Mongol Rally, Day 2: Here’s one for the books

“Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled ‘This could change your life.’”

-- Helen Exley

By a twist of fate, I eventually made it to my rendezvous with the Channel Tunnel on Saturday at the start of the 10,000-mile Mongol Rally, a road trip that will take me through 18 countries on the way to Ulan Bator, Mongolia, in a tiny, tiny car.

The weather gods were on my side: The English rain caused a two-hour delay, but this meant I would reach my destination of Brussels after all. Just in time for a well-deserved nightcap. I was relieved to have a place to sleep. I was less relieved to find my bed for the evening was infested with bed bugs. People often tell me I need to socialize more, but this was not what I had in mind.

My journey on Sunday took me to the German city of Nuremberg. The travel time from my bug-infested bed to Nuremberg was about 7.5 hours. You may be thinking, “Geez, that’s a long drive,” but when you have slightly less than 10,000 miles ahead and hundreds of hours of driving just around the corner, it’s not so bad.

But this year, each mile means far more than being a step closer to Mongolia. For every mile I drive I will be donating a book to the charity First Book. Because the journey is 10,000 miles, I will be donating 10,000 books. It feels good to know that every mile that appears on the odometer is a book for an underprivileged a child.

I have traveled 785 miles. That’s 785 books and counting. Here’s hoping this journey is a real page turner.