This post is in honor of the crew. Those that train for their jobs like racers. Are held to the rules of RAAM as strictly as the racers. Without these members of the team a rider could not make it to Annapolis, MD.

What do they do?

• Mechanics- fix flats, all things bikes, gear, shoes, all about cables, lube and tire tubing.
• Drivers and navigators- move 3 vehicles with 15 people across the country safely, navigate all things from what the mileage will be for the next crews ride to where the whole crew will be meeting for crew exchange and sleep.
• Lead and follow vehicles-MAJOR for rider safety on all different dynamics of what the road will throw a rider. For every 2 woman team there are 4 crew members with them every minute they are on the road. These crew members move bikes on and off the rider van for every rider exchange (this has occurred on our trip about every 30minutes!!) they get their workout The follow van is required to have the rider in their headlights at all times from 7pm to 7 am. This means they literally follow behind the rider sometimes right on their back tire!
• Cooks- the logistics of feeding 15 people, 3 meals a day(sort of), on 2 different shifts at all hours of the day and night is mind blowing. Shopping, prepping, icing, storage it goes on and on.
• Crew Chief and Co-Crew Chief- the Last Word – they make sense of what many would consider to be organized chaos.
• We have also discovered that this crew can do amazing things with Duct Tape!!
  The Crew-
  Judy Thompson -Crew Chief
  Kirk Johnson – Co-Crew Chief
  Al Lemire
  Mike Murray
  Chris Thompson
  Mel Dick
  Deb Fregoso
  Cathy Gibson
  Kim Loosemore
  Denise Alveari
  Yvonne Arnold

Team Laughing Dog would like to Thank the families of these crew members for allowing them to be away and to help the team make it to the 3,000 mile mark and to bring awareness for the need of local and national help for those families affected by Autism.

We left Kansas with a bang, Literally! Lots of thunder, lightning and sideways blowing rain.

Riba Crane/Cook team finished their pull about 8 miles before the Missouri border. The vans brought them back to meet with the RV about 4:30 am to get them out of the storm. Now this morning the Pucci/Nye crew is going back to the place the others left off and will move forward through Missouri.

Everyone is safe, and still has their sense of humors…

We will do a full crew exchange and Arlene Cook and Kathi Riba Crane will take over and run their 100 +- miles as we make our way through Kansas.

Keep an eye on the spot tracker and pleas don’t forget to donate if you can.

So the Team endured the heat she threw at us with grace, or something close to it I’m sure. Then she decided that she wanted to blow a little hot air at us. Wait, I take that back… Mother Nature is a Blow Hard!

At around 7:30pm pst June 19, 2012 on Tuesday evening the wind picked up and by the time the “off” crew got to Pritchett Colorado in the motor home, we had experienced such high winds that it loosened the awning enough to make it completely unwind while driving and it was blowing over the top of the motorhome.

We stopped immediately and found out there isn’t anything duct tape can’t fix.

The riders on their bikes behind us at the time were Gina Pucci and Julie Nye. We radioed back to tell them what they would be approaching. High winds and dust storms. We were going to do a crew exchange in Pritchett, but the winds were slowing down the riders, so the motorhome was turned back 10 miles to a turnout to wait for the crew exchange and so that the riders weren’t completely spent.

At that point I hopped into the follow car with Mel and Kirk to see the action firsthand. Arlene Cook and Kathi Riba Crane were the team on their bikes at the time. The riders got wind … It was a strong crosswind with an occassional tailwind reprieve. Arlene was up first, she is a Powerhouse rider. She handled Mother Nature perfectly by leaning into the wind and owning it. That first leg she didn’t get much tailwind, but Kathie Riba Crane got into with  ”Mother” and she owned her too. This petite biker, packs a pretty big punch. She leaned into the crosswind and pedaled until she made a turn and there it was finally a tailwind! She was able to get up to 33 mph … Take that Mother Nature!

