Didja ever get that shot-from-a-cannon feeling? For Ethan and I and Car #39, the Mystery of Melrose; the process of getting ready for this Great Race, both vehicle and team prep, has been like that. Plus, there’s the day job and oh, yes, our contractor for roof repair at home walked off, so we had to sort-of finish that job ourselves at the same time, too. But, WE’RE HERE in San Rafael. We arrived last night – in to San Francisco airport at 5, enjoyed a too-brief dinner with too-rarely-seen cousins, then the caught a bus over the Golden Gate to San Rafael, arriving about 10 PM – too late to find our car.

We know it’s here somewhere – Chad Caldwell sent a pic of it coming off the truck Monday, with Jeff Stumb at the wheel (or maybe just trying to unfold out of the cockpit).

We’ve slept now, and this morning we’ll retrieve our car and start the last minute stuff-to-do, in between enjoying the pre-race hoopla, reconnecting with our GR friends, and squeezing in required events like registration and tech inspection. AND we still need to seal the firewall, adjust the (mechanical) brakes, repack the trunk, check the transmission oil, swap the carburetor jets and verify stoichiometry (or close enough), and a million other minor items on the checklist. Oh, right – we also need to practice a little, get our start, stop, and accel time table right after the carb jet swap.

The motto here is “Ride, Repair, Repeat!” I think we may have it out of order: Repair, Ride, Repeat! Maybe our family motto applies, too “oriri cras calcitrare iterum” or, in the King’s English, “Get up Tomorrow, Kick it Again” (BTW, that’s not the motto on our crest, as mounted on our car). See ya! jc