Mover Mike

The Sadler's Ultra Challenge has been referred to as the "holy grail" of wheelchair and handcycle racing. It is the longest wheelchair and handcycle race in the world. Athletes travel from around the globe to participate in this six day 267 mile test of athleticism.

Our daughter Erica is a driver assisting the handcyclers in the race and in particular one Joe Dowling, who is 66 and lives in Connecticut. Erica has agreed to blog from on the road about the race and her experiences

First Dad, I will ask that you do a spell check for me and adjust anything that needs adjusting. It can be tough to type on my blackberry. Second, don't feel obligated to reprint any of this.

Well I arrived in Anchorage yesterday afternoon and was so impressed by how beautiful Alaska is. I went in not knowing anything about Anchorage, I was surprised to see that nearly all the trees are deciduous. In the hills there are definitely evergreens, but I was reminded in several ways of the high desert area of Oregon.

It was so warm and sunny when I arrived, and I was told by my cab driver that Anchorage desperately needs rain. Well, he got his wish and a short but powerful thunderstorm rolled in late that night. Unfortunately it didn't help that much, because this morning I woke to find a very smokey city. I was told that 11,000 acres of trees to our south were on fire and they were trying to contain it.

Today around 2:00 I met the people I will be spending the next 8 days with. We had a volunteer meeting, and a few racers joined us as well. The volunteers came from all over; Germany, Texas, Chicago, Washington, New York, Atlanta and even Japan. The majority of them are young, I think we barely had enough people over 25 that were eligible to drive the rental cars. There were a few people that were driving cars for friends or family, but the majority of the volunteers were like me, just here to help out and see Alaska. The nicest surprise is that everyone seems to be low key, for lack of a better word.

Tomorrow morning we have to be out of here by 7 am. We finally get to meet the racers. I did get to meet mine already, and he seemed like a nice man. He invited me and the passenger in our group over to hang out with him. He wanted to make sure we really wanted to do this. I guess it is a little too late to turn back now, but I doubt anyone would want to.

Tomorrow we also drive the 6+ hours to Fairbanks, and it will be my first taste of rural Alaska. I was comforted? to learn that one of the returning volunteers has agreed to shoo away any bears that come too close to us, just as he had to do for one of the racers last year. The idea of actually seeing a bear seems so unreal.

Well, I am off to finish my book, and make myself comfey in my sleeping bag on the floor of the Methodist Church.

Update:

Update: