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The Start, Day 1,2 and 3 sort of.

Sunday July 3
Captain Gary arrived late afternoon Sunday.  We loaded scooters and equipment with some last minute sorting of parts and equipment. Took him out to "his type of place" , a meat and two sides Tripps but it was closed. So we wound up at the Casual Clam with more food than we could eat

Monday July 4 Squadra Lumaca on the move.
Monday we pulled the trailer out of the hanger, hooked up and jumped right into the 4th of July traffic. Vicki had left two days ago to visit Deb in Jacksonville and both of them will meet us in Amelia Island for the start. Cheryl is enroute from Texas, Walt went up yesterday with his wife Helen and Bill lives in Jacksonville, so for all particle purposes he is already there. 

Wednesday Day 3 Lebanon TN
I know you are asking what happened to day 1 and 2?  Me too. It has been more than hectic. I am running a support team as well as riding and it has been all consuming, plus riding long days, plus old friends showing to visit at the hotel, plus the monsoon that has been running here since yesterday afternoon and it is 5 AM now and still lightening and raining. I have been just trying to fit in the sleep part.

Today is a short day of 266 miles, everything with the team and our riders is in the  groove.  Not so with all the riders. Lot of mechanical problems and when I went to bed last night some were still out there in the storm somewhere.

Three of our four riders (6:30 and as we are talking a fellow rider comes in to discuss weather and the route. Now back to the story)  are in the top ten.  But remember, it is still a long way to the end.

So tonight I will try and catch up.










Ok, it is 6 PM and I will try and catch up.  Today was the easiest, well the shortest day. To bad it did not turn out that way. The rain last night washed out bridges, flooded roads and knocked down trees.
Every bridge with any water under it had come of the roads.  It was a mess, but we pressed on. Walt started with me but his new GPS he bought last night because the other one broke, would not run on old power cord and he discovered it about 5 miles into the ride. So he turned around to go run down the support vehicle that had the new GPS's power cord. The good news is he could go back and start that leg all over again with no lose of time. He caught back up. with me a few hours later. He is riding faster because he has a chance of winning.  He went away and then came back later and we rode together for awhile.
He lead me astray and then, when back on course, he ran a red light and I never saw him again until the end of the day. With only a few  hours left to ride and around 90 miles a very strong thunderstorm came up. I started to challenge it but quickly turned around an ran back just a few hundred yards to our Check Point 3 which just happened to be a dinner.....with a buffet.  This would work out nice as if this was going to be anything like yesterday I was going to be there a long time. Fortunately the worst blew through quickly and I was back on the road with just light to moderate rain.  I did not even get wet.
There is so much more to tell but so little time, so I will just go to the pictures.

 This is the first time Big Red has ever been hauled to the start of a Cannonball.  He ain't happy.
 A roadside check.
 
 

 Guess what kind of truck this tire is on?
 
 
 
This is Doug, better known as "old as dirt". He is a great guy and a great  friend. We raced together from Alaska in the 2012. He almost won. He drove from his home in Tennessee to NC to set at Day 2 Checkpoint 2 all day and hand out cold water and put Tail of the Dragon decals on every scooter that stopped. For me I got full service. He cleaned my helmet visor and filled up my gas tank.  I can say enough about him and Will who you will meet a few pictures down. They are great people!!
 
 

 Mark and Matt at the computer are  two of the organizers. Each night they take our times, put them in the computer and tell us who is ahead. In the corner is Will. He was our support driver in from Alaska and a hell of nice guy. He drove in from Nashville with beer and BBQ.
 
 These following pictures reflect the weather. I passed some much worse areas, but navigating them at 70 mph does not leave room for photos
 
 



 Bill blowing by me at check point 1. "I don't care if I win"
 



 This is just after that red gas can of Walt's jumped off and went sliding down the highway standing straight up

The  on the left is check point three and where I sought refuge.
 







 The mighty Mississippi