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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The adventure of a lifetime

I am just now beginning to fully recover from my La Carrera Panamericana hangover - and not the kind of hangover one might expect to have after spending 10 days in Mexico. The fact of the matter is that we had almost no time to do anything but compete and find a few hours of sleep each night. Nevertheless, it was truly the adventure of a lifetime.

I wish I had the time to tell the full story here, but I could never top what Gary has over on our La Carrera Blog, so I suggest you head over there and get a little of the full flavor of our accomplishment.

The bottom line is that after some 5000 total miles (if you include the tow down to Oaxaca and the road trip back), 7 days of pretty intense competition in an event we had zero experience in (open-road rallies are a whole different thing than sprint or endurance racing on a track, and being a passenger/navigator was a totally new experience for me), we finished 9th overall and 3rd in our very competitive class out of just over 90 teams, a stunning accomplishment for a rookie team, and one that far exceeded our expectations.

We shot in excess of 14 hours of beautiful HD video footage during the event (thanks to our embedded filmmaker Steffan Schulz of Strange Media) and about 8 hours of in-car footage. We'll be releasing some of the clips soon, and will be producing a documentary on our adventure for release to PBS, and other broadcast outlets, in addition to a release on DVD, shortly after the new year. If you are interested in getting on the list to purchase one of the DVD's, send me a note at jon.emerson@gmail.com, and let me know. I'll be sure to let you know when we're done.

Without the unwavering support and encouragement of my beautiful wife Jana, and her willingness to not only humor me with my crazy hobbies, but to step up and be the sole caregiver for our little girl for 10 days in my absence (all the while battling a cold), this would have remained but a fantasy for me. I cannot thank her, Natalie, and those loved ones around us that stepped up to offer her assistance enough for enabling me to have this experience. The memories will be with me for a lifetime.

As one of Jana's good friends said to her when I was gone "He's gone for how long? To where?!? And you let him do this?? Boy, you are a good wife!" Yes sugar, you are a very good wife, a great partner, and I love you and our little girl with all my heart. Thanks for letting me go and play with cars. I'm a very lucky man indeed.

Adios for now...

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