have two crews working different shifts). We also met one of the local officials who is shuttling between Time Stations 19 and 20, as far as I know.

As soon as Reto arrived, he headed straight for the RV, dismounted, and got inside to rest and re-fuel. Some of his crew members then took care of his bike. For instance, they checked the tire pressure, made sure he had a fresh water bottle, checked the tires for rocks, glass, and anything else that can cause a puncture, and even wiped some of the dirt off of the frame.

10 minutes later, practically before you could blink, there was Reto again, back on his feet, clipping in to his pedals, and riding off down the road.

Since we had some time before the next rider, Christoph Strasser, was due to arrive, Jody and I took off for our other favorite hangout, Walmart. We went there to pick up lunch, of course.

This time we each grabbed some Chinese food, with cheesecake for dessert.

Did you really think we were sticking to the liquid diet all this time?

After lunch, we headed back to the Time Station to check up on Strasser's location. We saw one of his support vehicles in the parking lot, so we parked next to it and asked the two crew members we saw if they knew when Christoph would arrive. Since they said it would be anywhere from 10-20 minutes, we decided not to wait around, however, since we are supposed to stick to the lead riders. It turns out that Strasser had already passed us, since we came upon him 15 minutes later.

As always, I recorded the time and distance from the Time Station when we came across the rider, made sure everything was OK and that no rules were being broken, and drove on by.

Our next destination was Kim, Colorado, 71 miles east. As you can see in three of the photos above, the roads around these parts are pretty darn straight and pretty darn flat, and there's pretty much nothing around as far as the eyes can see.

We knew Trix had already made it past the next Time Station, so after we arrived in Kim, we kept on driving toward Time Station 22, Walsh, Colorado. I estimated that we would see Trix at Mile 34 or so, but we actually came upon her a bit farther down the road, at Mile 43. As usual, she was all smiles. We distracted her from her riding for about a minute and then headed on toward Walsh.

Once we caught Trix, we decided to continue on until Ulysses, so we could take a break there. Besides, our work at this point is obviously a bit slow-going, but that just comes with the job.

Luckily, both Jody and I are feeling pretty good. I imagine last night's sleep has a lot to do with that.

I still can't believe these riders cover as much ground as they do in a day, with such minimal rest breaks of roughly 1-3 hours at a time.

I also can't believe the riders are able to do so well in the heat today. It's been about 90 degrees most of the day, but Jody and I barely notice since our Nissan Ultra-Deluxe Hotel On Wheels is equipped with air conditioning.

By talking with the riders and their crews, we've discovered that the riders have had an occasional "crisis," such as when they succumb a bit to the heat or get really fatigued, but I'm telling you, a crisis to these riders is probably like a paper cut to you or me...

Well, we expect Trix to arrive in about 45 minutes, so it's about time I got on to bigger and better things than blogging, like eating dinner with Jody.

After all, it's already 1927 local (RAAM time is always EST) and we are getting hungry. Lucky for you, our meal just arrived, so I am going to share a picture of it with you.

It looks like we're having, from left to right, mind you: spinach and cheese casserole as the main dish, scalloped mashed potatoes on the side, and key lime pie for dessert.

OK, OK, so we really are sticking to the liquid diet.

Gotcha! Or did I?