RAAM 2011 reports:

Click here for Caroline's RAAM-site pictures

Saturday 18-6; Short Facebook-reports from Virginia.

Spending the night in Durango, CO. We all get to shower!!! I can't wait! Then it's dinner, a camp fire, beverages, and laughter.

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And many thanks to all of you for your support. It was so appreciated by Caroline and the crew.

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Really unfortunate to report this, but at noon today Caroline decided to call the race off. She was really suffering from the side effects of heat stroke and became very sick. She has been well taken care of and is fine now, resting as we drive North. We are all really proud of Caroline. Both for her efforts and realising that her safety was starting to be compromised while on the road.

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Friday 17-6; Short Facebook-reports from Virginia.

Big thanks to everyone, I don't always have time to reply, but we are reading and relaying all messages here, and they certainly mean alot.
Love Beams from the road!

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Caroline update - she is almost to mile 675 at Keyenta, AZ. Not going to lie, we ran into some heat stroke and dehydration problems that finally caught up with her. She is struggling at the moment. But there are all sorts of low points in RAAM. What goes down must go back up. More updates to come. Fingers and toes crossed. We have to make it to Durango, CO. (875 mile marker) by 6:00am EST tomorrow. Pressure is on.

 

Friday 17-6; an UPDATE from RAAM by Virginia:

Finally, wireless access! RAAM has a copious amount of adventure, lack
of sleep, good people, and beautiful rural county side that is without
any internet access.

I just came of the road after a 17hr shift, so bare with me.

As I sit and write this update, the crew is treating themselves to
MacDonald's in Flagstaff, Arizona. Caroline came into the time station 9
at 535 miles (in Flagstaff) at 7:00pm EST (RAAM time).

We have had a great race so far, albeit at the moment Caroline has
definitely hit a wall, to be expected once in a while on RAAM. We
started on Tuesday at 12:00PM in Ocean side, California and made our way
up the hills of California to the Glass Elevator decent into the
California desert. At the top of the Glass Elevator, the temperature was
90 degrees…by the time we had made 5000 feet to the bottom (which is a
main entrance into the California Desert) the temperature had risen 25
degrees. We had entered a sauna and it hit us all like a wall.

Caroline enjoys the heat, but even she, understandably, by the end of
the day was really suffering. And of course in this sort of heat it
takes it's toll on the crew as well. Key is for everyone to stay healthy
in order to take care of each other, and Caroline.

There were five women, including Caroline, who started the race.
Unfortunately Janet Christiansen has just dropped out, one of her
competitors is four time stations back (which unless she is built like a
rocket, means that she is not going to make the first cut off point).
Caroline is currently resting in the RV, she is showered, sleeping, and
will have a calorie filled dinner and be on her way. Her other two
competitors are not too far ahead, so from a comparative pace
perspective things are feeling fine at this point, but we have a major
mile marker to make it to by Friday at 6:00am EST. This is a cut off
point, as is the 2000 mile marker and the finish line at 3000 miles. If
she does not make it to the 1000 mile marker on time, she is
automatically disqualified. So, the pressure is on for all teams at this
point. We have a great crew, everyone is working really hard, and having fun along the way. We all really want too see Caroline make it in record time!
We have been lucky with weather so far, despite the unbearable heat yesterday, we have had sunny blue skies, and a dry heat the rest of the route.
Caroline has enjoyed the scenery, particularly today. Overall she is great, if you were to pass her on the street you would never know that she has been on a bike for 54hrs!
All in all, RAAM is treating us well. Caroline will be leaving time station 9 very soon, and will head down hill with the wind at her back all the way to Tuba City, AZ.
The next time I write, I promise to sleep first!
All the best from Team Caroline!

Best,
Virginia

Thursday 16-6; another report from Virginia:

Caroline has cycled just over 535 miles, we are on route to time station 9 in Flagstaff, AZ. Caroline will climb to 7006 feet within this time station alone! Nice and cool today at 90! Crew in the follow van are great, just had a quick sleep for an hour, and now on route in a van surrounded by boxes of avacados!

