Trix of the Trade

While Jody and I were killing time at McDonald's, in came Trix's three-person media crew. They sat right next to us, so we spent quite a while talking to each other. It turns out that Trix's son, Patrick, is driving the media crew around, and the media crew, Karin and Anita (So that's where the girls are!), are Trix's nieces. They are a really cool bunch.

Since we figured they would know exactly when Trix would arrive, we asked them to let us know. Indeed they did, and when Trix was only about 3 miles out, all of us packed up and headed to the time station.

Trix arrived just before 9:00 p.m. local time, and, just as Reto did early this morning, Trix pulled up to her RV, got off of her bike, received a few congratulatory hugs, and hopped into the RV to relax and change into a clean cycling outfit.

In the meantime, just as Reto's crew had done, her crew got to work on her bike. Among other things, they cleaned the bike, greased the chain, and oiled her pedals and cleats. 10 minutes later, out popped Trix again, and within a few minutes, she was back two-wheelin' it again.

Trix is quite the athlete. Just qualifying for RAAM is an accomplishment in itself, but Trix has apparently written herself into the RAAM record books. Namely, she is the first female to ever make it this far along RAAM in first place (even though, as I mentioned in an earlier post, she started a day before the men). From what I understand, she is also the first female to ever make it to Durango, the RAW finish point, in first place.

Wow!

Congratulations, Trix!

Just after Trix left the time station, Trix's crew sat down for dinner. They were nice enough to invite Jody and me to eat with them (just as they had earlier on RAAM), but once again we had to pass. I've kind of gotten used to not eating, so saying "No" to solid food wasn't that hard for me, but Jody seemed truly disappointed at missing out on dinner.

Anyway, after passing on what looked to be a really delicious meal, Jody and I walked over to talk to the volunteers who were manning the time station. (This is the second manned time station of the race.) In talking to them, we found out that they and a bunch of other volunteers are going to be working shifts 24 hours a day until the last rider passes through. Pretty cool, eh?

We also noticed a sheet of paper that they had posted that said, "Free Showers for RAAM Riders."

Naturally, that immediately got our attention.

Lucky for us, the Corporate East Hotel, just down the road from the time station, was generous enough to let both of us shower for free, too, even though we are not riders.

Better yet, we got to use not just any shower, but a shower that is in one of the hotel rooms. In other words, for the past two hours, Jody and I have been enjoying life in a hotel room! How sweet is that?

Thank you Corporate East Hotel!

So far we've both showered, shaved, and done our "laundry" (as we did back in Oceanside), and now we're just chilling.

I've got the Dodgers game on and Jody is taking a nap. I'm about to go to the car to get my camera and then I'm going to go up to the front desk to see just how long we can milk this thing.

Wish me luck!

(5 minutes later)


Sha-wing! Boo-yah!

The guy at the front desk told me it would be fine if we slept here for a few hours, so that's the plan, Stan!

By the way, it's raining a bit, for the first time since I arrived in the U.S. over a week ago. Hopefully, we'll be back to sunny skies come morning.

Good night from Ulysses, Kansas!