DJ - We have arrived in the city of Istanbul. Welcome to the update with Carl and Don. It is with joy, gratitude, and a real sense of accomplishment that we greet you from this exceptional city in this part of the world, Istanbul. We entered this city by crossing one of two major bridges across the Straits of the Bosporus, in the late afternoon. It was a little bit like entering Manhattan by way of the New Jersey turnpike and the Lincoln tunnel during rush hour. The six lane highway narrowed down to four lanes across a magnificent bridge that stretches across the Bosporus Straits. Istanbul has been for centuries a region capital of this part of the world. By transferring the land mass, that is to the west of city, Asia and Asia minor, one crosses over on to the land mass that is Europe. That is where we speak to you at midday on Friday October the 10th. We are just relieved to be in Istanbul. It has taken a lot to get this far in our journey from Peking to Paris. Everybody who has arrived here is in a celebratory mood, with dinner and an awards presentation scheduled for tonight, Friday October the 10th. The awards, I think, are going to be for some of the sillier and fun things that were memorable along the route thus far from Peking, not so much for any competitive awards. We will report to you how that turns out.

We can report to you that Turkey is a beautiful country. We understand that an exceptional fall season has settled in the Midwest of the United States and our favorite place to be Wisconsin. In checking in with family and friends we understand that the temperatures have been very pleasant, 70's and 80's, and the fall colors are in full blossom. That breathtaking time of the year that we call autumn. I can also report to you however that it is autumn and fall here in Turkey. The temperatures are equivalent, 79 degree Fahrenheit. There is a lot of color across the countryside. Farmers are doing fall plowing. It appears there is a second growing season here, so farmers are drilling grains into the soil for the second crop of the season. Agriculture is a big part of the economy here. As you drive across Turkey from village to village you see different produce commodities that are grown in the local community and sold at roadside produce stands. Thus we came across a village where the specialty was cabbage and we saw these extraordinary sized cabbages that Carl exaggerated about in one of our updates.

Istanbul is a city that had an extraordinary amount of growth over the last two decades. Local citizens tell us that 20 years ago the population was 1 million people. Today Istanbul's population is reported to be between 13 and 14 million, which is as much as 18 to 20 percent of the total population of Turkey of approximately 70 million. The city of Istanbul reached out for 50km before you arrive in the center of the city. There is an extraordinary amount of economic development occurring here, with high rise buildings and industrial commercial buildings under construction. As you drive across Turkey you also see a lot of abandoned building projects, the victims of another extraordinary phenomenon, that is inflation. In May of 1996 the exchange rate for the dollar was 6,700 to 1. In October of 1997 the exchange rate is 167,000 Turkish lira to 1 US dollar. Consequentially, a lot of social pressure and a lot of discontent underline the present economic and the public attitudes in Turkey.

We have the experience of driving a toll highway motorway that stretches from Anakara to Istanbul, the distance of 500km. It is a magnificent motorway of six lanes. But oddly there is very little traffic on the motorway. One of the explanations given is that local people can not afford the approximate dollar to two dollar toll fare to use the motorway. Those few cars that are on the motorway travel at exceptional rates of speed, 80 to 100 miles an hour. There are a few transport trucks on the highway but it is a strange feeling to be on a four and six lane highway with very few vehicles anywhere in the vicinity of you as you travel across this highway.

The 1954 Packard, on this day of rest, is in the local garage receiving attention to breaks, which have become soft, and trying to sort out the fire in the electric wiring that we experienced when we entered Turkey at the Iran border which has knocked out some of our systems such as windshield wipers. While it is a beautiful, clear, sunny fall day, we are anticipating that it might rain one day and we may need the windshield wipers. So the car is getting some mechanical attention which is a discipline that we feel is necessary to successfully and safely complete our journey. A lot of other cars are getting mechanical attention, the Bel Air Chevrolet station wagon operated by Bud from Florida and supported by the Fortune family of Florida. The Fortunes were unable at the last minute to make the trip because of family health considerations. In any event the Bel Air Chevrolet station wagon had an electrical fire, right on the bridge crossing the Bosporus Straits at 4:30 in the middle of the traffic congestion of the afternoon. The fire was put out with an extinguisher and it was remarkable the car was able be driven off the bridge and is in the garage getting attention at this moment. An Italian car has lost an oil pump. The Morris Minor that had a repair to its piston is once again experiencing engine difficulty and is getting attention. Two cars have returned from way back down the road. The Buick from Singapore had a rebuilt engine somewhere over the several 100km and the drivers of that vehicle have caught up. They were consuming as much as a gallon of oil at one time in that V8 engine a day. They had repairs made and they are back here in Istanbul. A car, referred to as an Allard from the nation of Malta, has had an extraordinary amount of difficulty. The two men that are operating that car have been able to get repair to the torque drive shaft and are once again back in the competition.

