I can finally relax a bit. Bike and vehicle inspection went well. I still have to bring the RV to be inspected, but I just need to slap some signage on it before I do that. I rebuilt my ORB pedals, which was a bit harder than I planned, but its now done. I still have to glue my tires and slap a computer on Luci. I ran into Rebecca Haldeman at the registration area last night. She's looking good(taller if you can believe it - maybe I'm shrinking) but she didn't recognize me. Susan said she was going to splash some blue paint on me at the Blythe control to remedy the problem. Nine months after my transplant I showed up to Lon and Susan's Northern Transcon with my hair dyed blue. She said she still refers to me as "Blue Lou". It was good to see them. Later I bumped in to Perry Stone in the parking lot and we had a good chat. He'll be blogging for Shanna during the trip. He's looking much better than he did in the 2004 race broadcast, he's feeling better too. He introduced me to Guus Moonen and Shanna Armstrong. Earlier in the day I had met Shanna's teammate from last year's RAAM, Guy Wells. One thing that struck Scooter (My cameraman) was how friendly everyone is. I think that's a cycling thing in general and further amplified in the Ultra community. In recreational cycling, people will often volunteer a tube if you've got a flat, but in Ultra-cycling, I think because the distances are greater, we're that much more likely to help out and be friendly towards other cyclists. A group of grade school girls invaded the hotel last night, so it was tough sleeping and today is a big day. The restof my crew is flying in today and we have to pick up the RV,get it inspected, then the rider/crew meeting, the banquet, somewhere in there we need to do some shopping, and then stock both the RV and the Escape. I'm really itching to get on the bike.
"Phew"
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