 

Thursday 16-6; Short Facebook-reports from Virginia.

News, live-facebook, from Virginia

32.7 miles in, climbing the hills of California - the wind is at Caroline's back, temperature is comfortable at 85. I'm sitting in the lead car with Fred, Alison, and Paul. RV kids are still in Oceanside, gearing up, and learning how to use the navigation system/book. The women are all looking good. Janet Christiansen shot straight out of the gate and is, as usual, in the lead so far.

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Caroline just crossed time station 1, Lake Henshaw, CA. Only 51 left to go! Follow the race at www.raamrace.org

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Caroline is rocking! We just arrived in the "sauna" also known as 'Christmas Circle' in the California Desert. In one simple decent the temperature shot up roughly 20 degrees! We are HOT!!!!!

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? 100 deg. at 7pm! Yeow!!!

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Heading into night one. Plan is to put Caroline down for her first sleep at 4am. Caroline is doing really well so far. Smooth sailing towards the Arizona state line.

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Did Caroline sleep ?? Virginia : yes, 90 minutes.

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Approaching time station Salome, Arizona. Temperature outside is 115, pavement heat is 140, no A/C. Luckily Caroline enjoys the heat.

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A taste of the route book. Each time station is 50 - 80 miles apart. From one to another the book gives us one page of directions, step by step. Fool proof..until the last few days when fatigue really sets in.

 

Tuesday 14-6; We are ready:

Sunday 12-6; At 5 am this morning. Happy to see them!

 

Today, thursday I was with Paul in Melanies place. She is incredible! Such an inspiration! Her family is so positive and amazing! We are moving mountains and she is moving Mt everest! I'm so happy that I went!

Thanks Paul for being a part of this!

 

On Wednesday June 8, I am leaving to Florida, to Paul a crew member.

He is treating a little 5 year old girl. She is now 4 years older then her expected survival date. She has a very uncommon condition. She began to loose motor control of her muscles. She is on a ventilator for 3-4 years. She is unable to move her cheeks or tongue. He has ability to move her eyes.just this past month she lost her facial nerve innervation, which has eliminated the ability to smile. She had an incredible fighting spirit.. She works heavily every day. Paul works with her since January and now she can open her hand and move the fingers independently. This is huge. She will likely loose her eye control and when that goes, she would not able to use her comoputer.now that her hands are working again, she has an option to use the mouse switches to replace her eyes when time comes.her condition does not limit her cognitive processes. If I could muster the drive what she has just for one day, I could win Raam without sleeping and have no ill effects! She is a true champion of the human race.

I'm going to visit her and bring a picture of me ,what she wanted to have, in person. She will be an inspiration for me, also during the hard times in my race.

On Friday we flight ot San Diego were we meet Kalleen on Saturday. On Sunday the crew will arrive and we stay all together until the start.

 

Live life, love life

Caroline

 

 

 

 

RAAM reports :

June, 23 : From Caroline herself:

Early in the morning we came home in Huntsville. The ride home went good. No problems on the border. I slept most of the time in the Grey Turtle. We were all tired and dove in our beds. In the last day I did a lot of thinking. One one side I was proud that I did reach the finish line. On the other side I was disappointed that it was not in the time limit. I was very upset that I had to 'wait' 8 hrs on that one day that we had the storm and the waiting on the gas station. This is not about being right or wrong, but about what is fair. When the organization is promising me to give me the waiting hrs back, then I found it not fair that they did not do that. I like to race a gain , but first 'we need to talk' This race was a great experience for me. I am recovering very fast. Legs are good\ and I need to sleep a lot. My eyes are getting better and soon I go for two weeks to Holland for, reunion, dentist and family. In the evening Iwas invited for a councilor meeting in Huntsville, The mayor was there and gave me a 'muskoks' book with a personal note in it.

