Arrival in Whitefish and a famous New Mexican

Well we’re finally here!

For the last three days we’ve been driving about eight hours a day to reach our destinations in whitefish Montana.

We got the opportunity to cross the course that we will be riding back to New Mexico about six or seven times. The country is incredibly beautiful, it’s also incredibly challenging looking.

The weather is cool and in the 50’s. The low on Thursday night is supposed to be 37°F.

On the way up we got to see lots and lots of snow on the high peaks that we will be riding around and through.

We’re staying at a small hotel in Whitefish, and we’re walking up to the parking lot and noted that there was another rider. We immediately recognized him as governor Gary Johnson, former governor of the state of New Mexico. Gary has completed the course four times this will be his fifth. He was very engaging and happy to tell us about the route and some of the challenges along the way. He said he’d be looking forward to meeting the other riders from New Mexico.

Gary has summited the highest peak on each of the 7 continents and told us this race is equal to the sum for all seven! So we have that going for us!!🤣

We are at the stage where we are just ready to go! We’re about 42 hours from the start!! Ready to just get started. One thing we have to say is “thank you” for the incredible amount of support and encouragement that we’ve been getting along the way. The texts and emails are very very helpful and, encouraging us to go.

For those of you that don’t know, this trip would absolutely not be possible without the help of our friend David Rutledge. I want to thank Dave for joining us on the journeys and driving our vehicle back all the way to New Mexico. Not the kind of thing you could ever ask someone to do, but he’s incredibly nice enough to do it for us.

We’ll keep you posted!!

Shane and Ray,

ALMOST “Southboundanddown “!!