6:10pm
Finally took off and everything so far is good - but we are not over the water yet.
7:10pm
The map shows that we are up over Boston now and travelling at 675mph. It says that we are 6 hours from our destination which is a little quicker than what I thought it was supposed to be. Just saw Liam get a Coke and orange juice from the cart – yes mixed together. What the heck is that all about? Liam is on his laptop doing laps of Hockenheim on R-Factor. He should have a pretty good idea of the track by the time he gets there.
7:45pm
Up over Charlottetown now and heading out over the water feels good to be back in Canada!
9:35pm
I just finished my dinner and watching a movie –decent dinner for an airplane not so decent movie though. I had the pasta, which is hard to screw up. The movie “The Nanny Diaries” is not that great. Better think about sleeping now as we are under 4 hours from landing and then we have a 4.5 hour drive to the shop up near Berlin for Liam’s seat making. The map shows us out over the Atlantic now 3 hours and 19 minutes and 1799 miles from Frankfurt. We have slowed down to 650mph now - I think that the pilot has it in for me - why is he slowing down over the water?
11:15pm
We are now over Ireland with about 1 hour and 45 minutes to destination. Still haven’t slept and I have tried everything. Reading always puts me to sleep but I am almost through my Race Car Engineering magazine now.
Sunday - 12:00am EST - 6:00am Germany time
Only one more hour to go until landing. Not sure what is going on – I usually fall asleep before we even push back from the gate but now, when I really need to sleep I can’t do it. A 7 hour flight and I haven’t missed a thing. The only thing worse is the guy next to me has sat here for the whole flight and has done nothing. He hasn’t slept, he hasn’t read and he didn’t watch the movie, he just sits and looks around.
6:45am
15 minutes from landing and no sleep! Overall it was a great flight. They just said the temperature in Frankfurt is 3 degrees Celsius glad I brought warm clothes to wear. Liam will be sorry he wore his flip flops when he gets off the plane.
7:00am
Here we are - we made it! It is very dark outside still not sure why that surprises me.
8:00am
Just got through customs what a mess. It is a free for all in there, no line ups or organization just push your way to the front and there were a ton of people there. Gave my passport to the customs guy and he hardly looked at me or the book he just stamped it and said thank you.
8:15am
Bags were waiting for us on the baggage carousel so things are looking good. Off to the rental car counter. Got our rental car Liam is happy as it is a SEAT which I am told is Spanish built VW. I asked the guy for a VW instead and got laughed out of the place by him and Liam - what do I know about cars! We needed a rental car just to get to where the car was parked. In the USA they would have had a shuttle bus to take us to where it was!
8:40am
Off and running now can’t wait to get onto the Autobahn.
11:45am
We had to finally stop for something to eat and a break. WOW what an experience on the Autobahn. I had our little car going as fast as it would go downhill we hit 180 km/h but I was being passed like I was standing still. There are sections that have no speed limits - just that last speed limit with a slash or lines through it. How would that work at home? A 400km drive is going to take us no time at this rate. We stopped at a service center and all there is here is a McDonalds - well that is something different. For you Pulp Fiction lovers, yes they have Royals with cheese! It tasted exactly as it does at home – no comments.
12:45pm
Whew made it to a gas station starting to run on fumes. Filled the car and off we go to the shop. Uh-oh...(Ed)
12:55pm
Uh oh something went wrong with the rental car it won’t run. Got off on an exit to a little town called Bruck/Linthe and here we sit, no what do we do? The guy at the rental car counter gave me a huge lecture on how this car was a diesel and “not to put gas in it” and then showed me the key tag which said diesel also and guess what? That’s right - it is a gasoline engine car!!!!!! A full tank of diesel in a gas engine car! Wow it made some really bad noises.
So here we sit in a little German town - what the heck do we do now? We found a little Inn so we went in to ask what town we were in and what exit so we can phone Hertz to come and help us. I asked the lady if she spoke any English and she said “very little” (well of course she wouldn’t - why would she - that would just make it easier on us). I told her that we are travelling to Berlin and that our rental car broke down and could she tell us what town we are in and her response was “Your friends are going to Berlin and you need a rental car to get them there?” Well that didn’t go as I planned – I felt like I was trying to explain this to Manuel from Faulty Towers and it made me start to laugh. Finally there was a post card of the hotel with the name of the hotel on it so we said thank you and left.
