This graphic might give you an idea of the difficulty of the challenge that John and Rob will face when the ride in TransRockies 2006 race next week.

It seems like legs 3 and 4 are the hardest because they are long and go over the most mountains.

You can view a larger graphic of TransRockies 2006 map at the challengingIDEAS.org campaign website and race blog.

I saw an article about iLane a device that turnes your text based messages, like e-mail, into voice for use in your car.

iLaneâ„¢ provides you with a hands-free and eyes-free, voice-interactive solution for managing email messages and attachments, phone calls, SMS messages and calendar appointments while in transit. iLaneâ„¢ integrates seamlessly with your car’s audio system. So as new messages arrive on your handheld device, iLaneâ„¢ notifies you immediately, then reads a summary aloud. Using voice commands you can then listen to the entire message; compose a reply; forward an attachment, and more.

iLaneâ„¢ is unique in that it doesn’t require access to a remote server to convert email messages into voice files. All data is hosted locally and communicated directly between iLaneâ„¢ and your handheld device. Likewise, data is encrypted to ensure your privacy. You no longer need to “dial in” to retrieve your messages from a server; iLaneâ„¢ reads them to you immediately and automatically.