I Don't Want a Mini-Van!

I grew up watching my Dad and brother rebuild cars for fun (and sometimes out of necessity). I became familar with words such as "4 barrel carburetor", "big block", and "454"(ours was a Chevy household). And it was not uncommon for my brother to take me for a ride to test out some new or rebuilt engine component with the hood of the car completey removed. When I was in college, I met my to-be husband. He was an auto mechanic in highschool and college. After we were married we would spend our weekends in the "bone yard" looking for this or that. Or we would scour the papers trying to find a "numbers matching" fixer-upper. We came up with the down payment to our first house by buying, refurbishing, and reselling a 1978 corvette - Indy Pace Car edition. And the first car I bought with my own money was a 1994 Chevy Camaro (manual transmission of course).

You get the idea - I know and appreciate cars, especially those classic American muscle cars that you can feel and hear long before you can see. You know that scene at the end of the movie "Fast and Furious" when Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are drag racing - Paul is in some digitized rice burner and Vin is in the Charger? And then Vin pops a wheelie IN THE CHARGER when they take off from the line? That scene still gives me goosebumps. Nothing beats raw, mechanical, horse power.

So you can imagine my dismay when we got back from scouting the Hill Country 600 bike race and Leary suggested we get a mini van, gut it, and set it up as a support vehicle for RAAM. I was actually OK with that part. What I wasn't OK with was his follow up comment, "And then after RAAM you can drive it around and that can be your vehicle."

Huh?

Yeah, I don't think so. I don't "do" mini-vans. The closest I ever came to that was driving a Chevy Celebrity station wagon for one of my winter beaters when we lived in Minnesota. The definition of a winter beater is: it's a cheap car, front wheel drive, and if you end up sliding on ice and wrapping it around a telephone pole or flipping it into the ditch, no big deal. But what I quickly came to discover is that people TREATED me differently when I drove that station wagon. People would honk at me, cut me off, and pull out in front of me. I never had that problem when I drove my Camaro.

So I can only imagine what I would experience driving a mini-van. And quite frankly, I don't want to find out.

But something tells me that my goal of completing RAAM is bigger than my vehicular vanity. So don't be surprised if you read a future blog entitled "I am a Mini-Van Owner". Of course, I may change my tune if I ever see Vin Diesel pop a wheelie while driving a big block mini-van ;-)

Drum Roll...Announcing Team Galaxy's New Logo

HUGE thanks to Michelle Ryan of iDesign - Austin, Texas.
Some thoughts and concepts from Michelle that went into the overall design:

"My proposal for your team logo was inspired by the roads and signs you will see as your team journeys across the country. Think yield signs and cross roads.

The direction of the rider - why facing left? 1) The chainring looks like it's on the right. 2) Since you always ride on the right and pass on the left, your view of the rider should always be from the left side. 3) The only time you should see a rider from the right is if you are the one being passed. I can't imagine that's the impression you want to make.

The original image of the rider was male. I modified the nose, chin, neck, arms, bust and hair. It may not all be apparent, but it's much better."

We can't wait to get the logo on shirts, jerseys, and other cool stuff. We'll wear it proud!!!

Results of Recon

Fred, MJ, Leary, and I got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to head down to Helotes to check things out at the Hill Country 600k bike race. It was a great trip!! A few things we learned:




1. Endurance cyclists are a very laid back group of people. They are very friendly and willing to open up their vans (literally) so you can take pictures of their setup and stuff. They offer advice and help even though they have 10 minutes to race start OR they are waiting for their teammate to come in for an exchange.
2. It is amazing just how much stuff you can actually cram into a minivan.
3. Don't overthink. Sometimes it's better to not sweat the small stuff and just get out there and do it.
4. This is nothing like a triathlon event (thank heavens!)
5. Even though everyone was pretty laid back, they did not underestimate the size of the task that was ahead of them - 370 miles is a long way on a bike.
6. A picture is worth a thousand words. And between my and MJ's photos, we have captured over 290 thousand words! The photos will be great reference as we start planning for RAAM 2011 in earnest.
7. Always have fun along the way!

We compiled over 4 pages of notes from the trip (thanks to Leary's awesome note taking skills) and this was a great eye opener to see our first endurance bike race event - from setup and start, to watching the riders do an exchange and watching the support vehicles leapfrog. Watching the first timing station (at mile 42 in Medina) was very anti-climactic. As riders passed the brick phone utility building, one of their crew called in and essentially said "rider in at ZZZ time". That was it? Where's the timing mat? The official to log each person's time? I guess there is something to be said for honestly, huh.

As we drove home and I thought about all we saw, I had a little mini freak out. This was real. RAAM was real. What we were starting to plan for was real. 6-8 days cross country on a bike. That was VERY real. I took a deep breath. All things in good time. We'll get there. I don't know how. But we will get there.