Caroline

 

June, 21 : The last crew-update from Virginia:

Hello from Annapolis!

Well, we made it! What a ride it has been! Although Caroline did cross the finish line, she was three hours past the cut off (see caption below) so she did not finish "officially" but the finish line was still amazing! In fact, I think she had more people there than people usually do. Everyone was so excited for her, from her crew to perfect strangers. It was a great finish line! And no one treated it any differently than reaching an "official finish, even the owner of the race explained at the finish line that just finishing is amazing, in the last 27 years only 220 people have finished the solo race.Some

It is not called "The hardest race in the world" for nothing. There were lots of challenges along the way, not to mention that sleep deprivation changes you, both Caroline and the crew. Oh well, lack of sleep kept us on our toes! Caroline averaged 40 minutes of sleep a day, the crew would sleep in intervals of catnaps, 1hr, 2hr, 4hr. If you were lucky once or twice you may have slept for six hours. But that was a real stroke of luck:)

"Caroline van den Bulk did not complete the RAAM course in the time requirement. She ended her official RAAM race at Time Station #52 in Mt.
Airy, Maryland, but at this time is completing the route to the finish line in Annapolis. Caroline completed 2,959.6 miles of the race in 12 days, 21 hours, and 10 minutes."

I have to say being at that finish line has been one of the coolest experiences I have shared with a team of people. I was totally shaking while trying to take shots with the camera, I was just so excited for her. It was incredible, and Caroline was happy, smiling,and rode across the finish line at sunset, and then jumped into the Atlantic!

A piece of the finish line was cut off for Caroline to keep, as a token of a rider who is given notice of an official DNF (official Did Not Finish)and decides to keep going anyway. the last person who they did this for was a solo man 1998.

Lots of riders who finished throughout the day all drove back to the finish line form their hotels to cheer her through so that was great. And there were quite a few young families with their kids (particularly young girls) that came down to see "the" female rider cross the finish line.

And she still had no pain, and the eye drops I found for her in WV finally worked to help her eyes.

Unfortunately Janet Christiansen had to stop due to medical reasons close to the end, so Caroline was the only solo woman this year that crossed the finish line. Our fellow Canadian's did well too, Ryan Correy of Calgary was this years youngest finalist at 25.

After arriving to the peer in Annapolis, we went out and celebrated and shared in the excitement with many other riders, crew, media, officials and forth.

It was a great ride. Caroline was incredible to watch. The country side was amazing. The crew was amazing. Between our crew, and the others that you get to know in a race like this we have met a lot of really cool people.

Some of us have made good connections both personally and professionally. I loved the experience, and have found a new network to be a part of with my camera and skill sets. RAAM is just one ultra cycling event, seems like a great way to see the world.

As for Caroline, she will be updating her site when she gets home, and add to the stories. When asked if she will be back in 2009, she did not give a straight answer yet...we will see:)

See you back in Muskoka!

Virginia Hastings

June, 21 : The last report from the RAAM site:

THE SUN SET ON RAAM 2008: Caroline Van den bulk rode into Annapolis this evening, just before sunset, as the very last rider, marking the end of the 27th Annual Race Across America.

It was a bitter sweet moment for Caroline Van den bulk when she reached the Race Across America finish line this evening. For although she had completed the 3014 mile course of this 27th annual event, she unfortunately missed the official cut-off by nearly three hours. So she missed out on getting the finisher's medal and the presentation ceremony that goes with it. She did receive the accolades of the crowd, which actually, was larger than those in attendance for some of the official finishers.

 CAPTION: THE BEST CREW.. Carline Van den Bulk and the crew that helped her, motivated her, coached her, fed her and did everything but carry her to get her to the finish.

After riding under the finish banner she stopped and was instantly embraced one by one by each of her crew members. She thanked them all, calling them the best crew I could ever think about having, and she especially thanked her personal trainer Andrew Urban, who she calls When you do this race you get where you don't know anything of what you are doing, except for pedaling. Without him I would not be standing here. He was my brain!

