DJ - We say good morning to you from Italy. The sun is rising, coming up over the boot of Italy and shining on the Adriatic Sea from where we report to you as we begin Wednesday, October the 15th. This is my first visit to this side of Italy, opposite of Rome, and I'm surprised to see the expanse of beautiful beaches here. We're going to see much more in the course of our travel today, including visiting the independent principality of San Marino, which is one of the oldest independent democracies and political units anywhere in the world, dating back to a period of BC we understand.

Well here in the Paris Peking Motor Challenge some tension in the last few days of the competition, which, as we've explained, is based on time and distance. Everyday there is a measured distance and competitors have to perform against a prescribed route and perform that route based on not only minutes, but seconds. So for the course of the journey, now one and forty days, a 1940's vintage Ford Willys Jeep has lead the competition and scoring and the tension is that the Jeep is currently experiencing clutch difficulty and whether the clutch is going to complete the trip to Paris or have to be changed out is a question. Whether there will be a shift in the top five leaders would be affected by such a development. The second place team is from America in the 1950's Ford Coupe, the third place team is from the UK, the fourth place team is from Iran and the fifth place team is the second US Ford Coupe. The 1954 Packard is in a position that Carl and I feel quite satisfied about. We're in the middle of our class, currently ranked at sixth in the class of 13 vehicles of comparable CC horse power and size. We're also in the middle of all the cars that originally began the trip. So we think that that is a good place to be. Our goal was to arrive safely in Paris and we're very focused on accomplishing that. Although we have our own difficulties to deal with and at the moment, we're operating on a back-up fuel pump and hopeful that it will continue through the end of the journey.

Let me pause because Carl, who is always moving about, is nearby and let me have him come to give his comments for this Wednesday morning.

CS - Good morning from Rimini, Italy. We're looking out over the Adriatic as the sun rises and it is a spectacular sun rise after a rather stormy night last night. As Don said, the car is running great. Today we traveled through the oldest republic in the world, San Marino, one of those postage stamp countries. It's on the top of a mountain near Rimini. We'll proceed on to Maranello where we will have lunch at the Ferrari facility, then on to Lake Garda tonight. If anybody happens to hear from Narcelle, tell her I tried to reach her at the hotel in Paris and the hotel says she isn't there. We'll be in Reims Friday night and I think she has the hotel listing there. We're having a great time. The car is running fine. Roads are excellent. The camaraderie has gotten even more vociferous as we get closer and closer and the people realize that they have actually accomplished driving over some of the most difficult roads in the world. Don and I are very close to completing our Around the World trip and things look like we'll have everything set and settled with the car. Now here's Don.

DJ - Well, as you can tell, Carl is upbeat and his attitude has made it possible for us to get this far and it's an amazing process that not only the cars, but the people can persevere. That's not always the case. In the interest of sharing with you the experience, the tension level over the last few days has been pretty intense for some of the teams. It got to the point where one team, to be unnamed, had an exchange of fisticuffs in the front seat of the car and that resulted in the car being stopped and the co-driver being asked, or asking (depending on who's telling the story) to get out of the car. But peace was made several hours later and that relationship has been patched up. So intrigue inside the cars is part of the reality of a journey of this duration. I've returned to Italy after having visited here in May and began a physical part of the journey with receiving a Medallion from the Papacy and the Vatican. That Medallion has remained mounted inside the '54 Packard on the dash throughout the length of our trip. We've not taken it out anywhere and it's secure and safe on the dash of the '54 Packard. I'm also carrying a very special article from Peter Stone who shared with me a very special family heirloom - a medallion that has been in the lifetime of his parents and his lifetime blessed by three Popes. That important piece of the Stone family is with us and has been with us throughout the duration of the trip. Also, Mrs. Jim Avery has been thoughtful enough to provide us with a medal and medallion that has meant a great deal to her and we've succeeded safely carrying it with us. These artifacts that represent human beliefs and emotions have continued to be with us as we go forward in our trip and have safely gotten us this far.

