To look at pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/57599610@N02/page01/

GPS FOLLOWING SYSTEM LINK:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0IEeg9h5Rjq6FOqAezXhXycZYzde0ce32

Team King Tuks Chariot is from Virginia USA. Brother Team is "To Tuk or Not to Tuk", for MORE FUN PIC"S and video's : http://www.totuktuk.com/

GPS FOLLOWING SYSTEM

The link below will, or should, give  you an up to date fix on exactly where we are.  Technology is wonderful. Lets see if it works.  Now we have to get out in the snow.  Just lovely. 

Here is a website you can hopefully track our progress or lack there of, on the Rickshaw Run:

BLOCK IT AND PASTE TO YOUR ADDRESS BAR THEN BOOKMARK IT.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0IEeg9h5Rjq6FOqAezXhXycZYzde0ce32

Weather Check........

Just a little current weather comparison....

      Eastern United States, in the State of Virginia, City of Richmond, 11:52 p.m Eastern Standard Time: Current weather conditions SNOW Showers, -5 C (23 F).  The highlight of tomorrows forecast is high of 6 C (43 F), more SNOW and a low of -2 C (29 F).......AWESOME, not really.

Let's check out Jaisalmer India shall we: Tomorrow Mostly Sunny with a high of 26 C (78 F) and a low of 12 C (53 F), sounds like another beautiful day in North Western India, don't forget your sun screen kids!  

So lets see....Jaisalmer or Richmond, Richmond or Jaisalmer,,,,,,,,,,,,JAISALMER it is !!!!!   MY BAG IS ALREADY PACKED, LETS GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD.  Who cares if I show up 3 weeks early, right?

New Technology

We just bought some new technology for the trip.  We want to be sure we capture everything we see and hear.  So we have an Olympic voice redorcer that plugs right into your computer. This will allow us to vocally  blog about our day. This is one way we plan to communicate with you.  We will send the vocal file to our company at DWA who in turn will make a podcast out of it exactly as we do every wednesday.  This podcast will be turned into a link you can click on and listen.  We will also type a normal blog each day.  Depending on internet strength and access we will send pictures.  It will be a WILD RIDE so don't miss a day. 

Friend Arriving in Mumbai

From a friend who has just gone to Mumbai for business.  It's a little early intelligence. We go in two weeks.

Tom I got to Mumbai at 3.30 in the morning with my son. Leaving the airport was ok, lots of people lots of security lots of planes arriving at same time. Outside it looked like the crowd for a football game. You need to get a prepaid taxi otherwise you have lots of people trying to make a living driving you as if they were taxi drivers.
We jumped into this prepaid taxi for another hour or so. Fortunately, the cab driver was an Indy 500 racecar driver manqué who flew down the roads as if the police was after us making sure we crossed all red lights without stopping but always horning.

We stay at the Taj which I recommend (www.tajhotels.com) it is 5 stars expensive but reliable. In order to go inside everybody needs to go through metal detectors and body check. They are not playing with security.
Country continues to develop, it is amazing how there is much less poverty compared to the previous visit and no comparison when I go back to 1999 the first time I came here. My son went to see his friend at Bolliwood assistant film producer and I am working a bit on my emails because I am very jet lagged. You need to consider this jet lag for your ricshaw marathon. Oh yes, lunch was good (had a business lunch) it was chicken hot pepper spice, and tomorrow will have business meetings.
Best my friend

Walki-talki's and water purification

Went to REI Outdoor store today and got Steripen Water purification system.  Highly recommended by Raders of theLost Tuck from the last run.  Also check your drivers license and make sure there is no mistake on the time it is valid. We foudn a real problem where it said good for one year from January 31, 2011 which should have been good for one year from January 1, 2011.  18 days left.  

Presents from Friend

Just had a friend Jim come in and leave us the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Won't help in fixing the Rik he said but would help on the thought process about the "Journey".

He also left a crescent wrench, which should be of help in fixing the Rik.  Since we are Wall Streeters,

fixing the Rik is not an option.  We can certainly trade Indian stocks though.  9 days left til departure.

This adventure is starting to get "real" for the first time in a year.  At first it's all fun and games, 

today I find myself reading up on poisonous snakes in India.  

Malaria Pills????.................yeah, might need those.

In the rush to get things finished up & finalized, I felt that I was forgetting something very important.  And then I realized I hadn't filled my Malaria priscription.............I just dropped it off.  Those are probably an important thing to have.  We only leave in 5 days.............

Ready To Roll

We have been frantic getting the last few things for the trip.  It's time to just do it. Preying the major

snow storm misses us in Va.  We fly out of Wash. D. C. Catch Ya'll in Jaislamer or the train from Dehli.

Tom

Flights.......

We finally started our journey yesterday in DC and just arrived in Qatar.  The Business Class accomadations in the Virgin Atlantic lounge were very nice.  The flight over from Dulles to Qatar went well, 14 hours on a plane wasn't as bad as I thought. We had some movies, great food and a few hours of sleep., I slept for 9 hours which was aparently unacceptable to my team mates.  I cant decide if they are jealous or just making fun of me for sleeping.  I feel like i just timed it correctly.  We have a 3 hour lay over here in Qatar and are on to Delhi, India.  There are reports of some road closures, and railroad delays in Northern India.  We are taking a train from Delhi to Jaislamer, to start the race.  There appears to be some type of political unrest in in Northwest India, b/c the local people want some representation in the Senate or political body in India.  Either way, there are some delays going on.  No worries, we just adapt and go w/ the flow.   -Skip

In Delhi......

