Towards El Dorado
We're down to one follow-vehicle now as the diligent crew people who've been helping Lou these many arduous days - Matt (a Lamoureux family member), David (repeating his help from last years RAAM) and Jakson - need to bring the RV to a neutral place to be driven home at a later date, as well as get back to the real world that lies behind the dotted white-lines and rail guards of the open highway that is Americas pulsating artery.
The deadline to reach Kansas in time to not be DQ'd from the race is now breathing down all of our necks. Lou is doing a great job and continues to ride in a manner that is tirelessly tired -- that is, despite the exhaustion wracking his body and his mind, he has tapped into a reservoir of inner strength that is able to ignore the call to quit or rest.
How appropriate indeed that we should be racing towards a place called El Dorado.
Eldorado
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
But he grew old-
This knight so bold-
And o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow-
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be-
This land of Eldorado?"
"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied-
"If you seek for Eldorado!"
Edgar Allan Poe
Scooter McCrae, reporting (with much thanks to E.A.P.).
