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Last night wasn't such a good night. The Moroccan food finally took its toll and I spent much of the night in the bathroom. As I later found out, most of the rest of the group spent extra time in the bathroom as well which made for an extra challenging final day.
The final day. It's off to Marrakech for the finish and final night's festivities. It was the lowest mileage day of the week but going back over the Atlas Mountains took us through some very narrow, rough, dirty roads so speeds were kept quite slow. The road leading up to the lunch stop near the 7,000 foot summit, although dirty and narrow, was fun and the view was spectacular.
The restaurant was again unprepared for us but had plenty of food. It took some 90 minutes for the rest of the group to get there, and our food to be served, but it was a nice rest.
As we head out someone yells at Corey to check his tire. He had gotten a flat. I stayed to help plug the hole as the fast group took off. Ten minutes later we were on our way down the mountain. About half way down I had put a good 3 mile lead on Corey when he got me on the Chatterbox and said his tire was flat again. I headed back, we repaired it again, and made our way back down. The bottom half was a beautiful road. Narrow, but tacky, clean, and fast.
We all arrived safely in Marrakech at an amazing 5-star hotel. Still a little sick I went to the room and rested while many of the others were out at the pool. Later we met at the poolside bar where awards were handed out (I got the award for best wheelie) and group pictures were taken.
We then headed out the door where our horse drawn carriages were waiting to take us to dinner. It was a mile ride to the very busy, trendy downtown strip where we sat down at a very fancy restaurant. It was Moroccan themed but clearly catered to the English and European tourist. During dinner we were treated with several Moroccan dancers, one with a tray of candles on her head.
After dinner the carriages took us to a trendy Marrakech night club where we enjoyed a few drinks, lots of pictures and lots of congratulations going around for completing the Cannonball. When they announced the band was about to perform a series of Michael Jackson songs in tribute, we headed out to the carriages and back to the hotel around 2am. Those of us that were still a little sick or had enough went off to bed while the partiers continued their fun at the upper scale night club next to the hotel.
Aside from being a long day with a few minor issues, it was a fantastic finish to the most memorable and enjoyable experience of my life. Friendships were made with people that, although on a far away continent, we will likely stay in contact with for many, many years to come.
So we did it. Corey, Morris, and myself (Team USA) successfully completed the 5th Annual Cannonball Bike Run in Morocco, Africa.
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