Breaking news !

Randy is being interviewed by Washingtonian magazine.  More when get more info

UPDATE - In California

Randy and crew are in California. Most flew in Sunday.

Randy, Tim and Steph enroute:

Oceanside base and bike shop:

Still on the road west

Susie, Rich, and the follow van stopped in Gallup NM for lunch. Susie sent me one of her breezy notes along with pictures of their lunch spot (one of which is posted here).

Hola! We stopped for lunch in Gallup and thought we'd send a photo! Another great day for traveling. No traffic, perfect blue sky. We don't seem to have the same luck with finding food, tho. It tok us forever to find this place, lots of u turns, but it was worth it! Great, real mexican food. Yum!

How the heck... Ah ha!

The Crew has been sending me some terrific pictures from the road. Unfortunately, I've not yet figured out how to include them. As soon as I do, I'll add them to the posts as appropriate or maybe just set up a Gallery section or something. Please be patient with us as we work out the kinks. Thanks.

UPDATE: Ah Ha! It's amazing what a simple web search will turn up. Posts will now contain pictures if available/safe for work (SFW) :-).

As you can see in this picture of Randy having a daybreak breakfast, it has been very wet, although I am told that the rain let up around dawn (0630 or so)

Overnight Recap

When last we heard from Team Mouri, the Great Eastern Shore Training Event was rain/traffic delayed. Randy and Crew did not get going until 0015 RT (RAAM time). Randy has been riding for the last six hours and, by the time this post is published, will have taken a nap.

Although the area the Team is working in is fairly flat, it has it's own challenges; deer, fox, and fish in flooded roads. To quote Susie "rode thru 1-2 feet of water on the roads. Saw jumping fishes, could feel the fish in the water. Red fox, deer. Amazing!"

It turns out that the planned Crew assignments got all mixed up. Earl needed practice time driving behind Randy in the dark. This is Troy's home stomping grounds, so he set and is now revising the course. Randy's brother Rich is developing a cue sheet for the other shifts on the fly. Adapting and improvising.

A note about time used from here on out. During the RAAM all time is kept in "RAAM time" which is equal to Eastern Daylight Time. The standard notation for RAAM time is to use a 24hr clock as it reduces the possibility of AM/PM confusion. So 0015 means 15 minutes after midnight RAAM time (EDT).

And they're off...sort of

This weekend is a training weekend for all the elements of Team Mouri. Randy, of course, is riding. The Crew has a number of tasks on their plate. Since the HOS 500, the Crew has reorganized a bit, moving people to different shifts, and adding a new member (Hi Earl!).

Significantly, this is the Crew's first chance to work with an RV. Using an RV identical to the one that we'll use during RAAM, the Crew is figuring out how to make best use of it. For example, what's the best way to pack it RV; how to transition from follow or support vehicle to the RV (here's where tri experience might help); how it drives; and how much lighter do they need to travel....

Thanks to traffic and wet weather, things have gotten off to a slow start. It is now well after dark, raining intermittently, and (at last report) they had not gotten to the nominal start point yet. Time to Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome (to borrow a motto).

Postcards from the Road

One of many things we learned during the HOS ride is that the Crew is much too busy to successfully blog from the road. Randy, of course, is riding which brings us to the part of the crew that stays in one place. That's me, Leo, and Elaine. Our jobs are to keep you informed of what is going on as Randy and his Road Crew make their way across the country.

Basically, here's how it's supposed to work: 1) Crew comes off shift and texts/calls/emails us with notes about cool/bizarre/normal things that happened that shift. 2) We post to the blog (cleaning up spelling and cussing). 3) You read the blog and perhaps even post comments we can send back to be read to Randy as he rides along.

During this coming weekend's training ride on the Eastern Shore we're going to be practicing. The Road Crew will be practicing hand-offs, driving behind Randy in the dark, and calling/texting in at the end of each shift. Here at the commo shack, we'll be posting any news that's fit to blog (and we have not yet determined what our standards will be - they may be terribly low). Wish us luck!