My sleep was disturbed by a horrible scraping noise as someone pranged our RV. I heard Mike trying to resolve the issue but I was too tired to get involved. The next time I awoke we were at TS31 in Camdenton (MO) where the words ‘if anyone fancies any chilli there’s a big pot of it on the table over there’ met my ears. TS31 was by far, the best time station on the route, and as I’d just got my appetite back, the two bowls of chilli that I had were lovely and just what I needed. The lady (Lena) who had made the chilli also provided us with dessert in the form of fresh watermelon which was also superb. She even did our laundry for us, while her fellow volunteers helped us to get fuel, water, and dispose of our effluence. What’s more, the food was all provided from Lena’s own pocket. Mike was so impressed that he sent an e-mail of thanks which somehow made it to the local news. The e-mail went as follows:

Dear all,

This is an open message to all of the wonderful volunteers who were there to look after the riders in this year's RAAM. THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I expect that you are aware that all timing stations are not the same as your own and that yours was by far the best. We (mixed-4 team - Team Human Science from London, UK) had the great fortune to schedule a stop at your station this year and we were so glad that we did. Firstly, and most importantly, we were given a warm welcome, smiling faces and a fantastic willingness to help us out. The volunteers that we spoke to seemed to have a good appreciation of what our cyclists (and to a lesser extent the crew) were putting themselves through and they all dealt with any of our questions with great enthusiasm and with an effectiveness to help.

The start of that day of cycling had been a bad one for our team but the experience at your station genuinely lifted the mood of our  whole team due to the points I mentioned above and due to the fantastic chilli con carne & water melons! The cyclists were all in agreement that it was the best food that they'd had in the whole ride (the crew did not take this personally!).

The experience at the station was probably a personal high-point of the whole race for me as we had problems solved and questions answered by the staff. I don't remember the names of everyone there but I think the man's name was Jim (I may be wrong) and the lady was Lena. Lena was especially helpful. I had never been to Missouri before and, to be honest, I knew absolutely nothing about Missouri. But I will never hear a bad word said about Missouri any more and, perhaps on the basis of the hospitality we received, will always point out the lovely lakes and beautiful scenery that we saw nearby.

So, once again, many thanks to everyone who helped and I will attach a photo of our team at the  finish line which was reached, partially fuelled by chilli and water melons from station 31 within our target of 7 days (6d, 23h).

Thank you Camdenton & I hope you keep it up in the years to come.

Michael Hughes (Crew of Team Human Science)

The first reply Mike received from Eric Johnston (Time station manager) went as follows:

Thanks so much for the nice words. Taking care of the crews has been our #1 priority in Camdenton, since your job is to take care of the rider. I am told that Lena (Herrera, 5th yr. Volunteer) made 13 gallons of her chilli!.. Sorry you missed the smoked brisket.

The second reply went:

I'm the "Jim" at Time Station 31 in Camdenton, Missouri.  I know I speak on behalf of Eric Johnston (time station manager) and Lena (volunteer) in saying that we deeply appreciate you taking the time to drop us a note of thanks.  As I've said to many racers and crews over the last four years that I've helped at the time station, we may not be the time station with the biggest staff or deepest pockets, but we sure try our very best with our limited time and resources to help all of you on your journey.  We truly "get" what this race is all about. Congratulations on finishing RAAM, and finishing with less than an hour to spare to meet your time goal. 3,000 miles in 7 days. Wow!   That's amazing. Thanks for letting us help witness a small fraction of it.

The final reply went:

Michael, I took the liberty on Sunday morning before leaving for work to forward your very nice email to my RAAM media list plus friends. Well, the response was overwhelming and positive, to say the least.  I received many responses agreeing that the money the RAAMsters leave isn't so important overall.  Apparently, or obviously, the local newspaper editor agrees.  In 2005, my first year as TS manager, he was the SportsEditor and took a great liking to RAAM.  Now as Editor, he continues to give the race lots of space in the paper. I was totally caught unaware that he would use my email with yours attached to run on the front page and on half of the Editorial page, although the link to the article doesn't show the prominence of the printed edition.

