Last weekend I had the privilege of driving the chase vehicle behind my son Lief as he raced across the State of Washington. He started from the Canadian border near Oroville and rode practically non-stop to the Oregon border near Pasco. The clock started when he began riding and it kept running even while he rested, and while he sat at stop lights.
This photo, taken at the Canadian border, was time-stamped 4:54 AM PST, showing that my camera clock is about 20 minutes faster than actual time. Light from the coming sunrise was beginning to appear in the northeast horizon. An hour later a deer hopped out onto the road, then ran across in front of Lief, narrowly missing a collision.
We were so busy watching for traffic, and monitoring Lief's needs, that we didn't take any more photos until we reached the finish line, 12 hours and 28 minutes later. This photo is time-stamped 5:25 PM PST.
With only 40 miles to go, after straining into a horrendous head wind and experiencing a spell of unanticipated overheating, Lief was on the verge of giving up. His brother James poured a gallon of cool water over him and told him to take it easy and just get to the finish line. Then only a few minutes later we came upon a giggle of mermaids who were there specifically to cheer Lief on. It was an enormous boost in morale. They leapfrogged ahead several times and then met us at the finish line.
The posed picture shows Lief next to the "Welcome to Oregon" sign, holding his bike up in victory. We wrote the elapsed time on the back of our chase vehicle.