The weather here has been very pleasant fall weather. Actually, through the entire trip we have been blessed with good weather conditions. The cars that you see here in the public streets, here in Istanbul, are German and French in origin with a few American cars but very few. Curiously, the second language of Turkey is not English, in fact it is German. Because for the last several years many people have migrated to Germany, as many as 2 million currently from Turkey are said to be in Germany. This has created some controversy and public unrest in Germany. As a result of decades of people moving back and forth to Germany, curiously enough as you attempt to carry on conversations with Turks the second language of choice is German and not English. In fact the English language is a little difficult here in Turkey. We would highly recommend the visit to Turkey. It is really a beautiful country, starting with the mountains in the west and gradually descending across the country to sea level. The Bosporus Straits connect the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea. It is just a very beautiful city. My wife, Terri, and I had the occasion to visit Istanbul in the fall of last year. We remarked then, and I still feel today, that Istanbul is one of those cities that you would like to visit more that once. They have an extraordinary bazaar here that goes for not only block but miles and one can get lost in the bazaar for an entire day without any difficulty. It seemed curious to us a year ago that John F. Kennedy Jr., when he got married, chose Istanbul as a place for his honeymoon. It is very cosmopolitan, very congested, very active, very modern, and very comfortable city.

We are at this moment on the second major stage of our trip to Paris, the first being Katmandu in Nepal, and now Istanbul. Our travels have brought us 10,000km at this point with approximately 3,000km to go to Paris. There are 260km to the border of Greece, which we reach tomorrow. Then we will be spending three days traversing Greece. After that early next week we will leave Greece and enter Italy by way of the Adriatic Sea and a ferry crossing. We will be arriving on the shore of Italy, opposite Rome, at the city of Rimini. Our trip for next week takes us into Austria, Germany, and ultimately arriving in France, the city of Reims, on Friday, with our entry into Paris scheduled for Saturday, October 18th, a week from tomorrow. With God's will and our skill, we will be there.

Well that is an overview. Some closing comments, in our next update we are going to present our reflections on Iran, as we have said that we will. In some upcoming updates we are going to have some guests, I would like for you to be aware of because these are quite interesting and exceptional people. They include Duncan and Brian Ashby from Great Britain, who are driving a 1930 Delage coupe, an open cockpit automobile. What is unique about Duncan and Brian is that they are father and son. There are about six father/son and father/daughter teams in the event. Not all young adults, but middle aged adults. There are about a dozen cars that have open cockpits. As much as we think that we are doing quite well with the modern 1954 Packard, there are people who have no cover to their vehicle only open coupes. In the tradition of the originators of this events, in 1907 and 1908, they traveled in open automobiles at that time as well. So we will have Duncan and Brian Ashby to share some of their exciting experiences. Jeanine Hill, a well know figure in Great Britain, is an author of 15 popular best seller novels. We will have her as guest commentator. We will also have John Matheson, who is a neurosurgeon from Australia. We wish that there were more days and more updates because there are just a lot of interesting people who make up the group of competitors and fellow challengers in the Peking to Paris Rally. So we have invited those three to join us over the next week. We think you will find them quite fascinating.

A few emails that we want to acknowledge. Our daughter, Carol, sends an update and for that we say thank you. We look forward to seeing her in Paris. I do want to remark about family and friends communication. When the prospect of this unusual journey was presented to me, one of my concerns was about the potential for isolation and the prospect of having an experience that would divide one from their family and friends. I must say that the use of the toll free telephone exchange information updates and the internet transcripts and commentaries have had just the opposite effect. It has drawn our family and friends, as I had hoped, into their awareness and sharing of this experience. That has made it even more positive. I have talked to other competitors who feel they are in fact isolated and unable to explain and comment to their family members how it is going and what it has been like. Consequentially, it has been difficult for them. I must say that I want to celebrate and give thanks for the communications flow, which has gone both way from us to our family and friends and back from our family and new friends as well. We received an email that brought a chuckle to us. That been from Tabitha Estabrook of New York, who read in the Financial Times and joined us on the internet site to comment about her remembrances of an extraordinary trip made in the 1990's. She and a co-traveler by the name of Jimmy Rogers, from New York City, took BMW motorcycles around the world. They traveled some 60,000 miles. They traveled many, many countries and all the continents, I believe. They wrote a best seller book on the subject which was very popular in the United States. It described in their journals their experiences. For her email message and good wishes to us, we thank Tabitha Estabrook, who we do not know but who we know of, for being in contact with us.

To summarize then, we have arrived in Istanbul. Two thirds of the way to Paris. A week from tomorrow, if it is possible, we will enter the city of Paris in the 1954 Packard. An achievement for the Packard which many of the competitors will tell you as recently as this morning, some of the Germans were commenting they did not think that it was possible. But anything is possible when one endures, perseveres, and does what is necessary to accomplish a goal. We are in good health. Having our laundry done, that is another important day off task. We are setting our sites on Greece and then on into the rest of Europe. We thank you for joining us on this update. We will back with in another 24 hours with further comments. On behalf of Carl this Don saying good-bye from Istanbul, the queen city in Turkey.