He made it through his first offical rally day (the day out of Buenos Aires was all road and no dirt).  And well, I guess it was uneventful … He slept in and for those of you that know Rick well, he needs his time in the morning.  So … he didn´t find out that he was meant to advance his road book by 50km until he was well into the day.  He said he spent several times on the side of the road, for extended periods, looking at his maps trying to figure out why the heck nothing was making any sense.  Someone even stopped to see if he was okay, he asked what their mileage was and he told them his and they didn´t think to tell him about the 50km!  Oh well, he finished!  Something to do with his battery isn´t working and he had to drive in the morning fog, semi-daylight with no head light.  Oh yeah, and he got not one, not two but THREE speed infractions!  We are going to be broke at the end of the race as he has to pay for them!

He sounds great and is having a great time! 

Some of the other events of the day … one of the Camions went off the road and a spectator didn´t make it.  Sad.  Rick said there are so many spectators and they are so close to the racing that it´s scary.  Also, one of the camera men that is working for the photographer that Rick is using was in an accident as well.  He is okay but he is in the hospital (hence no additional photos of Rick today).  But as soon as I get them and can get to a computer they will be posted here again http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonnieandrick.

Today (stage 2) is meant to have lots of blind jumps and fast bends.  The bikes and quads have a separate special from the cars and trucks.  Today, for the bikes, it is 626km of riding (including the special and liaison).  Hopefully the bivouac doesn´t have too many creepy things tonight. 

you can track Rick at http://www.dakar.com/us/DAKAR/2010/stage-2/standings/bikes/stage.html (although he might be pretty much done by now!).

Thanks for all the notes of well wishing, I am passing them on to him each night when I speak with him.

Rick made it to the camp for the night (can’t for the life of me spell what it’s called so I will look it up tonight and use the correct term going forward).  The entire day was just a Liason so no racing involved.  The media here estimated that 800,000 plus people lined the route and Rick said the entire route from start to end was lined with people.  Over 300km of solid people!

When he arrived he said there were giant spiders living in the grass at the camp and big roaches flying everywhere.  He enjoyed the day but today the real racing starts! 

If you go to http://www.dakar.com/us/DAKAR/2010/stage-1/breaking-news.html# and select tracking on the top left hand side of the page you can follow him.  You have to do a fwe steps but I trust that you can figure it out.  If you are really confused email me (bonniehatswell@shaw.ca) and I will send you the instructions.  I think he start time was around 5:30 this morning (so half past midnight in Vancouver). 

Rick rode past us about 10 minutes ago heading for the official start line!

We dropped Rick off about 3 hours ago to go to his drivers meeting and that is the last time we will see him until the finish.  Unless we are lucky enough to catch him at the start.  I walked down to the start and the numbers of people that are there hours before the race begins is unbelievable.  Not a place for a stroller and Cooper.  So we will try and catch him on the way to the podium start. 

This race is unlike anything I have ever seen.  The scope of it is beyond anything we have in Vancouver.  The number of people and the excitment around is it crazy.  Yesterday Rick asked if we could get a pass to go into the scrutineering area and it was amazing.  We were able to get much closer to all the vehicles than the everyone else and all the drivers waved at Cooper … he loved it!  Rick was able to get his photo with one of the top drivers and I was filmed but several media as I was taking the photo … YIKES!

Rick will be updating me each night on how the day went so I can update you all.  He is set to start just after 2:30 local time so 9:30am pacific time.  He has promised to drive safely … still can´t see a way to track a competator so stay tuned.

Today is beautiful, warm, sunny with a nice breeze.  Much nicer than I expected the heat to be!

Rick was at scrutineering until close to 9pm last night!  His GPS/sat phone computer wasn´t working and that´s a must have in order to do the race.  They had to work on that for some time and then he finally made it through … JUST.  They started to tell him it was too late to finish and he would have to come back today but, as usual, Rick managed to negotiate the completion last night.  Then he lost the team (who has our camera´s and most important … a bottle of wine!) and had to take a taxi back to the hotel and leave our car at the team house … which isn´t all that close! 

This morning we were headed for Florida Street (which is a big pedestrian area) and landed upon an amazing park that will be Cooper’s and my home until we had back to Vancouver.  It has a great playground for little people and lots of green space.  So we spent some time there and Cooper and Rick enjoyed the swings and slide.  This is a great city for the little ones …

Tonight we are heading back to the team house for Rick to do his final gear check and load his boxes into the trucks.  We also have a dinner where there will be lots of drivers and media so it should be interesting.  It seems as though lots of people want to talk to this crazy Canadian Dakar rookie!

This is actually Bonnie typing this, not Rick, so mind the technical errors.  Today Rick is at the race headquarters doing scrutineering.  It started at 1:40 and is meant to take quite a bit of time.  This after a VERY long day of travel yesterday and a late night prepping his bike!  Ahhhh, the life of one who has chosen to do the Dakar!  Buenos Aires is beautiful.  So far it has rained but I am okay with that as six and a half months pregnant and hot and humid Argentinian weather don´t work well for me!  Buenos Aires reminds me of Prague mixed with Beijing.  Tonight the three of us might actually get to do something together!

Merry Christmas to all!  I hope the holidays were wonderful and Santa brought everyone what they wished for.

I am now in final preparations for packing up all of my essentials, I even braved the Boxing day sales at Futureshop this morning to pick up a few memory cards for my helmet cam.  My wife, son and I fly out to Argentina in the morning and I can’t believe the time has finally come.  I had my last physio session on Thursday and I should be in fine form for the start of the Dakar 2010 next Friday afternoon.

I will do my best to add a link to track my progress during the rally.  www.Dakar.com will have the tracking section on it by race day.  My race number is #127 so you can search it by that.  If the link works it will go directly to it but if not please look at Dakar.com

Cooper dreaming of Daddy racing...

Just a quick update.  I have sold many T-Shirts and the names will be printed soon for application on the bike.  Thank you for all of the support out there.

I will not be able to sell anymore shirts out of town as my time is very short now.  If you are local and can pick up I have shirts still available.  Come and Get em!

Dr. Kelly Lefaivre and my smelly leg

I had my cast removed on December 4th after five and a half weeks.  My Doc. said it has healed well and with training and physio I will be ready to race.   Thanks Dr. Lefaivre.

Dec 4th. Cast is off!

So i need to tell you what a pain it is to try and prepare yourself mentally for the Dakar when all you can do is hobble around.  I couldn’t even get my self a cup of coffee.  Everything I tried to do turned into an ordeal so most of the time I just didn’t do what I had planned.  The good news is that I actually lost a few pounds because I couldn’t get to the fridge.

I have started training on a quick recovery process.  I will be in the gym with a trainer at least twice a week and at physio once plus every day that I am not with a trainer I am in the pool swimming laps.  I think I’ll be in better shape than I had planned originally.

Bonnie and Cooper

The best news is that my Wife and son are now going to join me in Argentina for the start of the race.  My wife will be about 6 months pregnant so it will be tough for her to chase around our two year old but I am glad she can make it.  Her Obstetrician has given her the green light.  I might just have an Argentinian baby girl…

I will have family watching at the end also.  My Dad and his wife Iliana will be flying into Buenos Aries on January 5th and will do a little tango before watching me blaze into the finish on the 16th.  It will be great to see my biggest sponsor and reluctant motorcycle supporter there at the finish.

Please take a look at my photos page to see some really great photos of the training from this year and the bike I will be riding.