We have arrived! Hemos llegado! Nous sommes arrives!

Christian and I had a heck of a time checking in at the airport. Our bags and bike boxes were over sized, over weight, over decorated, over easy, over board. I don't know,,,that lady was just charging us for everything she could think of! Here's an idea...why don't you just add up my weight and the weight of my luggage. If it equals less than the 300lb man and his two bags, then let me pass for free. Wouldn't that be fair?

Anyhow, after about 1.5 hrs of checking in, we were on our way to New York. A five hour flight, a three hour delay at JFK, then a 7 hour flight to Spain. We were so happy to see Pierre waiting for us at the airport in Madrid. We waited a few hours more in the airport and then we met Horacio (and his wife). Thank goodness all of our baggage arrived!! You never know if the lady you argued with about paying the "over weight" fees decided that she was gonna make your life even more miserable by putting the wrong tag on your bike box! Guess the Irish and Canadians ran into that lady. Their bikes and a few bags are still missing.

Pierre drove thirteen hours from Paris to Madrid so we were able to ride in his car to Jaen instead of taking the slower team buses. Four hours later we arrived at the Triunfo Hotel and met the race director Antonio. He put us in our rooms, we cleaned up, and went to dinner. Total of about 28 hours of travel! Christian and I should be used to this, but we aren't. We were pretty tired,,,,but not so tired that we couldn't join some folks for a drink in the hotel bar!

After a good night's sleep, we were up and preparing our bikes and gear for the team check-in. Went to the grocery store for some last minute race food, got lost and had a nice driving tour of Jaen, then back to the hotel for gear check and lunch. Now we will prepare our transition bags, take an afternoon nap, then have the race meeting to receive the instructions and maps. The race starts tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10am (2am California time).

It's been fun running into old friends from other races. I saw Helen Jackson who is one of the best females out of England. I've known her since my very first international race in Mexico in 2003. Emma Roca is one of the best Spanish girls who just took a year off to have a baby and is back at the AR game already! She's looking strong as ever and her baby is so cute! We also ran into Christen from Denmark who we raced against in Greenland at the ATC, Benjamin Midena from France who we hung out with in Brazil at Ecomotion 2005, Denise and the Supplierpipeline team from Canada who I usually see at all the Mexico races, and many other familiar faces.

Be sure to track us on-line and send good thoughts and lots of energy. Check out the photos that we've started adding to our gallery at http://pics.feedthemachine.com.

Gotta go because we have more organizing, eating, and napping to do!