5.04.2008

YO!

As you should know, I am in Uruguay right now. It took to hops and a skip to get here, 30 something hours later. We almost didn't make the flight to Montevideo, and that is a once a week flight or something. On my flight from DC to Buenos Aires I had the worst stomach cramps ever. For 3 hours I was keeled over pressing in my gut like a mad man. After my 5th or 6th trip to the bathroom and still nothing, a flight attendant saw my troubles and helped me out. At first I was sitting on floor drinking soda water, then the guy called the cockpit after he asked for a doctor on the plane to let them know everything was okay. Then a more experienced flight attendant of 33 years put me on oxygen and moved me to an empty row to relax. From what he said I was pretty pale before and with the oxygen I got a lot more color in me. After 15 min in my empty row I was able to fall asleep cramp free and sleep tell we hit the ground. Which was the only 4 hours of sleep I got the whole trip down.

Once we finally got out of the airport picking up all our luggage and going threw this checkpoint and that checkpoint some one was there to load our bike and bags into a truck and have us wait for a bus. 30 minutes later our bus showed up to take us to lunch. After talking with a South American veteran traveler Sven Tuft, he said that Uruguay was pretty safe and one of the better South American country's. Sure enough our drive to lunch a nice one, right along the river front and some nicer houses.

We are staying in downtown Montevideo, it is just like any other big city. Lots of people, lots of bums, lots of street venders, lots of smog. On our short drive threw the city dropping different teams off at different hotels we saw some really cool statues. I got some pics but I did forget my download cable.

Yesterday we had one heck of a day. The morning was normal like every other morning, but come lunch time everything went crazy. Our lunch bus never showed, but we had a rental car so I took Cody and the boys from the Barbados. We got to the car and it didn't start. A push start got everything rolling, our adventure began to find the big road along the coast. A few blocks away from the big road I stalled the car and the boys had to a quick push start again. We made it lunch okay, on the way back at a stop light a bum handed me a paper with the alphabet in sign language to me and went down the line of cars. I had no idea what to do with the paper, by the time the guy came back I handed him the paper and the light turned green. When I looked in the mirror the guy looked pretty mad. I didn't know the etiquette of what to do, so I hope karma doesn't get me to hard.

When we got back we told Vigo the problem and hoped that was the last of it. The car started just fine when we had to go to the track. But after we loaded it up in front of the hotel it didn't want to start, so Cody and I had to get it going in our cleats. On the way to track the died 2 more times and got started but the 3rd time was a charm, it gave up the ghost. Cody and I had to do another 50 meter push to an open parking spot to park the car. The staff had to catch a cab and load it up with all our stuff. Everything made it to the track finally and we got to rolling, on the bumpiest track ever. Its worse than San Diego, its the worse track a lot of us have been on.

I don't race tell Tuesday, I got selected to the Points and Madison RR and TT. I'm most excited for the RR, but it is a hot dog course up and down the coast. The roads are big and there is a wicked cross wind, that makes for a long long day. The points and madison should be fun, hopefully my legs will be ready to roar by then. It seems that my legs take a long time to get rolling again after long long travel. The TT should be interesting, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with no TT bike or Aero bars. Hopefully I can talk my way out of it. :-D

As I finish this long post our car is back to life, hopefully it goes strong for the rest of the trip.

So far the food is decent that they are providing. A pasta dish, then mashed potato's and chicken and a fruit dessert. Last night we had a nice dinner a few blocks away.

3 comments:

YbsisKaren said...

I know what it's like not to have the pictures to explain a situation. I think it would have been great to have a pic of the car being jump started. I'm glad that your cramps didn't follow you to your destination. That would have been awful. Sounds like the country side is beautiful from your description. Too bad you have to go thru such turmoil to get to beautiful places. Good luck with your rides. I'm rooting for you that you stay upright and safe. Spin on. A Karen

Anonymous said...

Uruguay? Wow---sounds like a fun/interesting trip...aside from the oxygen mask..Glad everything is ok. Good luck racing this summer Hall!
Hopefully I'll see you around sometime.

Jim Ryan said...

Grass track in trini or the one in uruguay? which one is worse lol