Urban was with her for her '07 RAAM assault which ended in Colorado . And it appears his training has helped her to improve, It felt very good that moment when I pass the place where I stopped last year. And it felt great! And then shortly after that we had the halfway point. The halfway point in Kansas is a minor victory that comes at a time when RAAM riders need it most, for like many racers, Van den Bulk called Kansas the hardest section, Because it is so boring. Just nothing forever!

 Many RAAM pundits had been concerned about her ever since she took to walking toward the summit of the highest climb on this year's RAAM, La Manga Pass , at 10,275 feet . Yeah, I didn't want to kill myself, she said of her time spent walking, So I walked for a couple of minutes. Once over the summit she enjoyed a long descent, Where you can pedal without much effort, very good recovery. It was very fast and I had to wait for my follow car!

 The days after Colorado have been much like that day, up and down. She had good miles, bad miles, took a spill and skinned a knee. Some nights, despite her fatigue, she couldn't get to sleep, I stop for sleep, lay down, but only get twelve minutes sleep. But in the end she's glad that she did it. I always say, I am doing things that other people are dreaming of. But for this one, you need to be prepared. In some races they joke, ‘If you are not ready for this, stay home.' I think this one is the most serious. If you have money enough and time enough and support enough of course you can come out and try something out.  But if you are not really prepared, forget it.

 

June, 20 : from the RAAM site :

Caroline van den Bulk did not complete the RAAM course in the time requirement. She ended her official RAAM race at Time Station #52 in Mt. Airy, Maryland, but at this time is completing the route to the finish line in Annapolis. Caroline completed 2,959.6 miles of the race in 12 days, 21 hours, and 10 minutes. Please stay tuned to the RAAM blog for more details from Caroline and her crew from Annapolis later today.

June, 20 : Unfortunately Caroline didn't make it to the finish in time ! more news will follow.

June, 20 : 130 miles to go !!

June, 19 : She now is the only woman solo left in the race. She is at Timestation 48 ...220 difficult miles to go !!

June, 19 : 360 miles to go !!

June, 18 : from the RAAM site :

One look at Caroline van den Bulks website and you know her goal is simple. The Canadian bike shop owner wants to finish. Now, less than a day from Maryland, her dream looks like it will be realized. van den Bulk has pushed through the Californian desert, suffered the heat of Monument valley, gone through the monotonous flats of the Midwest, and now is facing the steep climbs of the West Virginia back country. Despite a fall earlier in the race she is still riding strong. Annapolis is in site for Caroline van den Bulk, and she is still pedaling.

June, 17 : Read the latest update from Virginia :

Hello Hello from Indiana! So, big things are brewing:)This morning at 3:30am Caroline made the 2000 mile marker ahead of schedule by 1.5 hrs! We are all totally pumped for her. Right now she is having her first sleep in a bed for three hours! We will see what this is like waking up, hopefully not to hard. Caroline is of course tired, but today I was in the passenger seat and she waved me up to talk to keep her awake, so we did this as much as we were allowed and I of course filmed everything. There are a lot of officials around, with the amount of officials there are you sort of feel the same way as driving between Huntsville and TO with all the cops waiting for you. They are everywhere:) Six penalties and you are officially disqualified. We have three so far, and one pending. Two of these were really caused by complete fatigue of Caroline, in talking with other crews this seems to be quite normal. In catching up with Caroline this morning on the road she mentioned that she is still feeling great, happy to be on her bike, happy to be having this adventure, frustrated with being exhausted, but all in all she has no pain, which she credited to her trainer Andrew Urban. Some of the riders are starting to ride with neck braces, and back braces; Caroline's theory on no pain is that she spends 364 days before the race with Andrew producing her "built in" braces, which so far this theory holds up! So we have no pains, but we do have fatigue, and that is bloody interesting to watch! Yesterday during filming Caroline made one of several sudden stops that have happened over the last 24 hours especially, because she was hallucinating. My personal favourite was when she pulled over to ask why we were going twice around the same loop (yesterday in the farm lands of MO). All the while while she was very much out of sorts she looked at me and said, "it's just like where you live in Hidden Valley it is one big circle." All I could think was, we are 1900 miles into biking with almost zero sleep, she remembers from being at my house once, that I live in Hidden Valley. This crew compared to others has no drama, the real drama of this adventure is talking to Caroline and watching and hearing her go in and out of real life, and the place that all of these cyclists go at some point each day. But of course it is more and more common now. A special note and thank you to our hosts last night of time station 33, which is at their beautiful farm house in MO, everyone that passes through received a shower and a BBQ! And of course Fred utilized their kitchen to make Caroline her pancakes:) Yet again another really cool couple that welcomed us into their house. All in all, things are great, it is an adventure, I couldn't possible narrow it into these emails, all the more reason for the video:) Caroline is an amazing athlete and we are all super proud of her and excited for Annapolis! Will write again soon! Cheers! Virginia Hastings

