Update 2:15 PM EDT: Team Nor’easter is within 175 miles of the finish after passing through Hanover, Pennsylvania. The route took them within 4-5 miles of Brad’s house. Wife, Julie reports that they are all looking quite well, considering, though a little “shaggy.”

They are now heading towards CP 54 – Georgetown, Pennsylvania. After the Georgetown leg, which includes the most total climb of all the legs in the race, they’ll skirt the entrance of White Clay Creek State Park, Delaware (had to get an orienteering reference in somewhere) before heading over the Delaware Memorial Bridge. For safety reasons, the rider will get into the van to make the trip across the bridge.

This totally rookie team (riders and crew), in the personally created Three Person Men’s Division, has been doing an awesome job! Word has it that Ken whas been cleared to ride the last little bit on the Boardwalk to the finish line.

I can’t begin to imagine the emotions Team Nor’easter must be feeling as they near Atlantic City.

Sandy called at 7:45 EDT this morning. Things went well overnight. The team tackled & conquered the four most difficult climbs on the course. Less than 250 miles left to the finish line.

I uploaded some of Matthew’s pictures to my Flickr account and put some names with the faces, in case you weren’t sure who was who…

And before going out for a short run, Eddie sent me these pictures. Here is my favorite – I am a sucker for rainbows.

[photopress:Rainbow1.jpg,full,centered]

Matthew Robbins (cedarcreek) posted a report early this morning on AttackPoint. Thank you, Matthew!
Who are we going to hear from next?!

“I met the RV at the Dayton Airport, and chatted with Ken and Pete for about an hour while Sandy was driving in from Indianapolis. We drove north to Troy, and arrived 10 or 15 minutes ahead of the minivan and the rider.

Everyone seemed weary. Ken said he had improved a lot since he got out of the hospital. His 4 broken ribs aren’t as sore, and he has been taking deep breaths easily for about a day (before that it was painful, but necessary to avoid complications like pneumonia). Eddie said he’s had 11 hours of sleep in 6 days.

I took a lot of photos between 12:27am and 1:20am. Then I drove 1 hour to Cincinnati, processed the photos and put them on my website. I didn’t do any editing. The photos are all available light—no flash. Some of them came out really well. Since it’s now 3:36am, and I have to get up at 7am, the high-res photos might not work for a day or so. Once I get them posted, I’ll leave them up for a month or so. Team Nor’easter is 413. I took photos of every team I saw.

The Photos from Troy, OH

The rider on the Cervelo (O’Keefe) is Canadian, and a single, meaning he’s ridden this far completely by himself. That was probably the most surreal experience of the night. His support crew didn’t smile at all, spoke very softly, and moved in slow motion. It reminded me of the Do Lung Bridge scene in Apocalpse Now where this soldier on acid prepares a grenade launcher. It sort of freaked me out.

Ken said he was in the hospital when another rider got brought in for a wreck maybe 2 minutes past where he wrecked. He said the guy’s own minivan collided with him, and he broke the window with his elbow, and ended up with 50+ stitches. If you look at the last two photos, you’ll notice a minivan with a broken window. I asked if they were that team, and not only were they the team, the guy in the last photo, who had just ridden in, was they guy in the hospital with Ken.

I kept telling myself, “These people are crazy”, but every indication was against that. Everyone seemed level headed and as normal as you or I.”

Update 12:15 AM EDT:

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Speaking of PIG country, OCIN’s Matthew Robbins (cedarcreek) tracked down the team outside of Troy, Ohio and phoned in this picture of Ken and Pete. Thanks, Matthew!

Update 7:25 EDT:

Just some miscellaneous things…Brad’s parents met up with the team outside of Indianapolis.

By Eddie’s count, there have been eight flat tires in the last 36 hours. They stopped by a bike store today and bought ten more.

The storms have cooled things off and lowered the humidity to a more comfortable level.

Sandy has landed in Indianapolis and is heading towards Troy in a rental car. She was about an hour later than expected due to delays caused by storms.

The team which Team Nor’easter has spent the most time near is #201. Interesting that this is the team who’s R.N. came to Ken’s aid after the accident. Team Nor’easter and Cheniere’s Making Cancer History Team have been within ~30 minutes of each other for the last 700 miles.

