Rally Chaser

I drove off with my printed map. Got about 20 km and realized that a printed map wasn't going to do me jack the moment I got off track. I have a Garmin 60CSx and a dash mount, but the one time I used it for on the fly turn by turn navigation, going to a wedding in Texas in the rain (it actually snowed later, in April!) we found ourselves on backroads, then water crossings. So I didn't want to risk it. I returned to rent the Garmin Nuvi GPS and flirt more with Kinga. Ten euro per day, sheesh, which is a LOT considering that the greenback has become the greenbhat. Better to mount them BOTH in the van and see if my 60CSx performs as it should.

I got to the Hotel Stadion without missing a turn, at about 11:30 PM. Clearly I was in the right place as the front of the hotel and the vacant lot across the street were both filled with Dakar vehicles, including the Rally Pan Am Ford XLT Super Duty that I have seen in San Francisco before.

I parked the VW van, a nice diesel affair, and went in to check in. The lobby and adjacent bar was filled with foreign teams, chatting, smoking and drinking. I guess the Rally Pan Am fellers have more sense than to be out carousing until midnight, though tomorrow isn't a race day.

Charlie (RPA head honcho) had set me up with a room with another team member, which is super awesome of him, but I knew I would be up late shooting, dealing with unpacking all my crap that was packed just to get it all here rather than in the right bag (the photography bag, the backpack, etc) for following the event. Also I snore like mad, though I have a CPAP machine coming which will fix that. Coming when I get back to San Francisco.

Anyway tomorrow (well, today, in two hours) we meet for breakfast in the lobby at 7 AM, then a team photo. My van gets scrutineered with the rest of the team vehicles at 1PM. Enough time to get a cargo van, to prevent me from having to remove the seats of the VW and strap them to the roof of the Ford n order to move one of the bikes during a liaison stage. Which I'll do, because being involved like that is a complete kick in the pants. I wish Sid was around, though.

As you can see, gentle reader, I stopped outside to shoot some vehicles. Then back to the room to "develop" them and sort them. Then hours of hacking on the HTML that Aperture spits out to get the bloody ads in there - never mind the navigation. Oh hell, maybe I'll hack the navigation and just stay up. I took some breaks to sort the room, sort of plan the pack and the bags for tomorrow. Talked to my pal Ilan, who lives here now. Hopefully we'll go get some dinner. He wants to take me to some rave at one of the many amazing mineral baths here but I have a feeling I'm going to want to sleep tomorrow. Especially with the event following that, and me needing to pack. At least nothing needs to be compressed to a fine, 30 kg paste in my bags, as I'll be moving into the VW and living out of it with Miro for for about four days of racing.

I also talked to Shauna, and did a little brain dump. She just got word of having been awarded a fellowship for the 2008 Banff World Television Festival. The girl is charmed, but that can't be all there is to it. Tomorrow I imagine we'll even meet in person. I'll also meet my van passenger for the trip, cameraman Miro. Shawna hooked up with a "TOP photographer" who would love to drive around the city with us today for some photo ops. Sounds like a plan. Having owned a DSLR camera for six days now - and never an SLR or DSLR before then - I can use all the osmosis I can get. I wonder if I'll even turn the video camera on.

I'm on the 8th floor. The birds are chirping and there is the tiniest stripe of orange on the horizon. I guess my room faces west. So I'm looking home, wondering about what the day will bring.