Little did we know that it truly would be the start of our adventure.  We left for Cedar Rapids on Sunday via Chicago O’Hare airport to drop off the rental.  Most locals though we are crazy as they only venture into Chicago to go to the Airport if there is no alternative, let alone in a 1929 Studebaker. We thought it would be a good trial for Beijing traffic.

The trip in and out of Chicago went smoothly, but not far out of Chicago we had to switch over to the long range tank.  We were a bit concerned as we should have got much further on the first tank. Another 150 miles later we thought it would be wise to fill the tank as the gauge on the long range tank was not calibrated.  Needles to say that about 50 yards before the gas station there was a cough and a splutter and horse power was replaced by manpower.   The original deal with Peter was that whoever gets stuck has to push, but somehow I ended up pushing until some helpful locals came to my assistance.

All too quickly, my two weeks were over and Mark, an old friend from back home who now lives in the US, took some time off to take my place next to Pet for the rest of the 1000 mile shake down trip.