Finally - a moment to blog

Some of you expressed concern about our sudden halt in posts since the Donkey Episode (which, for the record, was Donkey Episode 1 of about 4 - which soon spun off into Cow Episodes, Horse Episodes, Chicken Episodes, and 1 Dog-Chasing-Our-Car Episode. Oh and we can't forget Front Left Tire Episodes 1 & 2)

We are ok. We didn't crash. We made it out of Mexico and live to tell the tale. We simply got too busy to blog.

The job of the co-piloto/navigator was difficult and constant. It was arguably more difficult than the driver's job, even without the threat of motion sickness. There were very few moments when I was not checking my watch to make sure we were within 30 seconds of some timed event. My day was basically like this:

5-6am: Wake up, put on suit, get breakfast if possible, find transporter and exchange old clothing for new clothing for that night and next morning, find car and pack daily supplies and luggage.

7-8am: Get to starting arch, locate person giving out time sheets for the day, confirm correct starting time, make sure watch is synchronized with Official Time, confirm starting time of 5 cars in front and 5 cars behind us, make sure our car was in correct position in line-up, go over notes for the different sections that day and confirm with other navigators, assure Emil that we were not late.

8am-5pm: Control every aspect of our day except for the physical driving. This included but was not limited to: Navigating us through transit sections, figuring out the correct arrival times to each control and making sure we arrived at the exact right second, calculating when and where we would make fuel stops, making sure I did not miss calling out any speed bump (since they could potentially cause immense damage to the car), finding something to eat at the service stops while comparing notes and times with other navigators, calculating velocity section times and noting any discrepancies between official stopwatch and my stopwatch, making sure Emil knew how much he rocked. Oh and calling out every turn in velocity sections so we would not crash into a mountain or fall off a cliff.

5pm-7pm: Arrive at arch on time, greet spectators, sign autographs, pose for photos, try to find something to eat and coffee, get us to the hotel. This was the least busy time of the day.

7pm-8pm: Take shower and change for driver's meeting

8:30pm-way too late: Attend driver's meeting/awards ceremony which always started 2 hours late, get time sheets for following day and any bulletins relating to route book changes.

Way too late - even later: Go through route book for following day, highlight, make notes, do calculations if necessary, try to sleep.

As you can see - no time for blogging or checking email. In my following posts, I will attempt to describe exactly how amazing this race is.

In the meantime, you can check out my photos on Flickr.