In recognition of World Polio Day, our club was treated with Lee Harman's first hand account of his 10,000 mile endurance road trip from Peking to Paris this past summer.  Besides the challenge, Lee dedicated the adventure to increasing awareness of Rotary's efforts to eradicate polio world wide, and to raise funds for that effort.

 

As of Thursday (funds continue to come in) about $50,000 was raised.  With the match from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that amount means an additional $150,000 towards the fight.

 

Lee, his co-driver Bill, and of course Miss Vicky was only one of 21 participants that completed the 34 day journey without being towed or hauled on a truck.  120 cars started the race with 103 making it to Paris. Miss Vicky was 4th in her class of 8 and 18th out of 31 in the vintage class.  It being a road rally, placement was based on points rather than in what order you reached the finished.  For example, there was a designated time to get to a check stop and if you were late or early, you would lose points.

 

 

Lee said the trip reinforced these "Life Lessons":

 

People are friendly the world over

People want to live happy, carefree lives

The world is a beautiful place, especially that you've never seen

The world needs few politicians

 

Based on their experience with Miss Vicky, it was indeed an endurance race.They suffered a ten-ply tire blowout, 2 ruptured hydraulic brake lines, the car's body separating from the wooden sub-frame, a tail pipe falling off, lost car keys, a blown head gasket with external water leak, water pump failure causing an ignition failure on the road, and a broken drive axle.

 

It's also taken Rotary some endurance to get where we are at with regards to eradicating polio.  When the effort started in 1985 who would have guessed that we would still be at it in 2019.  We have been successful partnering with the Gates Foundation and others, to eliminate 2 of the 3 types of of wild polio virus.  We are down to 88 cases world wide so far this year in only 2 countries--Pakistan and Afghanistan.  The fighting factions in these two countries have hampered our progress.  Nigeria has been polio free for 3 years and in December it will be declared polio free with the entire continent of Africa.

 

There were two events that could have been game changers for Lee and Bill.  When the fuel line ruptured and started spewing gas, all it would have taken was for it to be ignited by one of the hot engine parts to have blown up the car.  Another participant gave them the warning that gas was spewing.

 

Another near miss was when Lee fell to sleep while driving and was headed for a 16 wheeler coming in the opposite direction when Bill woke him.  The rally involved driving 10 hours a day, with Lee and Bill trading off.  Lee commented that despite close quarters and the stress, he and Bill remain friends.

 

Lee shared lots of photos and videos of portions of the venture; lots of primitive roads and lots of very friendly people. In addition to the album, here are a few of the photos.