  13 hours to Doha, Qatar, a 3 hour lay over and a 4 hour flight to Delhi. We've arriced in delhi under good circumstances, customs was fine, baggage pick was smooth.  we got in @ 3:30 a.m Delhi time.  There are lots of Guns being displayed at the Delhi Airport, which our driver insured us was for "our projection".  I almost got hit in the head w/ an AK-47 walking out the door as a gaurd was unshouldering his weapon, but in a calm manner, so no worries,   Upon our arrive at the Hotel, we checked in and got to our room @ 5 a.m.  We hit the gym and have decided to stay awake thru the day and catch up on sleep tonite on our 17 hour train ride to Jaslaimer.  After our workout this morning from 5:30 - 7:30 a.m. TD & I tried to plug in all of our converters to charger all the electronics. And thats when the trouble started.  I , Skip Carleton, was plugging in stuff and immediately blew the fuse to our room and a big spark occurred as well.   And yes, I blew the fuse to our hotel room, but managed not to burn the hotel down.  Flashlights got pulled out of the "MacGyer Bag".  A qucik call to the front desk and 1 engineer later, (who couldn't understand what we were saying & we didnt understand him either), but darkness and pointing at the electrical stocket is apparently an International sign for "I almost burned down the hotel, please help". He made the needed adjustments, we laughed together, or he laughed at us, and all is good. It's almost 11 a.m. here and my computer says it's 12:19 a.m. in the US. First day in India, I'd say things are going fairly well so far.......more black coffee please!

Delhi to Jaislamer

we meet a tour guide in delhi this afternoon, he drove us around New and Old Delhi today.  We start off w/ a car tour around delhi, and went to a Sikh Temple, where we walked around the temple( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esxyXusSCH4 ) and outside, barefoot.  Probably not the best thing to do on your second day in India. They cook 3 meals a day for everybody and anybody.  We walked all around the compound, temple and Kitchen in barefeet.

Jaislamer

We had an awesome two days here in jaislamer India. It already feels like we have been here for a month. We have not stopped since we left Richmond in the snow. The people are amazing. We met our tuk tuk yesterday and test-drove them. It brought me back to my sears moped I had at 14 years old. We got it tricked out with a sound system and loud horn which is essential for travel here. The only rules of driving is there are no rules. Anything goes. Yesterday I rode on the back of a motorcycle. I'm a biker and I have to say it was the most terrifying ride of my life and I've done some stupid things on two wheels but this was the most insane. Almost hit 3 cows, 3pigs, 2people, 4cars and oh yea 3dogs, one of which took after us. Happy we got the rabies shots. The only thing I forgot to do was use my flip camera to record it. Scott, jay, and skip are riding camels right now and I went shopping. My friend Jim Rogers told me if there was only one country you could visit it should be India. He was right. Tonight we meet the rest of the teams and tomorrow night is the blow-out before we start. We will make our first stop Barmer Iindia. Google it. skip has some video,s to put up. We have tons of pictures and Scott will let you know where to go on the net to see them. Well blog tomorrow. By the way, best food ever. T

Leaving Jaisalmer....to start Race tomorrow

      Jaisalmer is an amazing place.  TD stumbled across this guy name Raju who is a magician.  He has completly taken care of what we need.  He can get you anything you want anytime of day.  He can get you a sound system for a Rick that plays iPod (which we have) or he can take you into the Fort/city and get you a pair of Nikes, custom Rick rims (which again, we have) or book you a hotel 2 cities from here.  Its crazy,, but he's cool.  We arrived in Jaisalmer from Delhi after a 18 hour train ride,( w/ 2 wilds Brit's with a propensity for Gin, who are also in the Rickshaw Run.  We toured the Palace/Fort on the Hill here in the Golden City of Jaisalmer.  Scott, Jay and I took a camel ride in the desert, about 30 K's from Pakistan, to see the dunes at sunset, but we didnt wait for sunset. Today we prepared the Rickshaw for the Run. This entailed, checking oil, connections, got more spark plugs, clutch plate, and fuel & tanks.  We Practiced driving the Rick.  TD rock n rolls on the thing, it reminds him of being a kid. To me it feels like we are driving in a Video game.  The driving over here is interesting to say the least.  Im trying to upload more videos, but the internet in the motel is SOOO SLOWWWWW. We upload to youtube to host vids and then paste  the link. We have a dinner party tonite at hotel, then kick off party for new years, and we pick up ricks at 10 a.m. and depart at noon.  I think we are going to head northwest and take a shortcut to Pakistan and loop around to catch a fast ferry to Mumbai that leaves a Southern Pakistan Port,,,,,,,,,, just kidding, we head SOUTH to where the winds take us.  

 - Skip "Man, This Rickshaw is small" Carleton