Day 2

Location: Southwest of Beijing China

The good news? I’m here. The bad news for all… is that the smog is very bad here this morning. It is very early… 6 am or so and there is still hope that things will clear up. It would be very disappointing if the air would not improve from this current situation. I can see…maybe a block down the road. Maybe.

On the trip into Beijing, the flight out of Tokyo was more interesting. Janet Evans, the greatest female distance swimmer possibly ever was a few rows up. The Vanderkaay family was also in front. I counted at least six of them, enough for a basketball team and a sub. There were soccer players, wrestlers and athletes that I couldn’t quite figure out what they did. Rocque Santos, a 1992 Olympian now selling Blue70 suits was also on the plane. I told him that I thought they should ban the new suits and be done with it. Thus started a violent struggle and loud cursing and shoving, until --- from a nearby passenger I grabbed a front page from a NY times and quickly covered him up. I won. Everyone knows that paper beats rock. Everyone except – you know who.

10:30 pm, Friday. Today was a very trying day.... to say the least! I will give you a full report in the morning. We are a very very long way from the pool and we are trying to move. If not..... well it will be trying. I figure we are about 40 miles from the pool. You can only imagine. No dinner tonight. I cant quite figure out why not. In any event the candy bars have come in handy. We are simply not near anywhere you'd want to eat. We are exactly 12 hours ahead. So I will update you while you are watching the opening ceremonies!