We've now had a few days to see the sigths in Beijing and its not exactly what I expected - but then again, I really didn't know what to expect.

 

Yesterday we walked from the hotel down to Tiananmen Square which is just south of the Forbidden City. Streets are very crowded with cars, bikes, scooters and people trying to cross. I'm amazed more bicyclists aren't killed here - there doesn't seem to be much in the way of right of way or rules of any kind. More like survival of the fittest. Luckily, to cross the multi-lane road that divides the square from the Forbidden City there is an underground passage.

 

Was also interesting for me to see what types of cars are on the road. Taxis are almost all Hyundais, and the cars I seem to see the most are Buicks and Audis. Amost always black, mostly large with dark tinted glass. There is a smattering of other European models like Peugeot, Citroen, BMW, but very few Toyotas or Hondas. ALso seems that 90% of the cars are black or gray. Did see a cool bright red Buick 4-door hatch today, but not sure what type it was.

 

We did finally make it over to the square. I never expected to have the chance to visit the place of a huge protest agaist the Chinese government in 1989 which was ended quite violently by the Chinese military. (Interesting note - in using the web to search for Tiananmen Square, links to stories about the protest do not work - apparently those pages have been sensored.) Obviously, there is no memorial or mention of any kind of the events that took place there 20 years ago. There was, however, a very large sign counting down the seconds until the start of the 2008 Olympic games.

 

Leaving the square and passing the Mao Memorial museum, we headed of the main route down a narrow alley of small shops. Compared to the large hotels and stores that we had passed on the way to the square, this was the complete opposite. These shops were quite small, selling fruits and vegetables, steamed dumplings, noodles, and other items we were unsure of. There was a bicycle repair shop that was doing a big business, as there seem to be more bikes than cars. On these narrow alleys, traffic was heavy with bikes, 2-wheelers as well as three-wheeled trikes that were carrying all manner of goods.

 

Surprisingly there were a few restaurants with English writing - not sure if they're hopnig for tourists or if it is just the hip thing to do. Even when the olympics are going on, I just don't see alot of tourists heading into this area. It is very dirty and dusty, and the houes seem to be on the verge of falling down. OSHA inspectors would run screaming from this place.

 

We wandered through many areas like this - the roads seem to go on for ever. Living in these areas is quite different than the luxury we are used to in the west. Water from the tap is not safe to drink (even in our hotel), and based on the multiple locations of publicly-available phones, most probably don't have phones of their own.

 

Walking back towards the Forbidden City, we realized how much new construction is going on. It seems that there are bricks piled on every sidewalk for repairing or building new buildings. Bricks are bundled in small packets of 6 bricks and hauled to the location by bicycle - most of which look like they are 30 years old at best. I can't imagine American workers doing this, but I don't remember seeing any pickup trucks in any of our walks, so perhpas this is the only option.

 

Taking a break to get some lunch - will write more soon.

 

So I haven't put an entry in this blog in a really long time, but seemed like the perfect place to put my observations on my first trip to Beijing. After 17 hours of travelling, most of which was on a plane, we arrived in Bejing last night around 10:00 pm local time. 15 hour difference from Seattle, but arriving exhausted at night seems like a great way to combat jet lag.

 

Walking out of the terminal to the taxi, I was so happy to finally get some fresh air. As we set off, I immeditately rolled down the window to get a blast of cool air in my face. After about 5 minutes my eyes were burning and the smell was not exactly what I would call fresh - I had forgotten that the air quality in Beijing is not ideal, and blasting my face with it was probably not the smartest idea.

 

The ride in was uneventful, although we did have to stop three times to get directions. Hotel is nice - we'll probably head to the Forbidden City today to get some pictures, although looking out the window, it is quite hazy - perhaps it is always like that.

 

More Later.

 

 

This was my last day in my Ferrari, but it was one of the most interesting. We were driving from Dallas to Houston, via Rockdale, TX, to stop at the Alcoa plant. Alcoa supplies the aluminum spaceframe for the 599 GTB, and is also one of the sponsors of the Panamerican 20,000. There were three stops at Alcoa plants along the 20,000 mile trek, but this was the only one in the U.S.

 

Rockdale is small Texas town, and the Ferraris arriving was a very big deal.

 

About 20 miles out, we joined up with our police escort that took our entourage (Ferraris, Alfas, etc...) into Rockdale, When we got into town, the Alfas moved aside so the Ferraris could make their entrance. They had blocked off the streets around the train depot (they've renovated this building back to its original style - looks great) and we drove in. The place was packed - they even had school busses bring in kids - just to see the Ferraris.

 

As we drove in, people were cheering, and we made a good show revving the engines. We parked the cars in the designated areas, and people just swarmed round them. They were giving tours of the depot, the local Ferrari club was there, they even had a few longhorn cattle to add to the festivities. This was a big deal for the town, as the Alcoa plant builds these spaceframes, but none of them had seen the finished product.

