Illegal Aiens

Jim and Jay had arrived in Flaggstaff, AZ in early the second night. Poor strategy surrounding an extended route that the RV could not travel, coupled with Jay's illness meant that both Jim and Jay were spent and would need several hours off the road to rest and recover. In addition, Jim had witnessed a tragic motorcycle accident that very nearly involved him and was emotionally spent as well. This would mean that Scott and I would be on the road for many hours into the night, functioning on little rest.

Arriving in Tuba City, AZ at 3:00 a.m. after 72 miles of mostly downhill, but headwinds, Scott F & I continued the trek towards Kayenta, AZ. Again bucking fierce headwinds and this portion being mostly uphill we arrived at the RV at 4:00 a.m. after completing a total of 115 miles and riding through the night. I had reached such a point of exhaustion that I fell asleep briefly on my bike during a slight descent only to be awakened by the bumps on the side of the road. I later fell asleep after stopping while resting on my aero bars. In fact, the entire team had reached such a point of exhaustion, we decided to take 3 hours off the road and allow all to sleep.

With limited sleeping areas in the RV, I was the last of the bike and decided to sleep in the back of the Suburban, falling asleep in my bicycling clothes. I awoke the next morning and looked around wondering where I was. After remembering that I was in the middle of a bicycle race and sleeping in the back of a Suburban, I sat up to look around and immediately thought it was 10:00 a.m. and we had lost all chance of beating our competition and qualifying for RAAM. After looking at my watch and realizing it was only 7:00 a.m. and we had only lost 3 hours, I sat up and looked across the field.

It was then that I noticed the face huddled in the weeds. As I looked closer (without my glasses) I saw that this face was trying desperately not to be noticed by the passing cars. I put two and two together realizing we were near the border (which we really weren't) and this face trying not to be noticed and concluded this was the leader of a group of aliens illegally crossing the border. In panic, I was trying to decide what to do to be sure they would not do anything untoward to our RV or team.

It was then that the face stood up and I realized that it was Jim out doing what nature intended not wanting to wake the rest of the troops in the RV. Needless to say, at this point, I was wide awake and the adrenaline was flowing. I already had my bicycling clothes on so I got on the bike and rode away!