A huge thank you goes out to Mike and Mary, who on very short notice, jumped in and took one for the team! Mary picked up Dave P. from the airport, and housed him overnight. Then Mike drove 3 hours to make the crew exchange, hung out for about 20 minutes, and drove 3 hours back home with Sandy, and also got her to the airport for her flight to Philadelphia.
Mike took these pictures near Camdenton, Missouri on Sunday.

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Brad and Dave rest & fuel up while Greg does a pull.
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Lex and Eddie, two members of the superb Nor’easter crew.

(Photos courtesy of Michael Eglinski.)

A report from Sandy at 3:38 PM EDT: Last night was really hard on the riders – there were some brief, but quite severe thunderstorms in the late evening forcing a couple unplanned stops. The roads were very rough (lots of loose gravel, rumble strips, uneven surfaces) on top of being wet and the riders smartly chose to slow it down and be safe. The morning sun and the arrival of the McDonald’s sumptous feast via Mike Eglinski revived some flagging spirits.

Ken is feeling well enough to start contributing as an active crew member which, together with the arrival of Dave P. who isn’t sleep deprived, will give the crew a little bit of breathing room.

Some random thoughts…
Each rider has had at least one flat with Greg having 3 I think. Eddie has been doing duty as chief bike mechanic with Dave Nash doing a fair share of the work as well.

We made a foray to a nearby Walmart last night to buy spare parts for the lighting system on top of the follow van which was occasionally going on the fritz. It’s working fine now and we think the heavy rains may have gotten something wet.

Update 2:47 EDT: After returning form the crew exchange zone, Mike posted this:

I did my small part to help Team NorEaster in the bike Race Across America. This morning, I shuttled a new crew member, Dave, down to the race route and brought Sandy back to Kansas City after she’d been a crew member since the beginning of the race.

Here is a short video clip* of Greg (probably best known among orienteers as the creator of CatchingFeatures). The video is from the highway a bit east of Collins, Missouri. It was inspiring to see the team. They looked good. Well, not really good, but not as bad as you might expect after riding so far.

*You’ll have to go to Mike’s Blog , the Sunday, June 18, 2006 entry, to view the video.

Ron Grayson, crew member for the first part of the journey, posted this on AttackPoint on Sunday morning:

Hi all: been following team progress since departing at Prescott. Great going!! Have posted some pix from Sunday’s pre-race parade and first 2 days (Tues, Wed) on my yahoo albums page.

Go TN.

(Editor: Ron’s pictures include a picture of Dave Nash’s white minivan. Now that I have seen the size of the van being used, I am even more impressed on how well the team did for those 48 hours when the van was home for 4-5 people.)

Update 2:42 PM EDT: Sandy and Dave P. have switched places successfully, and Sandy is having a nap at Mike and Mary’s before catching her flight home. She’ll be attending her son’s high school graduation tomorrow.

Mike E. (Spike) has driven Dave P. (StoraMoo) down from Kansas City, Missouri to make the crew exchange – Dave P. for Sandy. The riders are between CP 31 (Collins, MO) and CP 32 (Camdenton, MO). After making phone contact with the crew vehicle, and determining that they were just behind them, Mike and Dave P. were asked to stop at McD’s for about $40 of breakfast items for the riders/crew. Now that’s what I call service – a crew member and food delivery!

I wasn’t sure if this exchange was going to fall in place or not, so I am pleased it has worked out.

Update 1:25 PM EDT: The team was harmed by the wind on the first day when Ken was blown off his bike. Today, crossing Kansas, they have a tailwind and are making amazing progress recording another top split 5 into CP #26!

Update 12:55 PM EDT: With all but 3 teams through CP #25, Team Nor’easter recorded the 2nd best split for all teams & individual tradition riders for that CP!

Updated split data through CP #25 (teams & non Enduro individuals) is here in a spreadsheet or the same file in html. Just the minimum data for CP rankings this time. I hope to do stuff for overall and by division later on.

The team is almost to Pratt, KS (CP #26) where they will have the option of partaking in some free McD’s.

Update 10:45 EDT: I had a long conversation with Pete Dady at CP #23 in Ulysses, Kansas at 6 AM this morning. He wanted to know what I was doing up already. 🙂 Well, I was meeting a friend for a run this morning around Burke Lake. We did two loops for a total of 10 miles. Yeah!

Well, enough about me and back to the bike race…

The RV with Sandy, Lex, and Ken caught up to the riders at about 4 AM on Friday morning. So, the crew has been back together for 1+ days, and things are going smoothly. The riders are making such good time that Pete missed seeing them as they came through Ulysses because he thought he had about 30 minutes, so he went inside for a shower. But the rider and chase vehicle came through about 15 minutes earlier than expected. Pete reports that Ulysses was an excellent check point.

He says that they got only a little rain overnight.

I spoke to Ken at 10:10 AM EDT. They are at CP #25 waiting for the team to arrive. As we were talking, he was helping Lex maneuver the RV into a shady spot. It is currently 70 degrees with 70% humidity in CP #25, Mullinville, Kansas which is where the team has just passed through at 10:56 EDT as I was composing this…

They have had little cell coverage and hope to get the pictures to me when they get to Wichita, Kansas…

Dave Pruden has arrived in Kansas City, Missouri and is staying with Mary J. (maprunner) and Mike E. (spike) for the night. It looks like they will drive him to Jefferson City, Missouri in the morning to make a player trade (Dave P. for Sandy). Sandy will fly home to Philadelphia to attend her son’s graduation on Monday. Then she’ll need to figure out a way to get back in the game.

Wyatt posted on AttackPoint: Looks like JDRF has been passed, and 2CURE – HD has only has a few hours left before Nor’Easter has them too 🙂 (Editor: Team Nor’easter is also gaining on two other teams, a 2 Person Male team and a 4 Person Male team.)
3’s enough that the team members can get real sleep in the van, right?

Ken’s response and an update was posted on AttackPoint at 9 PM EDT: Latest update. Brad left Trinidad, CO about an hour ago. The other riders hung around while we cooked up hot spaghetti and served some roast chicken from the Safeway next to the checkpoint.

Everyone is feeling in strong spirits and doing well. As has been suspected, a key challenge is making sure everyone gets enough sleep. Our original plans have been rendered impossible by my crash. We have settled onto longer pulls, about an hour, that give two hours for napping. Some flat sections are running longer and the off duty riders are getting more rest. Greg had 2 hours of solid sleep this afternoon, and Dave is trying to do that now.

We just came over a small crest in CO 160 and the road just stretches out straight across the grassland. This section has a few small rises, but the next runs 72 miles in a slight downgrade, dropping 1,500 feet. One stretch goes 35 miles without a turn. This should be good for a low stress overnight ride.

Best all — Ken

Update 4:05 PM EDT: Team Nor’easter has hammered through another CP, and have cut the lead of the team directly ahead of them (2CURE – HD) from 2:40 to 1:33 through CP #19.

The split data I created for all of the riders (teams & non Enduro individuals) is here in a spreadsheet or the same file in html. The rank data is good through CP 16 (the last SP Team Nor’easter was through when I created it). I’ll update it again tomorrow when more CPs have been completed.