Also, just this morning at my local coffee shop a retired 83 yr young cyclist said "I bet you're excited about the nice things said about you and the race this morning at 7:15 on (radio station) KRMS! I said "Huh?". Well, as it turns out this station has been a big help in promoting the race and is actually on the route thru Osage Beach.  I was told that they read your email and my response which appeared in today’s newspaper on the air then proceeded to talk another 7-8 minutes about the race and YOUR letter. So, quite the eventful day! If you would like a copy of the newspaper I'd be glad to send you a copy. Let me know. Eric.

After signing Lena’s T-shirt (the British Army team had signed it: nice melons), we drove another 20 miles to Bagnell (MO) and prepared for the changeover. At around 10.00 pm the gang appeared and I just had time to see Jon’s eyes light up as I told him that we had chilli on board before I was off down the road again. The absence of any sort of view coupled with the body’s natural response to shutdown during darkness made the night shifts seem harder than the daylight ones. The terrain had also got a bit more lumpy which made smooth progress more difficult. Needless to say, I can’t remember much of that first leg or indeed Tom’s until we reached the outskirts of Jefferson City (MO). At that point, a series of tricky turns in close succession resulted in us shouting out of the window to help keep Tom on track towards our next change in front of the Missouri State Capital Building (impressive sight, even at night). Shortly after the start of my second leg I crossed a fantastic bridge over the Missouri river which would have been particularly spectacular in daylight. Soon after, I turned onto the SR 94E for, what for me was, a surreal experience. First, the road appeared to have a lot of sand on it, which I was keen to avoid for obvious reasons. I reasoned that the surrounding terrain was desert-like, but then I heard lots of frogs croaking. I’m still not sure if it was sand, but it serves to illustrate how weird some of those night stages were. My second leg was at least fairly flat, so my pace was good and the crew (Jess and Kim) were great at shouting words of encouragement, although some of the comments towards Tom were beginning to get a bit strange.

During Tom’s second leg we hit some really lumpy terrain which included a series of 200 ft climbs and descents. In contrast, the biggest obstacle in my next leg was avoiding the possum which was transfixed by our headlights as I rounded a corner. This was the first time I’d seen a possum, but not the last, as we spotted several more (including some in the form of road kill) during the next few miles. I remember hoping that there was nothing much bigger about to leap out of the blackness. That said, in Tom’s next leg he startled a deer at the side of the road which appeared at first to run away, but then suddenly appeared again as it darted across the road in front of Tom in its bid for freedom. A spectacular sight, if a little unnerving.

Shortly after the start of my next leg we missed a left turn due, for once, to a poor instruction in the route guide. Thankfully, the crew realised pretty quickly and with the help of the GPS I was soon back on track. The barrenness of the night was broken momentarily as I entered the town of Hermann (MO). The cliffs on the outskirts of the town were a nice distraction and again would have been a great spectacle in the light of the day. I thought about all the riders who would pass through the town that night whilst all the townsfolk were asleep and oblivious to the race we were in. I crossed another bridge over the Missouri river shortly after which there was a hive of police activity. I’m not sure what the incident in question was, I just remember trying to indicate to Jess to keep her headlights dipped, not realising that they already were. Some of the climbs on this section of the route were pretty tough and Tom and I made sure we gave each other plenty of encouragement to keep the pace up. I felt that Tom had endured the worst of the climbing so far in this stage so I told the crew to make sure that we didn’t make the next change until after I’d completed the last (and biggest, I might add) climb of the day. The dawn was beginning to break as I reached the foot of the climb and the mist from the Missouri river was so thick that my glasses fogged up and I had to pop them over the neck of my jersey to see. Although the climb was steep (1 in 7) it was only a mile long and in the grand scheme of things was over pretty quickly. Tom’s next leg had a few tricky turns which resulted in us sending him the wrong way at one point. However, the damage was minimal and, as I felt pretty good, we decided to put me back out there for the last few miles of the stage. As it was now after 6.00 am, Tom and the crew headed off to rendezvous with the RV while I jumped back on my bike for the last 10 miles, finally arriving in O’Fallon (MO) at 6.30 am.