It's midnight at time station 3 - 3:00 a.m. RAAM time. We are currently in third place - or were until we pulled into time station 3 without our rooftop red flashers working on the follow van. Apparently all the equipment the film crew was running out on the oulet in the van blew a fuse. Dave has run off to a truck stop to attempt to track one down. We cannot continue until we get the flashers working or day breaks. This is not good.

We have been riding very well, but our exchanges have been very slow and disorganized. I found myself passing the same teams every shift as they pass us in the exchanges.

As far as I can tell, nobody is sticking to the schedule we layed out and no one has tried to get any sleep yet. Not good.

On the upside, the lanscapes we have seen have been amazing - the very first hill was the longest we had ever seen and the descents are just fantastic. Oceanside seems forever ago.

And, on the up up side, here is a note that our pedal partner Julia sent us this morning just before the start (she has promised to send us an inspirational message each day):

"Here is the message for today:

"Climb high,
Climb far,
Your goal the sky,
Your aim the star!"

Good luck and remember you are helping or maybe even saving a child's life."

Time station 3 is now empty but for truckers parking their rigs for the night - all the teams have passed through.