 

After a few speeches from the Alcoa Location Manager, as well as a few of the Ferrari folks, we hopped back in the cars for the escorted drive to the Alcoa plant. A few guys in a pickup truck pulled along side us yelling "we want to hear it.". I downshifted to first and floored it - its sounds just like an F1 car. They were all smiles, giving us thumbs up.

 

At the Alcoa plant it was a similar situation. Many workers out to see the car, more speeches, then we drove the cars into the plant for another photo op with large slabs of aluminum.

 

From there, two of the Alcoa folks got to get into the cars with us for the drive to lunch. My passenger was Matthew Pistner, the location manager. The drive to lunch was a few miles - all on Alcoa property - so I gave him an idea of what accelleration is like in a V12-powered Ferrari. He really enjoyed the ride. In fact, he asked me to sign a picture of the car. Another women at lunch also asked for my autograph - just because I was the driver. Have to say, that was a first for me.

 

At lunch there were more speeches, great bbq, exchange of gifts - they got Ferrari t-shirts, we got Alcoa shirts, and cowboy hats.

 

It was finally time to leave, and my journey was reaching its end. I had a 7:00 pm flight out of houston, and we were still a few hours away. I put my luggage in the Ferrari, and the tentative plan was for me to split off from the group when we got to Houston and head to the airport, where Adriano would then take the car. However, when we got close to the turnoff, we pulled over, and they took my keys away. I had to ride the rest of the way to the airport in a Buick Rendezvous.

 

This was one of the most amazing adventures I have ever experienced. The people were incredibly nice, and made a fantastic team. I am so jealous that they get to go all the way to New York. But at least I got to drive part of this special trip.

 

This will be a tough one to top.

The fourth day of my Ferrari adventure began in Childress, TX. We headed south in our caravan of Italian cars (plus a few) to find good places for photography. The Ferrari folks were looking for oil wells - that is what they think of when they think of Texas. We expected to see many of them, but didn't.

 However, the route we were taking to Dallas took us through a number of small towns. Our first stop was Paducah, TX. This town was set up just how many small towns were all over the country. A large brick building (in this case, the library) in the center of a square block, with storefronts surrounding it on all sides. Except this was basically a ghost town. No, not completely abandoned, but there was nobody to be seen, and almost all the stores in the square were out of business. It was like everybody had left. There were a few stores and a Texaco open on the main street, but that was about it. Two blocks from the square, roads went from pavement to dirt. And it was pretty certain that there hadn't been any Ferraris driving around this town in the recent past.

We got some great pictures as the two 599s were driven around the square. Their V12 snarl echoed off all the buildings - could here it clearly even when the cars were out of sight. I'm surprised the sound didn't attract any attention, but we didn't see a soul.

The next town we stopped in was Crowell. It wasn’t much larger, and there were still plenty of closed stores and abandoned houses, but there were people around and they were very friendly. Several of us were on the corner of Main St. and some other street with cameras and a woman stopped her pickup truck to find out what was going on. She thought it was so great that we had come to their town, welcomed us and wished us a safe journey.

We parked the Ferraris for a short time in front of the town’s new activity center, and the folks came out to check out the cars. One gentleman took a guess at how much the cars cost. He thought $60,000. When I told him $260,000, his eyes just went wide.

We headed out of town, continuing to look for oil wells. We did find a few, but not exactly what the Ferrari folks were looking for.

We stopped for lunch at an Italian restaurant in Decatur. They brought bread out to the table and Luca, one of Ferrari’s photographers, looked around the table, then went outside and came back with his large bottle of olive oil he brought with him from Italy. Very amusing.

After lunch we planned to find the Sourthfork Ranch that was in the Dallas TV series – apparently this show was quite popular in Italy. However, after getting fuel, my car started to vibrate at speeds over 80 kph. We stopped, and Adriano took over to see what the problem was. He ended up driving the rest of the way to Dallas at a very slow 80 kph, or about 50 mph. I took a nap in the passenger seat.

We found that a weight had come off the left front tire, causing it to be out of balance. They changed the tire and wheel, and everything was fine.

We spent the night in Dallas, and Monday was a scheduled stop at the Alcoa plant.

We started out our third day of driving in Albuquerque, NM, on a beautiful crisp, clear morning. As all the gear was loaded into the Chevy Express vans, the two Ferraris were started so they could warm up. I was told by Adreano that it needed 5 minutes. The cars were wiped down - not super clean, but removed most of the red mud from our trek through Monument Valley.

 

Getting the whole group ready to go is a bit like herding cats. There are about 20 people in the group, and everyone has to figure out where they are riding, who's driving the photographers, and what our route is to be. Unfortunately, the entire drive to Childress, TX was on the freeway. Aside from stopping for fuel (happens twice a day, typically) we drove straight through to Amarillo, TX at a pretty constant 70-80 mph.

