After two days of gloriously lengthy sleeps and severals small feasts, the haze is beginning to pass.  In my newfound clarity I bask in the satisfaction of having made it across America, which at times seemed potentially doubtful, like that one time there was a car on my back, or that one time the ER doc looked at my elbow and said “ohhhhh that looks nasty”, or that one other time that I couldn’t stand up on the pedals without my leg seizing from not being able to ride properly for two days from that one time I was cut-off by a car and t-boned it at over 30mph…
But alas, I made it.  But not without the HUGE amount of help and support from my entire crew, as well as from the hundreds of blog posts and FB comments from everyone following along.  The “car situation” certainly changed things up for us a bit, at the time we were just getting into a nice race rhythm, found ourselves in 7th and moving forward and feeling good from getting ourselves comfortably across the desert, then the situation happened, and found myself quickly immobilized and en route to the hospital.  After a few hours of x-rays, assessment, and some of the more painful scrubbing I’ve ever received, I was ready to be discharged.  Everyone was ready to give every excuse for me to call it quits, and that was my biggest fear as soon as I saw the tire rolling over my shoulder, “That’s it, RAAM is done, after all the effort and preparation from so many people and sponsors, as if it’s gonna end here after just a couple days of racing. I wonder if I could still ride a recumbent?  Maybe using just one arm?  How bad is the bike?  Must be totaled.  Good grief.  If by some miracle nothing is seriously wrong though, no question we continue on.”  
And well, as miracles would have it, first my c-spine was cleared, then astounding the doc there was no break in my arm, maybe a slight bit of concussion but nothing too serious and some nasty bruises and bumps and road rash, bot nothing worthy of an excuse to not carry on.  
About 6-6.5 hours after the situation, I was back on the bike heading into Monument Valley at dusk, a just reward as it was pretty much incredible.  I was riding Ed’s bike as my back-up bike, and had to take my freshly crushed arm off the bars for every big bump or rough patch, not to mention the huge hematoma on my left hip made sitting and turning the legs over a little less than pleasurable, but we were moving forward.
So I digressed a bit into the car story there, but there were countless other great stories and I’ll surely get to some of those later.  For now I just wanted to say thanks again to crew, the Laurentian University Alumni Association, as well as all the other people and organizations that helped us out.
I will endeavor to keep the updates coming over the next week and tell the tale that was our Race Across America.

You would think after a trip like this we would all be sleeping like babies right? Wrong! Try waking up about 3 or 4 times a night not knowing who you are let along where you are and franticly looking all over for your rider and the route book, knowing the entire time you are off course and losing time.

-Jiles

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let you all know how lucky we feel to have had this experience and to have had all your support. It was an amazing trip, across and amazing landscape with some amazing people. In the next few days I will try and get the last of the videos up and posted to the blog. As you can imagine I took a few videos that I didn't have time to post or had no internet connection at the time. I'm sure Jason will be pulling out his computer at some point and giving you all a first hand update as well. We are also hoping to gather some photos from the film crew to post online so stay tuned for a couple days while we get everything organized.

Thanks, Jiles

We are in west Virginia now and hammer put in a killer day. Pipewrench showed up half way to ts 45 and gave Hammer some modivation and pepsi. PW has been added to teamhammerfest and will take a shift tomorrow morning in the follow van with ED. Tomorrow will be a big push through the night and we need all the help we can get so send us emails, comments, and if you havent done so yet, donate to sick kids! It's as simple as clicking the link and selecting donate...http://www.teamhammerfest.com/sickkids-donations.html

You all have been so great this last week and a half Jason has gotten a lot of modivation from you posts!

-Jiles

If any of you are wondering why Hammer is riding a little slower, he had a few injuries that have cropped up post-accident but we are trying to work them out so he feels good again.

Nights are long when you're sleepy. Jason, Mo and Ed clicke 140 miles this morning. June, Hammer and myself logged another 110 this evening/night...between a few biomechanical stops and an endless battle with tiny uncomfortable things that annoy you.

I think we have about 600 and change to go!

Sleep now!

June's finally met her match!

Alright folks everyone is sacked out so no video. Hammer got in 300 miles today and is now sleeping for 2 before getting out to hammer some more.

Now, there has been some talk scattered around the Internet that the "real hammer" may be a certain someone else entirely based on this certain someone's stellar race performance he or she is currently having. All I can say is these three things: one good luck two might wanna keep focus on racing so a Susan doesn't ride by you in the night....
And three, ever lost five and a half hours after being run over by a car and experienced what it is like to in fact be run over then continued to race? Not just finish but actually race? ...didnt think so.

I think we'll keep J as the Hammer

-Jiles out

Wanda kindly opened the DQ she's worked at for 16 years early just to make the Hammer his favorite food! Thanks Wanda you have know idea how much you have helped hammer and us. Thank you!!!