June, 16 : A nice picture from the RAAM site:

June, 16 : She made it to the 2000 mile checkpoint in time !! 950 miles left !!

June, 16 : A nice picture from the RAAM site:

June ,15 : A small report rom the RAAM site:

Caroline Van De Bulk was still riding, gamely picking up time and ignoring the pain in her skinned knees and under her cracked helmet.

Van De Bulk lost the helmet, hurt her knee, lost time and was forced to forgo sleep after dumping her bike in heavy fog. So riding after 45 minutes of sleep, she still joked, “At least the pain in my right knee is distracting me from the soreness in my left!”

Competition is fierce, and no one wants to abandon the race they trained so hard for. Van De Bulk is just such a competitor, so watch for a strong finish from her.

June ,15 : And again a message from Virginia :

Well Caroline has reached time station 31 in Camdenton, MO! She has 1164 miles left! Which translates into being VERY close to the 2000 mile Check Point which Caroline has to make by 5:00am Monday morning. The 1000, 2000, and 3000 mile points have dead lines, time stations in between do not. Caroline is cruising! We have had no stops to hold us up, nothing really negative, things are going quite smoothly, but the hardest section of RAAM (the last 1000 miles) is still ahead. Caroline is in great spirits with a great sense of humour about things which we all figured out quite quickly you need to have. The only problem that she is having at this point is her eyes are extreamly sore and dry. So she is using eye drops a lot. Other than this she is fine, and this morning at 4am we tucked her in for a 45 minute sleep and she was saying she felt fine, just tired. All in all things are great for her. All for now!

June ,15 : Another message from Virginia :

Well Caroline has reached it to mile 1679! Last night she reached the half way marker in Pratt Kansas, and that was quite the celebration! I was in the shuttle behind her and the support vehicle reqruited a parking lot of strangers to be her cheering crowd with our crew! I think she felt really good, she was on a real high with lots of smiles and hugs from everyone. Last night she had a good sleep, unfortunetly it was a very deep sleep and Caroline had a hard time getting going this morning, but she is doing really great now! She is through the prairies which she is thankful for because I think she was having a real problem with boredom on the bike! She had two straight days of nothing to look at but grass. We are not close to leaving Kansas and entering Missouri...One state at a time! It is amazing to watch Caroline! The crew is doing well and yesterday had some really random moments, we first stopped at the Bucklin Cafe in Bucklin where the awesome owners let Fred use their kitchen to cook Caroline her mini pancakes (can not remember what you call them?), and that was comical, we filmed every minute. In Pratt Kansas at the half way point the time station is at the Pratt MacDonald's. where the owners feed all RAAM riders/crew/media, etc for free! So when the owner asked Fred "what can I get for you?" His reply was, "a Big Mac and a shower!" So, the owner replied with "no problem" and took us to her house where we used their shower and swam in their pool at 11:30 at night! Random acts of kindness have gone a long way on this trip! Anyhow, that is all for now!

