Day 3: Battle Mountain NV

 My body clock decided that 04:15 was the perfect time to wake up this morning.  Which is, I suppose, an improvement over yesterday.  Major task to be accomplished today was the Boarding-Up Of The Bridge.  New here?  Allow me to explain.  In the slowing-down zone of the course there is a bridge over the Reese River.  Said bridge has Armco barriers one both sides, that errant motons might not fall in the water/dry river bed¹; the barriers do not reach all the way to ground level.  No, there is a gap, such that a crashing streamliner might (un)comfortably pass some or more of itself under the barrier before its progress is rudely arrested.  To the discomfiture of the unfortunate occupant.  In order to prevent an event with a side order of cycliste maché au jus we attach a bunch of boards to the barriers, that the aforementioned gap might be closed.  Thus:

One day we might even:

1. Paint them all, and
2. Arrange them in such a way that the red and white ones are neatly placed alternately for that pukka racetrack look and feel.

Anyway, thanks to a good turnout of volunteers, including a vanload of Yoof from the IUT Annecy team, it was quick and painless.  Thanks, y'all.

New arrival: a Wild Bill Thornton delayed somewhat by his contriving to mislay the keyless fob for his motor-car, drive 200 miles without it and only notice its absence when the vehicle - not unreasonably - refused to start again.  Happily this happened in Wendover UT, where among the businesses is to be found a purveyor of keyless fobs for all shapes and sizes of vehicle, so he didn't have to wait for his spare item to be Fedexed from Albuquerque.  Hopefully that's the worst thing that will go wrong this week.

Teams have continued to arrive throughout the afternoon - the Van Vugts, Peter Borenstadt and crew chief John Jackson, Teams Northern Monkey and Beano, ect and, moreover, etc.  Though the latter two are over at the Big Chief motel with the Cool Kids; the Super 8 is increasingly becoming the hangout of us wrinkly oldsters only /s.  Peter and John reported they'd driven through a brief rain shower near Lovelock on their way over from Sacramento; not long after they arrived it did too, and brought its friends with it.

Didn't last long but when I looked out of the window just now it was back with a vengeance.  With any luck the weather deities will have gotten this kind of nonse out of their collective system tonight and will cease to bother us for the rest of the week.  Particularly we would prefer it to be dry tomorrow, because there are myriad straw bales to be placed at strategic spots on the course, and the damn' things are heavy enough when dry.

Nowt much else to report from today; by this time tomorrow World+Dog should be in town and the inaugural meeting underway for the first time under The New Management².  Plus our usual two-dimensional overlords:

Photo nicked off of that Arnold Ligtvoet, that they have now

1. Strike out words wich do not apli
2. No. No, not Nyarlathotep