The Dakar Rally 2005 begins on January 1st, this time in Barcelona. Sixteen days, six and a half thousand miles by car, truck, or motorcycle, on roads, mountains, forests, and deserts, through Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, and Senegal. And for significant portions of the race, the route doesn’t provide much evidence when you leave it: they post the coordinates of checkpoints, and contestants are expected to navigate from one to the next. Even with a GPS, people tend to get lost. Two of the eight American competitors are from my area. Total competitors: 230 bikes, 165 cars, 70 trucks. And a lot of support vehicles.
Secretly Ironic 