June, 14 ; Again a film from the RAAM site :

Caroline van den Bulk chats with the media crew

June ,14 : A funny picture from the RAAM site:

Caroline van den Bulk looking at the McDonald's menu

 

June, 13 : The first update from Caroline's crewmember Virginia Hastings :

So we are on Day 5 of RAAM with Caroline, she is currently cycling across the Mid West and is in the prairies of Kansas state. So far Caroline has cycled 1394 miles!Which converts to 2172 km!

In California we had a great start with two others, the other female rider who is ahead, and Richard Rupp, who unfortunately took a fall coming down the Colorado Rockies and is out of the race.

Caroline is doing well, she has of course had her moments, of ups and downs, but overall she is in good spirits. I don't know how she does it.

In an interview I did with Caroline yesterday she said getting to 1000 miles, was a great moment, and that overall she feels good. She is not experiencing any pain, in her back, neck, arms, etc. which she was surprised at, just her knees. It also helps that she has a massage therapist and Osteopath on board with her. Her pains mostly include the obvious, saddle sores.

In California we experienced a great first day, with no real issues, and then we headed into the Arizona heat, Caroline cycled for about 8 hours day 2 in the core 97 degree heat. The Arizona Desert seemed like an endless battle for the crew, so I can not imagine what it felt like for the cyclists!

We have also gone through Day three was a big day as Caroline climbed 10,000 feet on her bike to the highest point of RAAM (which was in Colorado), remembering that these cyclists do this after spending two days biking through the desert heat. That evening Caroline reached the 1000 mile cut off, there are three stations that have to be met on time or the rider is disqualified; 1000, 2000, and 3000 mile markers.

Although she made the 1000 mile marker in time, she was given an extension due to the unsafe wind conditions that we experienced in the plains of New Mexico before the check point, where Caroline could literally not stay on her bike because the wind was so strong, the local station said that it was 40 miles per hour with gusts of 70 miles an hour, so during this "pause" of the clock, which RAAM officials will only do due to "Acts of God" Caroline took advantage of sleep and had her first real sleep, a few hours.

So then, we made it to the check point, and the clock was stopped again, and all riders wer held at the checkpoint because out on the highway was a car of dead beats that were attacking the cyclists of RAAM with sticks, and one of the riders was attacked particularly bad, he was hit over the head, his helmet cracked, and he was taken to the hospital, but returned the course.
In the mean time while that was happening the same people were high jacking the RV of that team. So, that was another three hour stop of the clock, a blessing for rest time. But that was scary, it was a parking lot of cyclists, crews, and police cars.

The first few days Caroline had a hard time sleeping and probably slept for twenty minutes on average a day.

The crew is amazing. We are all really enjoying each others company, Andrew, Caroline's trainer is doing a great job, as is crew chief Marjolaine. We work well together and have been told many times by Caroline how much she appreciates her great crew.

We have cruised through California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and now we are in Kansas.

I will try to update in the next 2 days.

Thanks!!!

Virginia Hastings

 

June, 13 ; again a short report from the RAAM site:

Time: 13:00 EDT Oklahoma posted by Lindsay McCormick At 11pm local time, we began our night patrol of the flat plains of Oklahoma. The wind was gusting as we came across Rob Morlock, Daniel Rudge, Caroline van de Bulk, Doug Levy and later, Ryan Correy. It seems the theme of the night is ‘Ugh!’ as our riders deal with problems ranging from some seriously strong head winds, sore throats, cold weather, even dead iPods- not to mention the general physical and mental exhaustion that comes with biking over 1,000 miles. The racers are holding strong though! Through thick and thin, tail winds or head winds, Morlock, Rudge, van du Bulk, Levy and Correy are pedaling on to Kansas.

