I'm glad to announce that RAAM shouldn't have any road construction to muddle through in the Bloomington area, finally!  The only concern I see is aggravated motorists on the IN 45-46 four lane bypass around the Indiana University Campus.  The reason being is that there is now a 10 foot bike/pedestrian asphalt path beside it. So, riders and crew may get yelled at to use that!  But, it's summer time and most of the university traffic will be non-existent.  

YoHo's General Store in Solsberry (IN-43) is back in business in a huge way.  In the past the dilapidated general store was just a meeting place for all the farmers in the area.  Mr. Yoho always had gatorade, cokes, and candy bars around for his clients and all the area bicyclists.  He also had YooHoo drink, naturally, and a visitor could gather a lot of history based on some of the remaining sale items hanging around from forty to fifty years ago.  Mr. Yoho passed away about a year ago, and the Cook Foundation, a major philanthropy organization of Southern Indiana, has completely renovated it, while still trying to keep its old charm.

Mr. Yoho always talked fondly of "those bikers racing across the USA with crews of doctors and nurses measuring stuff on the racers."  I'm not sure of what he thought of seeing Jure Robic's Slovenian Army crew with their traditional music blaring, very similar to scenes from the movie Red Dawn  (Sidenote: Robic bypassed Solsberry illegally in the most controversial RAAM ever).  Nevertheless,  RAAM gave him lots of stories to tell all his old cronies around the pot belly stove the past few years before his death. 

I'm still at CVS at 510 South College Mall Rd, so the time station will still be there awaiting all the RAAM riders.  Our goal as always is be available for the racers and crews from the first participant to the last participant.  And, the world famous leader board will be here, too.

Dave Tanner won't be crewing this year but will be assisting me at Time Station #39.  Also, we have a blog: ts38bloomingtonin.blogspot.com 

Construction still at Bloomington TS 39

You'd think that after 1 and 1/2 years of construction a 4 mile state road construction would be finished. Well, it's not - not until November of 2012. It just might be due to the feud that Bloomington is having with Governor Daniels and the I-69 project. Those Republicans really want to fu** with us hippies in Shangrila, Indiana. I wonder if Boulder has the same problem? Well, the construction crew assures me that it should be all "done" before RAAM gets here or else I'll have to recommend that all racers bring along a mountain bike!

I should run for President

And my sole platform would be nationwide WIFI for all of America. Call me cheap, but no way am I going to buy 3G when I'm a block away from Panara, Steak and Shake, etc, etc. Well, maybe it's just RAAM's website, 'cause I'm typing this blog without a problem. Getting WIFI has again been a problem this year but it's hit n skip which is even more frustrating.
We had a great day yesterday. So great that I didn't have time to blog out. The teams were starting to come in, and Leah Goldstein, solo woman, came through, She's riding real strong but she's now lost her neck muscles and can't lift up the neck at all. Seems kind of dangerous. I lost my photographer, Sylvia or else I would've put a pic of Leah and her neck. You'll have to wait for the end of RAAM highlights.
I missed just 1 team last night at 4am. I had to go home and sleep at least 3 hours in a bed for the first time in 3 days! I was back at the tent at 5am, and we've been busy ever since. The parking lot looks like a Tom Raper RV outlet mall!
Well, now I have to work 12noon till 10pm.

naptime

We cheered on four more male soloists they were supposed to start coming in at 2:45am, but instead Marko Baloh and Alberto Blanco arrived at 4:45am. They both slept for and hour and half. Gerhard Gulewicz blew through our time station looking fancy and dapper like always with a smile on his face as he came thru at 5:30am. We'll see who establishes himself as the 2nd place holder!
Mark Pattinson was supposed to get in at 8am but it was more like 11am. Boy, is my schedule messed up!

Waiting in the darkness

After a great pizza at Mother Bears we got up at 2am to get out to the tent to await #2 to #4 who are neck and neck. That's Marko Baloh, Gerhard Gulewicz, and Alberto Blanco. Well, it's 4:23am and no one yet! There's a lot of construction here in Bloomington, but all the crew have been complaining about the terrible directions in their map book starting east of the Mississippi River. I hope our time station is a sight for sore eyes. It is in the largest city that RAAM comes through and I hope our hospitality is of Hoosier standard.

The dark horse in the afternoon

After hurrying to set up the tent for the Austrian Rabbit, Christoph Strasser, he came through at 3:30pm Tuesday while I was working at the local CVS behind the RAAM Time Station. Strasser is riding a record pace and just may break Pete Penseyre's 20 year old record.

It's Started

The SOLO RAAM has started. They are in Arizona and maybe Colorado by now. We'll be waiting for them at TS 39 come Tuesday. Baloh and Christof are looking to be the favorites, but it's still quite early. Dani Wyss has won the Race Across the West. How about Race Across the East?