Thanks Stephen

Because Juan, the other mechanic, is a little sick and I don’t have a truck license, I must go in the caravan every day. Not a real big deal, but it would be nice to relax and go to the hotel once in a while. Today Stephen Devriese (son of Julien Devriese our head mechanic) wanted to come to the race one day (today) and go in the caravan as the mechanic. He is a fairly good mechanic but is better known as our camper driver. Most camper drivers are sort of our assistant mechanics when they are done cleaning out their camper and washing it. So, a hearty thanks to Stephen for wanting to go in the car. That gives me a day to go to the hotel (with Juan and the hotel Soigneur) and at a relaxed pace and do a few things to catch up like glue tires etc.
Lame hotel award. The AC (a restaurant/hotel) is situated on top of the freeway. It is sort of an oasis/rest stop/gas-station/hotel/restaurant. It is on top AND in the middle of an over pass. There are lots of gas stops like this in the Midwest (like Chicago). None there are hotels though. I have now seen hotels that are at a rest stop on ONE side of the freeway (without access to the city) and this one which is accessible by both sides of the freeway (but again has no roads to the city). This hotel has hosted teams at last years race. So they know what hosting some race teams is like. This year (and I was told last year also) they wanted to charge each team for water use and power use. Crazy fools. What do they think they have, a water and power meter specifically for us? Can they actually tell how much power and water each different team is using? I DON’T THINK SO. We were supposed to wait till our team manager was to get here and then pay in advance (how much is not known by anyone) before we could start anything. Juan and I will not stand still for that action, so we just went out and started hooking up power cords and water hoses. I just walked (confidently) to the back of the hotel and plugged the hose and power cord and walked out. We are set! Bonus for today was watching the other teams working as Juan and I closed the door to the truck. Slow pokes.