Both teams began their hiking portions of the October adventures this last week. Team One traveled from Scotland to the south of France and undertook day climbs into the French Alps. Caesar himself witnessed these mountains when he and his Roman army tackled Gaul 2000 years ago. The beauty is overwhelming. The experience is beyond exciting.

Team Two began with a short flight to the landing strip in Lukla, Nepal. They saw great views of the Himalayas. The first day was an easy walk – but it quickly became more strenuous taking the team to the celebrated village of Namche Bazaar at over 11,000 feet. The team visited the Sherpa museum and local marketplace then continued their climb to the Thame monastery. Views from here included the great Himalayan peaks of Kwangde, Tawachee, Nuptse, Lhotse, and Everest. Everest base camp was the destination of our Trekking team and they found many kindred spirits waiting for a weather break to tackle the summit or to return to Gorak Shep and then Kathmandu.

Everest

Yesterday I spent my day at Stormy Morning Vineyard in Banks, Oregon, helping my cousin Bill and ‘prepping’ for adventure. As the pictures indicate you’ll see I’m sharpening my racing skills on the “Mule” an essential 4 wheel drive needed on any modern day vineyard. Next you’ll see me pulling cable that’s about to be used to post up for new plant growth. (That exercise not only increases my strength but readies me for pulling Mt Everest victims to safety should that be needed). I’m closing in on my targets!

So for those of you who thought my road racing or athletic skills occurred naturally – wrong!

To many, this week was probably just like any other, however, to avid followers of Fluge Global Adventures, this was a critical week to set the stage for the 2007 “Adventure”!

Monday and Tuesday found me in Orange County in California meeting with my good friend and Great American Run organizer, Tim Maverick Porter and his stateside assistand Lisa. Great people and a great time. (They just start early and finish late!) Not much sleep for the “Adventurer”.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Steve Saleen, his daughter Molly and many of the Saleen team at the factory in Irvine. Ryan, Justin, and Matt were particularly helpful. I picked up the first Bad Boy Saleen (of 25), 600 HP and Bad on Black.

And of course the drive from Irvine (w/Tim in his ‘one off’ red extreme Saleen, and me in my Bad Boy Saleen), from Irvine to the Mojave Desert and the Streets of Willow Springs, took us from the crawl of LA traffic to freeway speeds near Palmdale of 155MPH!

WebRidesTV were super in their filming and interviews (over 10 hours)! From Amber (the host who could do without the desert heat and who likes her lunch on time), to all the many (and I mean many) film crew and directors, it was a real blast. Of course seeing 8 of the greatest Mustangs on the planet was not exactly without interest either. Great job WebRides!

On Wednesday, Shaun Wallace, arrived at my house straight away from San Diego. In between building high altitude rooms for the likes of the Green Bay Packers, other pro athletes, Nike training groups and even now a Nascar Motor Home, he’ll be placing a high altitude room in my house by June 1 to help me acclimatize up to 15,000 feet (beyond the 9000 feet which most athletes train at). I need all the extra help I can get.

But here’s the real big news of the week. Thursday was track day for me and my race driving mentor and FGA race car team partner Todd Harris back at Portland International Raceway. I can brag a little about turning 2 seconds faster in practice than I’ve done before thanks to the tutelage of Todd Harris, and mechanical genious of Steve Gatrell and Pat McFall and others on the team. (Also thanks to Kristen of ProDrive – who allowed me to use her laptop between runs to keep up with my latest Fluge World Forum emails). However, the REALLY BIG NEWS is that Todd came out in the Fluge Global Adventures new Derhagg Corvette and set what many would consider one of the best lap times ever at PIR (with the Chicane in place)! His 1:11.9 was outstanding – especially given he was using slightly older technology, shaking down the car, and on a relatively poor conditioned track. Imagine when we have the “Rose Cup” engine in place and other tweaks of perfection. I really don’t think that any driver in America can beat him in this race and am considering a winner take all type of purse to put the challenge out to America.

Come forward now and register for the Rose Cups (early June – SCCA racing at PIR) or forever hold your peace!

Last night concluded with a SCCA Board Meeting (I’m on the PR Committee – who would have thought it)? As usual, I was honored to sit along side of the many people who are legends in the race community – (that and the Mai Tai’s made for a great evening).

Look for our next big Press Release later today about the Speed Challenge Vipers (Lux and White) at the upcoming Long Beach Gran Prix in mid April. Also on Monday we tell the world about our Global Forum challenge of “Showing us your Fluge” sign in some unique global locale.

That’s it for now – guess it’s just Friday though – still a lot to do.