I was on site at 3:30am. Not much more to say than that. Our scaffolding guys met me there to begin set-up of the finish line arch. As soon as I got them placed and started, I climbed back in the van and dozed off (not really, I was listening for the sound of the other rental truck) until 5:30am or so. After we got the site set up and the sun came up, I assigned some folks to traffic control and then took my station at the microphone - for the finish line. An unexpected volunteer posted sponsor banners for me - thank you NetApp! And we did some sweeping so no one would take a spill as they came through the finish arch.
I greeted every group of cyclists that came in! Many of them looked fresh, like they could have gone miles further. However most of them looked exhausted so I congratulated them on their accomplishment and thanked them for riding. There was a couple standing with me cheering - til the end - and I didn't find out until later that they were waiting for their son, Richie Moreno, to ride in with his girlfriend. I know Richie! He was a volunteer photographer for the Tour in 2008. Another group cheering until the end was Team Beth (no relation to me: Beth). They had a big group and were very emotional - I was honored to witness the completion of their huge effort to end MS.
Afterwards I cleaned out and filled up the van, and went to return it. It wasn't until I got all the way home in my car that I realized I had left MY PILLOW in the van... my pillow and I have a very close relationship. I actually thought about driving the 15 minutes back to the van to retrieve it and then 15 minutes back home again - but I didn't do it. Picked it up another day.
Speaking of which, I'm in Denver visiting our National office and hope that one of these seven pillows in my hotel room is at least similar to MY PILLOW at home. Last night's Broncos/Chargers game was awesome! Love seeing Jesse in such celebration.
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