We made it!!

I'm a tad late in posting, but Robert and I made it to Paris! It was the most difficult undertaking of my life and I'm so glad I did it. I found new depths of fatigue and heights endurance. I'm quite sure this will change my outlook for a lifetime. My life will forever be divided into pre-rally years and post-rally years.

I was so happy to see Michelle, Dave, Jessica, and Natalie at the finish line. It was a whirlwind of pictures, congratulations, and introductions, but with no time to spare, we had to rush off to prepare for the big gala! I jumped out of my dirty rally clothes and into my tuxedo, Michelle slipped into her fancy dress, and we set off to the award ceremony. The rally peeps had put together a slide show and video to accompany the five-star meal.

Mostly in St. Germain dés Pres, we spent the next few days doing our best to empty the city of saucisson, fromage, and pain chocolat. Dave, who has visited and lived in Paris several times, played host in his adopted city. I met his friends, Val and Vincent, and I met Michelle's friends Kenji and Anaïs. We drank wine, sipped café, and explored the streets. As I relaxed and got used to living without a schedule, I started to feel the tug of the road again. I was oddly anxious to get back to driving and seeing more of the country.

Wednesday, Michelle and I packed up the car and set off for the Loire valley. The countryside is beautiful and I am having very little difficulty converting to vacation mode.

Today I wanted to do a bit of car work, mostly just to tighten up some oil leaks and make the car more comfortable. We found a great VW shop called Slide Performance in Orléans. These guys are a full-featured VW performance shop building engines, doing body work, suspension work; they do the whole works. The guys were extremely helpful and let me use a space behind the shop to work on the bug, also offering their tools and assistance. I changed 3 pushrod tubes, re-sealed the valve covers, replaced the air cleaner with a quieter street assembly, and patched 2 leaky tires. Thanks to David at www.slideperformance.com who provided invaluable assistance and had an uncanny, almost magical ability to come outside and see how we were doing just as I had a question or needed a special tool for a job.