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8.7.10

Late night navigation

I had just come off an 8 hour shift and was sprinting for my favorite berth above the RV cab,when I noticed Mike Bryant in the darkened cab tapping his pen and looking at the next pull. I asked him who his navigator was and to my dismay he said he was driving and navigating himself. I hated the navigating part of this job, and when I saw that the entire page was highlighted in yellow I offered to drive, but Mike said he was driving. Just to let everyone know, Someone on the team, I think it was Felicia, took the time and highlighted every turn on every page of every RAAM rout book. Again I offered to drive, and Mike said no. Off we go into the stormy night with me navigating. The first turn was missed when we came to the stone wall, telling us we missed our turn. I think we were in Kansas, but I really don't know. Anyway we were both relieved when we came into radio range of our two vans and riders. We got to the next time station a McDonald’s where a RAAM official greeted us with a Doppler radar report of the front that was following us. His recommendation was to wait and let the storm pass, but that was never an option for our guys. We pressed on as usual.

The pressure of navigating was intense and I had been having bad dreams for months about getting the team lost, I never offered to do it again but actually would have done anything needed to "Finish Strong".

Bob O.

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