Carl mentioned the weather. There has been an abrupt change in the weather. It's hard for us to tell what it means until we get out on the road today. We arrived in Italy with a gale force wind and a tremendous rain storm. The ship that we were on, in the last four hours, was having great difficulty getting into port and docking. It seems that the wind has passed through and has subsided this morning. But the implication is for the open cockpit cars. One of the drivers, as we reported, Hermann Layher from Germany, had to return because of pneumonia. He's back now after having been treated. But these open cockpit cars expose the driver's to these chilly wind chill temperatures and that has got to be a consideration. We're also told that there is some small amounts of snow in several of the passes of the Alps over which we do have to pass in the next 48 hours. So the weather, which up until now has not been a factor, appears to be coming a factor as we proceed across the European continent.

There are some remarkable political realities that we're exposed to as we make the journey. Most recently we have seen the implication of the Albanian and Kurd refugees in Greece and Italy. We saw incidents where refugees were trying to sneak onto the ship to transit from Greece to Italy. They were caught and physically kicked off the ship and then when the ship docked, it was discovered that there were some stowaways and they were apprehended. One of the Discovery Channel photographers saw it and took a picture of it. The Italian police then took away his camera and then make it inoperative. The refugees hide underneath the trailers of the semi trucks that are being loaded onto and off of the ship, which makes a 20 hour journey from Greece to Italy. So a sobering reality that for many people their lives are full of uncertainty and their circumstances are much lesser than most of us.

We want to quickly describe for you three human conditions/experiences as a result of this journey. It's been four years in the planning by Philip Young, the principal adventurer, entrepreneurial organizer and for many people, two years in the preparation. The Gulikers from the Netherlands prepared a 1960's vintage Chevrolet truck. It was organized, painted, prepared in every detail that you could image over a two year period so that they could succeed in making this trip. But it wasn't meant to be, even though they had one of the finest, most suitable pieces of equipment. Their journey was interrupted when they encountered, with great surprise and a very bad outcome, an open road ditch, somewhere back in China or Tibet. The car ran off the road and into a marsh and it was impossible for them to get back into the event. Mr. Guliker is still here because he's returned after going home to be a volunteer to help the officials conduct the final phase of the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge. Hermann Layher, Hermann the German, and his car, a 1907 La France, had a break down in China. He had to have his car shipped by railroad at great expense extracted by the Chinese, back to Peking. The car was then flown to Frankfurt, Germany and then flown over to Istanbul, Turkey. Hermann himself also developed pneumonia in one of his lungs, was treated in Germany and has since returned with the car at the Turkish/Greece border. But he's not in the best of health and it's going to be interesting to see if he's going to be able to get to Paris, which has been a dream of his. His family operates a well known automotive and aviation museum in Germany. The third story we want to tell you about is the story of an American Father and son team, the Noz's. They are Dutch and the Father immigrated to Oakdale, California, near San Francisco. Their car, a 1930's Ford Model A Roadster, had the engine fail in Peking. Now the reason we tell you about the Noz's is that they have made the entire trip thus far by train, by truck, by any means possible. They've had to make some extraordinary arrangements in order to be a part of coming along on the journey. They have succeeded in doing so. They are here in Italy having used whatever means possible to get here. For example, it wasn't possible for them to get into any of the cars because they were all occupied with the drivers and co-drivers, but they have been determined to remain part of the event and they have succeeded in doing so, even though their car, which they shipped from San Francisco to Peking, this lovely Ford Roadster truck had the engine fail just as they were leaving Peking. So a lot of human stories and we've even begun to learn some of the stories as we've had time to interact with some of the other drivers and co-drivers, such as David Wilks of the UK, whose pistons failed back in Turkey. A friend flew to Istanbul, Turkey with pistons and he stayed up all night to replace the pistons in the engine in Istanbul and completed the task and turned on the key of the car just an hour before the starting time as we were leaving Istanbul. We wanted to personalize this experience by telling you some of these stories.