We made another crew exchange at 1:44 am pst June 20, 2012. Now I’m in the follow vehicle behind Gina Pucci and Julie Nye. Wind? Yes still a factor. Julie took off first, and made it look like there wasn’t any wind at all. Strong and confident, her comments after the ride, “that was Fun!!”. Gina is the last in this story to take on Mother Nature and in true Gina style… with a smile! She gets on her bike and goes and keeps on going. Not only did Gina have a monster crosswind she had to make a right turn directly into headwinds for the last 1/4 mile of the ride. She would tell me on a break that they were cussing the wind. Literally their bikes were slanted at an angle, they were working so hard against mother nature and in my…

The Superheros of Team Laughing Dog Won!

The Continental Divide the highest point of RAAM.

The Nye/Pucci team have taken over and will take us the next 95 miles to Blanca.

Some may know it as page 41-45 of the 2012 Official Route Book for the Worlds Toughest Bike Race. We just knew it as The First Challenge.

After the first rider exchange at Borrego Springs, Ca. the RV was headed to Palo Verde. The Crew Chiefs and riders decided on approximately 100 mile pulls for each team of two riders. That would mean a rider exchange in Palo Verde, Ca. This would mean about 6 1/2 hours of riding through the middle of agriculture land near the Mexico Border. Judy Thompson, Crew Chief and the Team decided that everyone, Racers & Drivers, all felt good so it would be a great start to push through to get a little jump on the next leg.

So the RV heads to Palo Verde and so do the riders. It was calculated that the riders would get in at approximately 12:30Am and the exchange would take place then on to Parker, Az.

Then it happened…

The RV gets a call from Kirk to tell us that there been a few “issues”. First, they had a couple of flats that needed repair and they were moving at a slower pace. So the RV would have to backtrack about 10 miles to meet up with them. Now as you know in a race you never really want to backtrack since it cost time and money, but sometimes can’t be helped. Once at the connect point the rider exchange occurs but…one more thing… one of the vans is having transmission trouble.

We proceed forward.

Next stop for the RV is Parker, Az. As fate would have it Parker at 4:00 am would be the place where a major decision would have to be made. The transmission on one van would no longer hold and the van would only go into forward. No reverse. The decision was made that Mel Dick and Deb Fregosa would drive the van to Phoenix and pick up a rental vehicle then catch up to us on the route to continue the race.

To do this the broken vehicle would have to be stripped of all it’s inventory, including food, equipment, storage container roof racks etc… This was done in the Walmart parking lot in Parker.

This transition occurred in less than 1 hour and by 7 am we all bid farewell to Mel and Deb as they made their way to Phoenix.

The other van with Kathi Riba Crane and Arlene Cook commenced their ride to Salome, Az. as did the RV.

Amazingly, there is a friend from Sandpoint who owns the Wayward Motel in Salome and they invited us to use their showers and hang in the glorious air conditioning. Thanks Janet and Randy!

Gina Pucci and Julie Nye took off from there to go another 56 miles to Congress, Az.

AND….Who do we find in Congress? MEL AND DEB! Woot! The stars must have been in alignment.

AND…. A Pool or the use of showers here to…I will personally tell you that shower felt terrific considering the average temperature during this adventure was 105 degrees!

Back to the ride…

The new vehicle had to be equipped with all official stickers and a new vehicle inspection was done by Internet, and we were off again.

Needless to say everyone was ready for 6/17/12 to be over. It didn’t actually get back on track until about 2:30 am on 6/18/12 when ALL Vehicles and the whole team finally converged on Sunset Crater Park in Flagstaff, Az. The team re-grouped back to the original order we were in at the start of the race less than 36 hours previously.

Even writing those words (36 Hours) doesn’t seem possible since the last 24 hours feels like 4 days!

This race is more than a few people going out for a bike ride. Its about Determination and Teamwork and I believe it comes from the fact that Team Laughing Dog has a mission to Race Across America not to win but to finish. Knowing it takes a team to do this as well as it takes a team to bring awareness about Autism and help families dealing with Autism through difficult times.

That’s TEAMWORK

These guys are familiar with RAAM and they are ready for anything that the bikes throw at them.  The racers could not complete a 6 hour pull much less a week long race without these mechanics who literally will be tuning and fixing the bikes through the whole race.

Well Mike, What do you think?

Kirk and Arlene's Bike...They have a new relationship

Al tuning up the wires in the follow van