 

The plan was to find Cadillac Ranch for some photo ops. We finally found it, and it was a bit of a dissapointment. Basically, Cadillac Ranch is just a big field next to the freeway with about a dozen Cadillacs stuck in the ground. We couldn't get the Ferraris any where close enough for a picture, so we stopped long enought to say we'd been there, and headed off.

 

Everywhere we stop, the cars attract alot of attention. We've been asked if we're a racing team, where are they from, where are we from, ow fast do they go, etc... But everyone knows they are Ferraris.

 

We decided that since we're in Texas, we should have BBQ for lunch. Found this touristy, but good, BBQ restaurant that had a big cowboy statue out in front. After lunch, there were a number of photos taken. Many of the waitresses came out to see the cars. One of the comments was that it even smelled good inside - love that Italian leather. They were really blown away with the sound of the engine starting up. As am I every time I hit that Start Engine button.

 

After Amarillo, we headed south for Childress. Not much excitement until we started going through a number of small towns approaching Childress. While the Ferrari folks driving the lead Alfa seemed very concerned about keeping our speed controlled on the freeway, they didn't get the concept of slowing down through small towns. We flew through one town, and apparently word got out because the local police were waiting for us when we got to the next town. The Ferraris had slowed down, but the Alfa got pulled over going 71 in a 45 zone. Luckily, the officer was very nice. He told them to slow it down, and wanted to hear about what we were doing. We provided him with a Ferrari T-shirt in thanks, and were on our way again. Slowly.

 

We arrived in Childress around sunset, and refueled the cars before heading to the hotel. The local police were waiting for us here as well, but we had slowed before coming into town.

 

The Shell station (Shell is a major sponsor, so we stop at Shell whenever possible) is on the main intersection of Childress, and I'm amazed we didn't cause an accident. The two Ferraris were parked right at the corner, and everyone driving through seemed to be looking at the cars rather than the road. We went to dinner at a steak house down the street, and the cashier had heard about the Ferraris and had gone out to see them. Word gets out fast.

 

Today we have a shorter drive, from Childress to Dallas. The plan is to get some pictures of the cars around some oil pumps.

 

I am getting close to the end of my participation. Bummer.

 

Got in too late last night to get logged in, so I'll catch up.

 

We left the Wynn hotel on 10/26 via van to head over to Las Vegas Speedway to pick up the cars. No, we didn't get to drive them at the track. Case is another member of the Fiat group (as is Ferrari), and they were doing a program at the speedway with a bunch of heavy equipment and the Ferraris. We arrived as the event was ending. There are only three of us journalists on this section of the Panamerican tour, so I have a car to myself. I got the blue one, the Japanese journalists got the red one.

 

My passenger to start out was Adriano, the lead Ferrari test driver. Spoke very little English, but we got by.

 

From Las Vegas, we headed to Hoover Dam. I should point out that it wasn't just two Ferraris driving full speed down the freeway. Our convoy included the two Ferraris, 4 Alfa Romeos, a Ford Explorer, a Buick Rendezvous, and three Chevy Express vans. An Alfa was always in the lead, and the Ferraris were not allowed to go ahead of him. Most of the time we were kept at 120-130 kph (that's kilometers per our, not miles per hour), but occaisionally when we had to pass on a two lane road, I got to open it up a bit.

 

We got to Hoover Dam, and the Ferrari folks set up the video, tv and still cameras. We then drove back and forth across the dam to get photos. The cars make quite an impression - I had one guy chasing us across the dam to take pictures of the cars.

 

From there we drove to the Grand Canyon, with the idea of getting there in time for sunset. After trying several restaurants which all seemed to be closed, we ended up at McDonalds. There 's nothing more entertaining then watching a bunch of Italians try to order at McDonalds. These are Italians that have a great sense of humor and have been travelling together for two months.

 

We arrived at the Grand Canyon at just the right time and got some great photos. The car looked great in that light. We then headed to monument valley, arriving after 10:00 pm local time. We covered almost 800 km that day.

 

I should note that this feels like a European trip. Almost everyone is speaking Italian, the cars are Euro-spec, so they have use kilometers rather than miles - I keep thinking the people at McDonalds will be speaking Italian.

 

As for the car - it is magnificent. Both are set up with the F1 transmission with paddle shifters. Shifting is incredibly quick and smooth, taking only 150 milliseconds to shift. At full throttle over 5000 rpm, shifts only take 100 milliseconds. And with 620 horsepower, downshifting two gears the car takes off like a shot. And the sound of that V12 at 8000 rpms is absolutely fantastic.

 

But not only is it extremely fast, its very comfortable. After spending more than 8 hours behind the wheel, I was not sore at all - the seats are very supportive, fitting perfectly. The ride is a bit stiff, but not overly so, and much of that is due to the special tires designed to handle all the terrain the cars dealt with in South and Central America.

 

A great first day - day 2 we explore monument valley.