June, 12 : Two pictures from the Raam site ...leaving the Rocky Mountains in Northeastern New Mexico:

June, 12 ; a short report from the RAAM site:

Time: 20:06 EST  -  Taos, NM

Just after the TS in Antonito, CO, we came upon 2nd place solo women's rider Canadian Caroline van den Bulk and her two crew vehicles stopped. A 30-40 mph West wind was so strong that she almost was blown over walking (with her bicycle) two miles from the time station. A crew member told us she was sleeping inside a vehicle, and that they may have to wait out the wind storm until evening. There was talk about getting her a heavy mountain bike to keep her light body from being blown over. The wind feels as strong as that wind that plagued riders across Kansas in 2006, but at least it is a West wind so there is only a 30 mile section of the route heading directly South (crosswind) until the route turns Southeast to Taos, NM.  

June, 11 ; A Youtube film from the RAAM site !

Some pictures from day 1 (from the RAAM-site) :

Just before the start and somewhere on the way

Ready to go !!! and downhill.

Some last Pictures before the start :

Caroline is ready to go!

:

The crew is ready too:

 

June 7:

Today it is a beatifull day again, nice sunny, but not too warm. After my morning swimand breakfast I went with the crew to the vehicle and bicycle inspection. Everything went well and everything was okay! I enjoyed a nice ice cream and I walked a bit on the Pier and the beach to relax. I'm not nervous at all! Allen did an intervieuw with me and after that we went back to the hotel for some food and rest. The crew did their shopping , cahnging oil for the cars and laundry. We are all very e4xcited and positive! At 5.oo pm we went to the race meeting were we saw all the other teams. We looked very sharp with the shirts and caps. After supper, a massage it was time to sleep. My last sleep in a real bed!!

Supper in the hotel

Rory is working on the bicycle, reflective tape on the frame, and in the wheels

Kirsty and Fred are putting reflection on the bicycle

Peter the bike holder man

Crew is putting race numbers on the vehicle

Andrew is preparing himself mentally

Andrew, Fred and Virginia. Virginia is getting ready with sunscreen for sunny California 

June 5

When we did wake up, sun was out, crew did arrive without any problems. Everyone is resting and relaxing, but still working on preperation for the vehicles. I had an interview with Virginia Today. Then a dive in the swimpool and on the end of the day a massage. After that time for a nap and food. Now time is going fast, only a short time to go. It is very nice to see how many people are thinking of me, I can see it in my guest book.

June 4

Today we had time to relax and rest. The traveling went well, but is still tirering. I do not have any problems with the time differnce of 3 hrs. I slept great. Erich, Virginia Andrew and I like this hotel. Service is great! Nothing is too much!!! We can even use a massage room in the spa! Virginia and Ercih went for some shopping, Fresh veggies and fruit. Good food is still important! We had a very interesting supper, with a server who was very 'strickt' and we did a good job to stay positive and we kept smiling. The crew arrived the next mroning at 3.00 5.00 am after 52 hrs of driving. Everything went well, no problems at all! Good sign. Nor crew has time for rest, rules and practising to find my gear etc. Todau, the 5th the weather is a blast!

Caroline relaxing on the beach in Carlsbad, California

Andre and Virginia on the San Diego Airport

At the airport (Toronto)

Ready to go !

Rory en Marj. 3.00 am in the morning by our house

 

SAN DIEGO, June 3

Early in the morning, at 3.15.am , we left Huntsville. Fully packed with 2 vegicles and 8 persons we drove towards Toronto. At the airport Andrew, Virginia and Caroline went out of the cars to get the flight to San Diego. With a bit of a delay we arrived in Vancouver, were we rushed to the gate for our next plane. Lucky we figured out that the plane had a delay and suddenly we had time enough to go in the plane. Virginia had a different flight and we did met her oat the San Diego airport. Together we traveled to the Shareton Hotel in Carlsbad (sponsored), 60 km from San Diego and 7 km from Oceanside were the start is. On the end of the day we did met Erich, who was on the road forthe last 4 weeks. We did not had any problems with 3 hrs time difference. After supper we were all ready for some sleep The 2 vehicles are now traveling non stop in 2 days to us.