Today we woke up early to a nice thunderstorm complete with pouring rain. Luckily, our tent is mostly leak-free and our stuff stayed dry overnight. The weather cleared up in time for the race, and the sponsor village was a success, with lots of cheer signs handed out and surveys being taken. We managed to pack up pretty quickly, and hit the road headed for a hotel right near the Newark airport, where we’ll meet Nate in the morning. Along the way, we nearly ran one truck out of gas simply because we couldn’t find diesel, and when we did find it, we also found the world’s slowest gas pump. It probably took 20 minutes to fill our two trucks (they were filling simultaneously).

We hit a bit of traffic coming back across the George Washington Bridge, but it was nothing compared to my experience heading the opposite way a week ago. We got settled in at the hotel and then found a slightly quirky restaurant (which called itself a tavern) serving a variety of tasty food. I had a chicken/rice mix dish with salad and some fried plantain. After dinner I set about doing some laundry and went to work out. The machines at the hotel are all pretty pitiful and in various states of disrepair, so I went and ran outside for a bit instead.

Tomorrow we start the long drive to Colorado.