I just got off the phone with Bill.Valerie had just finished her second
loop (I believe). All the US riders were
riding very smartly-no one was going too fast-“nothing fancy” as he
put it.He is out on trail
following Valerie and the other riders crewing as they go.
The wind is blowing the sand around (he understood that
there was a wind storm headed their way from the direction of Qatar) but the
riders were somewhat “unaffected” because they were “riding”
above the wind (must be quite low on the ground).He hadn’t heard of the terrible
wind storms that Iraq had been
receiving in the past 12-24 hours.
He told of a terrible event that occurred right before the 1st
check (I believe).A helicopter
crashed right in front of him as he was going into the EnduranceVillage for the
check.He said that he watched it
for about 30 seconds as it fell to the earth right inside the compound. It really shook him up, as Bill is a
pilot too.
He said that he would call back in a few hours to let me
know how things were going.
