In Missouri getting ready to roll out

Okay, so my plan to blog hasn’t really panned out. There just isn’t that much down time and when there is, sitting down and putting my thoughts together about the past several hours just isn’t a priority. I really do have an awesome story to tell. But at this point I am struggling to remember all of it. I am sure once I take a few mins to look back over the 600+ photos I have taken and the tweets we’ve been laying down, I will be able to put things together. There have been so many cool things that have happened, but with the fatigue that comes with only a few hours of sleep each day and really not even knowing what day it is, it’s been tough.

Here’s where we are and what’s to come. I’ve been navigating with Carl and we’ve been with Team Bake the last few shifts. Our last shift, which started around 11pm Tues and ended around 8am Weds, took us deep into Missouri. We started in Jefferson at TS #34 which is the capitol and headed east, crossing the Missouri River a few times and ended our shift at TS#35 just before crossing the Mississippi River in West Alton (148 miles I think). The terrain reminded me of home with steep, short climbs. It’s quite a contrast from the big mountains out west. The guys spent most of their time on the TT bike, but a few climbs called for the road bikes. We passed through lots of beautiful countryside, but most was virtually invisible since it was dark. However, when the sun began to rise, the corn fields opened up along the flat flood plain of eastern Missouri. This was the sketchiest place thus far when it comes to angry drivers. We got cussed a few times and people in general seemed disgruntled and bothered by our presence. But it was a good leg, the guys rolled fast and now we are all rested and readying ourselves for Team Shake to hand off the baton back to off to us as we roll out from TS 38 to end at TS 41(around 175 miles in this leg) where we will have only 613.5 miles to go. Team Bake will be getting the state-line points as we cross into Ohio sometime after dark. The miles are starting to tick away quickly as we get ever-so-closer to Annapolis. Spirits are high and the racers and crew are in a rhythm that’s unstoppable. Unless something unforeseen comes our way, we should be on-schedule to win and hopefully set a new record! More to come.