From The Drivers Seat: Serindipity in a Frosty Mug of Root Beer

The greatest thing about traveling with RAAM, is that the route is almost entirely on non-interstate roads across the country. While passing through the small towns across the country, you make some great discoveries, cool architecture, interesting shops and restaurants, and some amazing people with great stories.


While passing through Robinson, Illinois late one afternoon following RAAM racers, I spotted the Dog N Suds drive in. This was a very serendipitous moment for me. When I was a little guy, we had a Dog n Suds in my home town of Lebanon, Mo. To say I loved Dog n Suds is an understatement. I had adorned my tricycle with Dog n Suds stickers, and I even had a Dog n Suds mug; the only way to get me to drink my milk was to put it in my Dog N Suds mug.

 Fortunately, for me and ultimately the media crew, it was close to our dinner time, so we made a U turn and went back for a bite to eat.

I quickly located the owner, Mr Mark Mathews, and we shared some Dog N Suds stories, and I found out how he came to be the owner of this once great drive in chain. At one time, there were over 700 Dog N Suds around the mid-west, sadly, only 17 still exist today.

Proud Owner: Mark Matthews

The HQ Media Crew awaiting there Root Beers and Coney Dogs

Mark proudly informed me, they still make there Coney Sauce using the original recipe, and there root beer is still made in house to strict Dog N Suds standards. We were not disappointed when our food arrived, and had the best meal of our 3,000 mile journey.

Almost everyone I talked with on the race crews, all commented on how they loved to see the "Real America" while on their RAAM journey. You just don't see this kind of stuff from the freeway, nor do you get to meet people like the great folks at Dog N Suds in Robinson,Ill.

On your next trip, slow down a bit, get off of the interstate and take some back roads. Who knows what kind of discoveries you might find, perhaps you will find the "Dog N Suds" from your childhood memories.

More Information On Dog N Suds Drive In"s: http://www.dog-n-suds.com/

From The Drivers Seat: The Rider from the Republic of Dexas

From The Drivers Seat: Time for Rehab

From The Drivers Seat: Round on both ends and High in the Middle

Sadly, not all of the time stations for RAAM are maned. THe few that are, are maintained by very dedicated people who sacrifice sleep, and often times personal funds, to support the riders of RAAM.

In Ohio, we found just such a time station. In my opinion, this was the second best time station on the whole route, Congress,AZ being number 1. I let the time station manager know this, and she has made it a personal goal to beat out Congress for the number one position. The gauntlet has been thrown down, I look forward to seeing what happens next year. Watch out Congress!

From The Drivers Seat: Tim the Laker

From The Drivers Seat: Combined Arms Racing

 I apologize for the audio in this clip. It was incredibly windy out there and my camera doesn't deal well with wind noise. This was shot west of Tuba City,AZ where the winds were 40 to 50 miles an hour.

Also, at the time I took this video, I had the understanding the Team 4MIL was in the lead in their division, that was incorrect. At the time this was shot, Strategic Lyons had the lead in the Team Division, and Team 4MIL was in second place. Sorry for the misinformation.

For The Record with Sandy Whittlesey

Strasser's average speed is down to 15.17 this morning.  However, he averaged 16.14 for the Cumberland leg, which makes one wonder if he could bring his average back up to the 15.4 record.

For the record, with 216 miles remaining, Strasser will have to average 19.2 mph - probably out of reach considering that Sideling Hill is still in his way.  But it will still be exciting to watch what he does!

After that, it's clearly a race for second place - but what an incredible race that has become!!!  There remain about 32 to 35 hours of racing before second place is claimed, with Baloh, Gulewicz, and Blanco still trading places.  And, then, what about Pattinson?  He needs to average 1.5 mph faster than the other three to take second - and he was slightly better than that across Ohio!  So if Pattinson takes on the Appalachians as he did Ohio, ladies and gentlemen, brace yourselves for a most extraordinary come-from-behind finish!

 

--Sandy Whittlesey is a journalist and statistician