DJ - Good morning from our part of the world. Guten Morgan! We are in Deutschland (Germany). Today we enter France and just a few hundred miles away from our overnight stay today in Reims, France, the champagne country, is the capital city of France, Paris, our ultimate destination on Peking or Perish. This is Don, along with Carl, reaching you from near the lake country of Germany, Bodensee, which is a place where the borders of Germany, Switzerland and Austria come together. A lot of history in this region, dating back centuries. Carl talks about Lindau, a city in this region, being one of the oldest places of humanity in all of Europe. Carl being of German heritage is meeting a lot of people who have the name Schneider and is given an extra special welcome here in Germany. All of the Schneider family will enjoy knowing that. Carl has also been a visitor to this area many times over the years and is very familiar with the roads. That makes traveling through this region more interesting. The scenery in this part of Europe is just spectacular. We've had rainy and cloudy weather so we've not been able to enjoy it under ideal conditions, but it's that part of Europe that people just rave about. All kinds of lakes and forests and trees and mountains. A place where there are all the seasons, Winter, Summer, Autumn, Spring. It's just a very exceptionally beautiful location.

In the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, 80 cars continue to advance to the destination and the Ford Willys Jeep continues to be leading the pack based on the system that we've talked about of calculating who is leading and that is based on time, minutes and seconds. The Americans in the 1950 Ford Coupes are right behind, as well as, the Iranians and the Brits. So it will be an interesting finish right down to the wire, although it's now a matter of who makes any mistakes that will probably determine the ultimate outcome.

There are beginning to be some family reunions as families join up with competitors here in Germany. John Bryson from Australia was joined by his wife and two sons from Australia. John is the chap we told you about way back in China who wears a tie every day. We want to report to his associates in Australia that he still has that tie on and it was fun watching John greet his two young sons and have a family reunion. We've seen other reunions along the route. The Italian competitors met their families as we passed through Italy, as did the competitors of Greece and Iran as we traveled through their homelands. Well it will be our turn at the end of this day for a family reunion as members of the Schneider family, Narcelle and a couple of Schneider daughters will be meeting us in Reims and the Jones family will be traveling from Wisconsin to Reims, Joseph, Carol, Mary and Terri. We're all looking forward to embracing them and seeing them for the first time is six weeks. One of the longest periods in our adult life of being away from our immediate family. Many family members were in touch with us by E-Mail so we do not feel that we were totally removed from our family. I just want to quickly mention Mom Jones, who made it all possible for me to be here and to intellectually enjoy an experience like this. I know that she is not physically here, but I do know that she's been doing a lot of extra sewing I've been told lately, because word reaches me that her buttons have been bursting over pride at our success at getting this far down the road. Grandpa Carl is clogging the Internet with a lot of messages from his many grandchildren, Veronica, Ethan and Sabrina have been all in touch and it's fun for them to use the Internet and E-Mail and to educate Grandpa on what it's like to be in touch in the digital world.

We want to comment that we're going to have our Iranian update and reflection after the weekend, which has been postponed twice. We assure those who are interested in our thoughts on Iran, which we feel obliged to make because of the uniqueness of the American experience in Iran that we definitely will do that. I would expect that it will be done toward the end of the weekend or early next week when we'll be reflecting somewhat on the trip in general and we'll include a special update just about Iran.

Looking back down the road a couple of days, we didn't tell you that we had the experience of visiting the Ferrari Museum and the nearby factory facilities and we'll give our impressions of that rather unique automotive site. This Italian village is Maranello where the factory is located and coming upon Ferrari in that location gave me the impression of the Kohler Company in Kohler, Wisconsin. The factory, the museum, the restaurant, the test track, everything associated with Ferrari is located in this remote Italian village, Maranello. Just as the Kohler Company is located Kohler, Wisconsin, or some of the technology companies in California are located in the Milpitas community. All congregating in that area. 2,000 people are employed at Ferrari, about 1,700 work in the automotive production, about 300 in the competitive racing division. They produce about 1,500 cars a year and the price of the car begins at $150,000 and you can buy one completely outfitted with everything, all the bells and whistles, for about half a million dollars. On the nearby race track, while we were enjoying lunch at Ferrari, we could hear the roar and the hum of a test car and we told that Michael Schumacher, who is the international competitive automobile racing driver, was testing a Ferrari on the race track. It was an interesting sound to hear, sort of like the whine of the Indianapolis 500.

Let me hand the telephone for this update to my co-driver, my co-survivor, a person for whom I have great respect and regard and here's Carl.

CS - Good morning. We leave this morning to go through the Black Forest, traversing from the southeast to the northwest and then into the champagne country. Beautiful part of Germany, a beautiful part of the world and that brings back many fond memories. Last night we were joined by a number of German automobile enthusiasts at the rather remote Park Hotel here overlooking the Bondensee. My friend, Kraus Mueller, one of the old car enthusiasts from Munich drove down just to see the cars and have a beer with us. We've met a lot of new people who are friends of Kraus', so we had kind of a little party last night. The trip today seems almost a little anticlimactic as I know the roads are going to be good and we will be able to drive with some speed. I want to thank everybody that's been sending E-Mails to us, my grandchildren and the Tip Club. Send a message to Patrick O'Dell if somebody can get a hold of him. I'll be in Eureka on Monday and would like to sit down with him and get everything set for our planned venture. If Ed is listening, I'll be in Monday. Again, thanks to everyone for the E-Mail we've had. The adventure continues on across Germany into the champagne country and to the place de concord, in Paris, France. Carl Schneider signing off.

