2 - 8:00 am Tuesday, October 16th

Car's loaded with all the spare parts we could fit, which isn't really too much in a Mini. One of the great things about removing the backseat is that it has exposed all sorts of good anchors to secure our spare, tools, and luggage. As we are driving the whole route from Santa Cruz, CA to Oaxaca, Mex., and back, (with La Carrera falling somewhere in between), packing appropriately in our available space is not proving to be easy.

We picked up our Mini from Jacques at Bay Bridge Motors a few days ago, and we're leaving literally any minute. It's officially time to pucker...

Our second spare tire was supposed to be riding in the support vehicle of Che and Karen, who are racing a vintage Volvo in their second Pan Am. We were going to meet their support truck driver Dave Monday on I-5 as he came down from Santa Rosa, then head south towards Phoenix with him. Unfortunately the transmission in their Ford F-350 support truck just imploded on Sunday night. It's at the dealer getting a new transmission now, and they think it will be ready by Wednesday afternoon. And so it begins! The first hiccup of the rally. They aren't phased however and are working double time to get things worked out quickly, as I know they will.

That's starting to cut it pretty close for us so we've decided to send our second spare tire out by UPS to our hotel in Laredo, TX, and we'll just hit the road solo. This will enable us to go by Sacramento today and visit the Mexican Consulate. If we can manage to get our tourist stickers and carnet paperwork taking care of in CA, it will save us hours at the border. We hear the Coyote Convoy, (which is the pack of Canadian and American Carrera drivers heading south together), gets to blaze right through at the border so long as all the customs paperwork is sorted. Everyone else has to wait in traffic and it can set you hours behind.

The one day delay we've had so far has actually been a good thing. It's enabled us to take one last easy night at home, spend a little more time with our families and get one last solid night's rest in. What's more, it made things a lot easier on my friends at Blanco Basura, who were still busy making shirts for us, stitching our name and blood type in to our Pyrotect race suits, and printing another set of car decals for all my sponsors. My wife Dara and I went by their workshop last night around 10:00PM and picked up the last bit of our loot as they were literally coming off the machines. Another great thing about the one day delay, is that I received my copy of Alex Roy's new book "The Driver" yesterday in the mail, and then this article in Wired comes out this morning! Alex is a good friend of both me and my dad, and having his book with us on Carrera to read in any off time will be great. He was hoping to drive the Carrera this year in the Unlimited Class with us, but the publisher chose the exact same time for the book release and book tour.

The next issue of MC2 Magazine is due out any day by the way folks, please have a gander at Barnes and Noble etc. in a week or so. I hear there's a 3 or 4 page article on us and the Carrera Panamericana Mini Cooper S!

And that's that. I'm out the door right now for Mexico.