So I sit on a plane for 9 hours not able to sleep, but knowing that within an hour of landing in the States I will have a lovely comfy bed to rest in, as the yellow team will be running at midnight and it would be nice to get a couple of hours rest before we start. Well immigration had other ideas. After cueing for what seemed an eternity I eventually arrive at the desk. Well the fun really started, off to another room to wait while they went over my passport, you would never believe the way the staff were speaking to young children who didn’t have the correct forms, it was absolutely disgraceful. Eventually I was called forward to be told that I could be deported for a number of things, firstly, when I had left the country some one had forgotten to remove my green card from the passport. Secondly, I did not have an address in San Francisco and thirdly I didn’t have a ticket to leave the country, what a bloody mess. The bonus would be that I could be sent back to Japan, yippee not a bad idea I was thinking. Eventually after explaining I had no intentions of staying in this bloody country longer than I needed to, he let me through. The worst border crossing so far for me.

The runs here so far have been ok, with one really bad one on day two when my legs felt like lead and my whole body was tired, but I managed to get through and then managed a few more miles later on as we were one runner short. The run down the coast line was great, reminding me a lot of the west coast of Scotland, only a little warmer here. One of the highlights of this section was one evening watching Lansing entertain the locals with his karaoke singing and getting some donations in the process, to stop singing I think. The final run of the 3.00pm -9.00pm shift was to be done in the Mojave Desert, the temperature was only 96 when I set off, it had been in the 100s earlier. The run went well, stopping every mile for a sip of water and to cool my head down by filling my cap with cold water, this worked really well, and I didn’t have any problems, in fact it was a very enjoyable run, with some amazing scenery all around, very barren, it was lovely. The only incident along the way was when a huge brown dog came running at me from some ones yard, showing its huge teeth and looking like I might be it’s next meal, my first reaction was to run at it waving the baton in the air and growling back at it, this worked a treat, as the beast skidded to a halt on the road and quickly turned and ran away.

Over the past few weeks it has been a very tense time in the Rogan household, as our eldest son has been waiting for his exam results, he needs to pass them to get into Glasgow University to study chemistry. The results came out yesterday and he got an A in chemistry, physics and technical and a B for modern studies, this is more than enough to get into uni, so this was fantastic news. I may have a beer to celebrate.

The yellow team have been lucky enough to have had there rest day in Las Vegas, 2 nights in the same hotel, this has not happened since Ireland back on day 3. We have seen so many different sights on this journey, but this city has to be the worst, it is so false, like being in Disney land I imagine. If we could take the takings from these casinos for only one hour I’m sure this would go along way to solving the water problem around the world, What a strange world we live in when people take pleasure in sitting in front of gaming machines for hours on end, throwing there money away and then occasionally coming out for light to wander around miniature world monuments recreated in a city in the middle of an amazing landscape. How many of these people ever venture out side of the city to see it, not many I expect.

Well now onto the night shift and hopefully some cooler temperatures. Also after a check up with a doctor in Las Vegas, Laurel and Rudy may be running again in the next few days, this is great news for team yellow, having the team back together again after a small break.