Alex sat in the hotel room in Paris thinking about a great many things in his life. In the past few months he had been so focused on getting this race together that he now found himself out of touch with his own life.
He found himself thinking of his best friend Misty.
He and Misty had met roughly three years ago. Since that time they were the best of friends. She had been there for Alex when his Grandmother had been diagnosed with cancer and offered her support through the whole battle. Misty and Alex had the kind of friendship that was undefined. They talked constantly, hung out when their schedules allowed and had the greatest time together.
From the early stages of the race idea, Alex had been spending less and less time with Misty. It worked out because Misty was busy with things at her job as well. She knew how important this race was to Alex and wanted to be a part of it, but took a step back. She knew this was something he needed to complete on his own.
Flipping through the limited channels on the hotel room TV, Alex was looking for a distraction from his thoughts. Finding nothing on, he reached for his laptop. He logged into his email and signed onto his Instant Messaging program. He was overjoyed to see that Misty was online!
Within seconds he received a message from his friend, the message read:
"Hey u, sry I've not been in touch, how's the race going?"
Even though it was getting to be the early morning hours in Paris, it had been a while since he and Misty caught up so he spent the next few hours chatting with her online. He got all the latest news from her life, the details of the new man she'd taken a liking to and just general chit-chat.
Finally, around 3:30am, Alex decided it was time to call it a night. He had much to do in the morning, most importantly, he had to check in with each team and see their progress. He had no idea what was in store for him!
He said goodnight to Misty and turned the computer off. He brushed his teeth and made his way back to the bed. After tucking himself in, he closed his eyes and sleep took over.
The Railroad Warriors had pulled into the Gare du Nord just after 9pm. They walked to their hotel which was just a few blocks away. They were pleased with the train ride and arriving into a central area of Paris. On their walk they were enraptured with the lights all around them and just the feeling that filled them, after all, they were in Paris!
Upon reaching their hotel, they all met in the lobby to continue researching the clue. They were sure they were in the right city, they just needed to figure out where they needed to go to find the third clue. Working together, the team researched and had come up with a few possibilities. They decided to call it a night when the clock struck 2am and they went up to their rooms and got ready for the next day.
Both the air and car teams were having similar discussions. Both teams figured they should be headed to Paris, but the question that remained now was, should they leave tonight, or in the morning. After being the team to find Clue #2 last, Drive to Survive decided to leave for Paris now. They would get there this evening and be ready to start fresh in the morning.
The car team took a similar service to Eurostar. They would have preferred taking Eurostar, but they had to travel by car and the other service allowed cars on the train. They rushed to the station and got ready for their next leg of the journey.
Wings to Win decided they would catch an early morning flight to Paris. There was fairly frequent service to Paris from London, they figured they would use the evening to research exactly where they needed to go and strategize how to get there fastest.
The next morning seemed to arrive faster than anyone would have liked it to. The air team got up and packed their things, checked out of the hotel and made their way to the airport. Naturally, they ran into some traffic en-route and they watched the minutes tick by.
Finally making it to the airport, they presented their passes and the woman at the ticket desk advised that she could only fit three of the team members on the next flight, and the fourth could be placed on a flight departing two hours later.
They didn't have much of a choice in what to do, so the Wings to Win team arranged which three would travel first and who would meet up with the team later on. Jack, Tara and Lloyd were the three to travel on the first flight, and Joyce would leave on the later one. They said goodbye and boarded the plane.
This was going to be an interesting day. All three teams had a certain level of determination to find the next clue first. They were all racing for a cause, however, they all had someone in their life that they were racing for as well.
Alex received the latest figures from the website advertising the race, and he was shocked. In three days, the total donation amount going to sponsor each team exceeded $1 million dollars. Alex had hoped that the race would raise substantial amounts of money, however, he was not expecting to reach a million dollars!
It was interesting to see which team was receiving more followers. Right now, the Air team was leading, Rail was second and Car was a bit below the two. All web viewers knew about each team was basically their short biographies on the site and the brief updates that had been posted about the progress.
Wings to Win's first three team members arrived at Charles de Gaulle in Paris. They had arranged to meet up with Joyce near the Eiffel Tower soon after her flight was to arrive. In the meantime, they went to the library to figure out where the clue was leading them.
The Railroad Warriors figured by the wording of the clue that they needed to find a teaching hospital. There were a few on their list and they just needed to pinpoint which one it was. After a little more investigation, they had guessed it and headed on their way. They were anxious and excited and couldn't wait to get to the next clue!
Drive to Survive had also figured out where they needed to go. They grabbed the directions and hopped in the car. Without hesitation, they were off. They were on the road for not more then ten minutes when they noticed a police car behind them. They were being pulled over, this wasn't good! Seems in all their excitement, they had exceeded the speed limit by nearly 20mph! This was certainly going to cause a bit of a delay!
Joyce was reading a magazine in the terminal, waiting to board the plane. She was so tired from the past few day's events, she found herself closing her eyes. She did not want to fall asleep so she walked to the vending machine and got a bottle of water. She went back to the terminal and sat once again, reading her magazine. Before she knew it, she was sound asleep.
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