Lastly, we've received a slug (How's that for a descriptive word?) of E-Mail as a result of the 20 hours that we spent crossing of the Ionian and Adriatic Sea and we'll just highlight some of it. Many of Carl's family members have written, including Karen and Lisa. Alan Bobillot, the creator of the 1954 Packard in California. Many of Carl's friends have been in touch and that's brought him great joy. They include people whose names I'm seeing for the first time. Monk, who sent an E-Mail. Jack and Lois Doyle from Vermillion, South Dakota. Mark Lamb from San Francisco has been in touch with Carl, as well as, Tony, Mary, Katie, Dee Dee and Christy, all from Bellevue, Washington and very special people in the Schneider family. We've also received messages from people that we've met along the way. Robert Wenngren from Lahore, Punjab Pakistan. We want him to know we've received his E-Mail. And from Nainital in India, Veeresh Malik, the host of a television program there has follow-up with a message and we want him to know that it's reached us here in Italy. On behalf of the Jones family, I want to thank Joseph, our son, for telling me about the Packers/Bears game. The Packers succeeded in pulling out a victory. And our daughter Carol in California. Also friends of our daughter Mary. Billy Hicks from Raleigh, North Carolina has been in touch and Cliff Lang from Oregon, Illinois, whose daughter Beth is a friend of our daughter Mary, at St. Mary's in Indiana. We've also heard from some our business associates. Bill Allen of West Bend and Tom Baker of Fond du Lac tell us about the bank board discussions about our safety and well being and we want to assure them we're in good health and we definitely will return. Jim and Joanne Keck of Rapid City, South Dakota have been in touch with Carl. We received an E-Mail from Bob Colletta who is the Senior Managing Officer of General Motor's Buick Division. He was glad to hear that the Buick from Singapore is back in the competition and he is on his way to Paris to welcome the cars at the completion of the journey. Brian Jones, our nephew, and Derrick Jones are in contact, as well as Joe and Nancy Tomasetti of Milan, Italy and Cedar Grove, Wisconsin. And to Mohsen Salek of Cupertino, California, we want him to know that we will do the Iranian account at some point when we can possibly find the time and the place to get that accomplished. Thanks Korbie for your comments about the hats. The hats are going to be distributed to all of the competitors tomorrow at the famous Lake Garda here in Italy. Our thanks to so many who are following our journey. It has really made it extra, extra special and we continue to welcome your comments as we go forward now through Italy, into Germany and ultimately, into France.

We have three days remaining, a lot can happen. It's Peking or Perish at this point. You're never quite sure what's going to happen to you if you have a mechanical failure or something can still go wrong. In fact, the closer you get to your goal, often the more likely the odds are that something might and could go wrong. We hope not, we'll continue to persevere. Finally, Tom Day from Sterling, Virginia has something to say by E-Mail that I thought was very descriptive of our experience and his experience. He says he has enjoyed reading the journal. He drove a '69 LTD coast to coast twice in the United States. He says there's something relaxing in a way about being on the road like that. Your worries and needs are very limited. Will the car keep going? Where will I get gas? Where will I sleep? All of the ambiguities that plague one from day to day in our lives seem to melt away. So good luck to Tom Day of Sterling, Virginia and we thank him for the acknowledgment that he understands the pleasure and the joy that comes from this extraordinary experience of traveling around the world. We're making arrangements not only to go to Paris, but to finish up our Around the World trip by going back to Times Square in New York. We'll tell you more about that in another report. So many of you have described these accounts as like Charles Kuralt or Lowell Thomas. It's really an extraordinary honor and privilege to share these experiences with you. We'll say so long for now until our next update further down the road. On behalf of Carl, this is Don saying good-bye - how do they say good-bye in Italian? I'll have to brush up on my Italian. Have got to exchange some currency. It's 1700 Lire to one US dollar. Arrivederci, that's how they good-bye in Italian. So long from Italy. We'll see you in 24 hours with another update.