Tarzan may not ride.

If our friends at Fedex don't get their shit straight Tarzan may not ride accross the country.

I shipped my touring bike with Fedex last friday before I left for Calvins Challenge. It was on its way to San Deigo for the start of the tour. It made it as far as Pheonix before the package had some problems. Evidently the box had sustainted some sort of damage and the shipping label had been ripped off. Can't wait to see the inside of the package. :(

Here is where it gets interesting. The label underneath the shipping label had the box going to Arkansas Cycling and Fitness - the place that packaged my bike for me. The box had contained a Trek delivered to the store a month ago.

So I get a call this morning from Eric at ACF saying that Fedex Delivered my bike to him. Eric packed the bike so he would know whose bike it was, but when they called Fedex they wouldn't beleive Teresa our shipping clerk.

We are trying to get the bike picked up from the shop today and back on its way to California. It needs to be there by next Friday.

I think it would have been easier to collect the $6000 insurance on the bike and by one when I got to San Diego. I'm pretty sure this will be the last time I ship my bike anywhere and I already don't fly my bike anywhere. So I'll be restricted to races I can drive to.

Now on too better news. We are less than 36 hours away from the start of my Arkansas West-East-West crossing Record Attempt. With have all of the paperwork filed with the UMCA we have our Official Lanie Smith coming from Texas. I have my crew Trisha, Skip, Rachel, and Big Ralph ready for me to make this 380 mile trip in under 24 hours. We will be leaving from Texarkana where US-82 crosses the state line somewhere between midnight and 6 am depending on the weather and wind forcasts. We hope to make the West to east run in under 10 hours. We will be turning around on the US82 bridge at the MS line and probably take 12 hours for the return trip.

Tonight its time to make all of the cytomax bottles and get the cooler ready. Will leave around 10:30 tomorrow to check the route from Magnolia to Texarkana and meet with Lanie at the hotel for vehicle inspection and then off dinner and an early bed time.

Thats all for now