Dave P. reports the following: “Last night around midnight we passed a power station along the Missouri River. Dave N. was riding and he said the noise from the stations was a low bass like hum. Kind of like the aliens were coming through the fog to get us.”

Dave P. also writes something along the lines of what I have been thinking all along: “This is a real trip. I can’t believe the will power of the boys to to get back on the bike every hour. Greg has been great, as Dave N. said, we should stop abusing the poor kid. I think about the times I have gone for a twenty mile ride and then was spent for the rest of the day. These guys are doing that every hour.”

Update 3:29 PM EDT: The riders were stopped by thunderstorms outside of Indianapolis. And, as I was talking to Pete, whoever was on the road was hit with another flat tire.

After attending Dennis’s high school graduation, Sandy is on schedule to drive herself from Indianapolis airport to CP 42 (Troy, Ohio) and will need to drop the rental car off at the Dayton airport.

Another excellent posting by Ken (kadley) on AttackPoint 11:20 AM EDT:

Many thanks to Spike, Rick and Fran for their recent help. The Micky’s D high fat diet works wonders for the spirits! It was good to see O friends and receive encouragement.

Coming out of the Ozarks was hard on crew and riders. Later on, we got into S Illinois where terrain flattened out and a bit more rest was had by all. The route runs on US 40 thru Dayton, OH. This parallels I-70, so the RV can move at a faster pace and get ahead for rest and services.

This morning we had a horrific scare when socked in by fog in the early dawn. Suddenly 3 tractor trailer gravel trucks came screaming by us on 2-lane US 40 at over 75 mph. Just as the first passed the van, a car appeared from the other dirrection. The truck cut us off and just missed Dave, who was 30′ in front of us. Dave had to swerve and went off the road and shoulder onto the grass. He made it back on the road just as trucks 2 and 3 went past. The car coming the other way must have gone onto his shoulder, or would have been smashed.

We got the tag number of #3, as well as the company owning the trucks. Discussed this with the local sheriff, who admitted trouble with this guy’s fleet of 20 drivers. This specific complaint may give him some urgency to slow the crew down.

A great report posted by Rick Armstrong (ricka) on Attackpoint on Monday morning:

Sunday evening, Fran and I met the team at Marthasville MO and at the Mississippi River (Time Stations #34 and 35). (We provided another Big Mac fix at #35.) 2/3 of journey completed.

The RV had a long stop at 34 (very hospitable family provided food and access to their house). Brad napped; Eddie fine-tuned Brad’s bike; Ken looked real good (don’t make him laugh though); Lex was tired but in good spirits as she struggled with finding best site along the way to dump gray and brown water from RV.

They reported tough biking and following in MO. Besides the weather, they had recently had 5 flats due to lots of stuff on shoulders. With narrow windy roads, traffic backed up quite a bit. Good navigation required with all the small roads used.

Dave rode strong past #34 as the 2nd vehicle stopped for 10 minutes. During the heat of the day, Dave and Greg had been trading off, giving Brad a chance to recuperate. Vehicles left together. In late day, Brad and Dave traded off.

Taking over an hour to drive to #35 highlighted the logistics problems with only two support vehicles. One is usually with rider, but other has a hard time getting a big jump ahead to stop and rest – especially if they have tasks to do. For example, the crew is troubling over how to get enough sleep. And Lex and Eddie report that trailing/protecting a rider is a tough way to drive across the USA 🙂 (especially at night). Eddie took some pictures of the Mississippi River Bridge at sunset.

Overall, they’re doing great! Illinois is very flat and good chance they had a tail wind with no rain last night.

Update 9:39 AM EDT: The first two teams reached Atlantic City, New Jersey this morning. In actual riding time, they were about 30 minutes apart, but they ended up closer because of penalties applied after finishing.

Team Nor’easter passed through the rest of Kansas, Missouri, and into Illinois in the last 24 hours. They reached the 2000 mile point after crossing over the Mississippi River just before midnight.

I spoke to Ken this morning. He said that the adrenalin was running high after a close call with a tractor trailer traveling at high speed, through those foggy conditions which occur at first light. The rider ended up driving onto the grassy area next to the road but stayed on his bike.