DJ - Well it's Friday, October the 17th. The onset of Winter is sort of evident in this part of Europe as we've talked about the snow and rain and the Fall leaves are turning. They haven't had Indian Summer yet, so let's hope that will set in for us over the weekend as we arrive in Paris. We'll be breaking out the big Stars 'n Stripe, the American Flag and hopefully lowering the convertible top on the Packard and entering Paris with a lot of joy tomorrow about mid day.

Some comments in response to E-Mail messages which we have so greatly enjoyed receiving so many. Our friend, Kevin Egan, from Minneapolis, Minnesota tells us that he was in Accra Gahna in Africa and he was able to follow our progress on the Web and it's fun to hear from friends and family, and Kevin, we want you to know that your message was received. I've learned about the Tip Club in Eureka, California from Dan Marchetti. Carl tells me the business world developments are talked about every Thursday afternoon by 40 or 50 members of the Tip Club in California. It's been fun to hear how that organization operates. We received a message from Pia in Sweden wanting to know if we saw other Packards on the trip and the only other Packard is a 1935 one, which is entered by Don Saunders, one of the competitors. I don't know that on the road we saw another Packard at all. So there aren't too many about. We had some questions about the future of the Packard and we're making plans to have the Packard end up in Dayton, Ohio at the Packard Museum. First we have to have it cross the Atlantic and return to Times Square in New York to complete our journey around the world and that is in our plans to do so. To my Aunt Rita and her wonderful family in Cleveland, Ohio, congratulations to the Cleveland Indians who now find themselves in the World Series, amazingly with the Florida Marlins. My Aunt Rita tells me we have an extended family member in Paris who I can reach by E-Mail and I'll try to do that today. And I thank Rita for her prayers and for her message, which I want her to know we did receive. To some young men who I care very much about in the business world and to their success, the fellows in Austin, Texas at AIM Technologies, Todd Caven, Matt Gephardt, Matt Hood and Tim Keyes. To all of them, I want them to know I received their E-Mail and I look forward to getting back together and pursuing the vision and the goals that AIM Technologies has in the business world. One of our big fans on the web site and the Internet is in Mesa, Arizona and I think the award for perhaps the most enthusiastic and the most glowing and upbeat E-Mail messages goes to Dawn O'Bar. And Dawn, we received every E-Mail that you have sent and it's been exciting to hear your enthusiasm and to know that you've enjoyed following our trip. A lot of feeling that goes into what I'm about to say about our last E-Mail acknowledgment. And that's to Chic and Arlene Kleptz in Dayton, Ohio and Maples, Florida. We've received an E-Mail, lengthy message from Arlene who went back from China after the Kleptz's 1909 Marmon had a series of mechanical problems and she got on the Internet and she has learned how to use the computer to communicate and Chic, I'm sure is standing over her shoulder giving her suggestions on what to say. We want Arlene to know that here in Germany we received her E-Mail and her account about how they returned home and how they were really disappointed at not being able to complete the journey. We want Arlene to know that 36 automobiles were either towed or trucked in the course of the route. 94 began the journey and at this moment, 80 are continuing to go down the road. That figure varies everyday as a couple struggle to do so. We know that the Kleptz's, along with the Brooks' in Iowa will be toasting and enjoying their remembrances of the Peking to Paris Rally Saturday at the same time that the gala is underway in Paris. I'm sure it will be another time down the road when we'll meet and we want the Kleptz's to know that we consider them very much a part of this experience. We think that things do work out for a reason as Arlene said in her E-Mail and maybe it was not intended for the Marmon to go over the Himalayas. I assure you it was extremely difficult and while it was, and is, a good feeling to have accomplished it, I can now, in hindsight, say that it's not the thing to do for everyone and for every piece of equipment, certainly Hermann the German knows that. He has acknowledged that it was an impossible thing for the 1907 La France to make it over the Himalayas. So the Kleptz's are with us in thought from Dayton, Ohio and we want Arlene and Chic to know that we have lots of photo images to share with them when we digest this experience. We thank so many for all of your words and encouragement and we'll continue, for a number of days, to place information here on the update and on the web site.

I think that kind of summarizes what our circumstances are this day, Friday, October the 17th, one day before our stated goal of arriving in Paris on October the 18th. We'll have an update for you later in this day, at the end of our day here in Germany. On behalf of Carl, this is Don, from the Bodensee Lake (Lake Constance) in Lake Country and Black Forest Country. Today we'll be crossing another great river of the world, the Danube River will be crossed on our journey today. Another experience. So long from Germany. Auf Wiedersehen. We'll see you on the next update with Don and Carl.