We tried to phone the team for some help as we couldn’t get through to the Hertz help line (good thing Liam had his phone) but no answer. So now what do we do? I know - phone the captain of the team, John Kenney. So from the USA John got a hold of the VW team and before we knew it the team was calling us and they got a hold of Hertz and then they called us. Good the ball is rolling - not sure in what direction but it is rolling!
1:20pm
Hertz is finally sending us a tow truck and taking us to the next town called Potsdam where they will give us a new car.
2:00pm
We are still waiting for the tow truck. Phone just rang - it was Hertz they will have a car for us within 90 minutes. Not what I wanted to hear but I can catch up on some sleep. Phone keeps ringing with different scenarios and now the tow truck should be here in a few minutes. Liam is asleep now and I don’t want to miss the tow truck so I will take a small walk around.
2:40pm
Tow truck just arrived and we are back on the road and heading to a Hertz location to get another car. The driver doesn’t speak any English so it should be a quiet drive other than Liam naming all the cars and saying how cool they are.
3:45pm
Standing at the towing yard waiting for Hertz to pick us up. Not going the way I thought it was supposed to go! I am starting to run out of patience here. I slept for about 2 minutes in the tow truck until the next “cool car” passed us and Liam woke me up!
4:15pm
Yea! Hertz finally showed up! That didn’t take long at all. Got a lecture from this Hertz guy about how to only put gasoline in this car – bad timing pal. I just about punched him out! Just walk away Gord. Now we have to find the shop - should be no problem as I have probably the best navigator in the world in the passenger seat and he will get us there.
5:05pm
Finally at the shop about 4 hours late - glad the guys stuck around. It was a great drive as this car was much better. 190km/h for about 15 minutes straight really eats up the real estate in this country and it really put me in a good mood.
The shop and cars look really good and the team is extremely professional - I get a really good feeling. The first seat pour didn’t go very well and the team manager and engineer are upset at how unprofessional it made them look. Oh well, I have done worse with seat foam. Liam keeps falling asleep in the car and leaning over to one side so I have to keep waking him, boy that feels good considering I am on 30 hours with about 2 minutes of sleep!
8:00pm
At the hotel finally and going to have something to eat at the restaurant.
9:00pm
Back in the room and just laid down I think that I am in heaven. Liam is having a shower I know I won’t see him until morning. Wow what a first day almost 32 hours with now sleep. It's a good warmup for Daytona next year - I hope the days are shorter from here on out.
Monday October 20th
4:30am
Well I am awake again and boy, my system is all screwed up. I woke up at around 12:30 and thought that it was time to get up. It felt good to go back to sleep.
I am just sitting typing and waiting to get up. I did all my notes on my phone so I have had to retype them as I can’t transfer them over to the computer like I was able to with my old phone.
Liam is hard asleep it is killing me (the lucky dog). I feel pretty wide awake though - not really tired at all - it will probably hit me tonight.
I am sitting here thinking that I haven’t said anything about Germany itself other than the Autobahn. It is so pretty here and kind of what I expected. There are lots of big rolling hills and lot of farms. I thought there might be bigger mountains but they may be farther south. We are quite north here just around the 55th parallel so it is a little chilly and the wind is cold.
All of the trees are turning color and it is just spectacular. Driving around the shop and to the hotel you go through all the country back roads that are lined with trees and it just looks like something that you would see a painting. You think “that’s not real” but it is. I hope the pictures will do it justice.
When you drive along the Autobahn and you look off to the side there are little towns down in the valleys of the hills and all the houses have reddish brown roofs with the one big church steeple in the middle of town it looks like the perfect train set. For those who know me a "train set" is the perfect setting of little towns. When you see these little towns here, like where our hotel is you can just see and feel the history and it is something else. The houses and buildings are really old and very well taken care of the yards look very well manicured everywhere. The streets are narrow with some cobble stone in places and it makes you feel like you are in a movie or something.
Well it is 6:15am now I am not fast at typing especially in the dark so I am going to get up and go for a walk. It is dark so I am not sure how far I will make it.
The team is picking us up this morning at 9:30am to go to the track for the test. They plan on only doing 150kms today just so Liam can get a little feel for the car. I don’t foresee Liam having any troubles adapting to this car as it is really similar to the Renaults he has driven in the past. The car has less horsepower than the 2 liter Renault and more than the 1600 had so it should be easy that way. It is a Dallara chassis with a monoshock from so that is the same so it should be an easy day and hopefully a productive one.