It's the afternoon of Day 2 of our trip.  When we last signed off from you we were about to descend to lobby to attend the big welcome dinner for all of the program participants.  I left my camera in the room so I don't have any visuals for you this morning. I'll try not to let that happen again.  Imagine a large white banquet room with exquisite lighting and five very long tables covered in white tablecloths and chairs covered in white slipcovers. Now fill it up with about 150 excited contest winners, Internet bloggers, and program staff, and feed them delicious Spanish food and wine. It all added up to a very nice start to our trip.,  The program organizers have done a very nice job of making us feel very special and very welcome.  During dinner they came around to several of the video contest winners and asked them about the charities they are supporting.  Cath and I got a chance to tell a bit about The Wooden Floor and we were able to hear about many of the other charities that were selected.  It is kind of humbling to be in the presence of some of these folks.  One fellow from Saltillo Mexico told about his charity, Los Viejitos, that cares for elderly Mexican people who have no family. Another was doing micro-finance lending to farmers in Nicaragua.  It's really interesting to hear about the great charities that people are supporting.  Kudos to Ford for bringing such a varied and interesting group of people on this trip.  Everyone we've met has been very warm and engaging.  

After dinner the winners were asked to go upstairs to the "Blue Hub" for a special surprise. So off we went and we did get quite a surprise.  A swag bag filled with electronics to help us create content from our trip. We got an iPad, a tiny Canon digital camera, a Flip video camera, and lots of accoutrements.   Very generous of Ford to provide us with such nice equipment.  I think they are trying to guilt us into making good videos!  And it will probably work.  We have our secret weapon Jane at home so she will no doubt be getting busy with the iPad and iMovie when we return to the States.  

We were tired but too excited to go to bed so we went down to the hotel bar (also an architectural marvel, of course) and enjoyed a last glass of Spanish vino blanco while we watched everyone enjoying their new toys. 

We did finally get to bed and didn't sleep too well (our bodies were saying "It's the middle of the day; get up you lazy louts!) but had to pull ourselves out of bed at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for today's big event: the Focus Global Test Drive.  After a really delicious breakfast buffet (where we tried to remind ourselves that we shouldn't consume an entire day's worth of calories in one sitting) we were loaded onto three buses and taken to INTA, which is more or less NASA spelled in Spanish.  We had to go through an extensive security search before being let onto the property. When that was finished we headed in and were shepherded into a building that looked something like a submarine.  We were divided into four teams (White, Blue, Yellow, and Green) and then briefed on the day's activities: there would be four separate events: green driving (driving to save gas), skill driving (slalom course and knocking a giant soccer ball into a huge net with the nose of the car), speed driving, and making a video.  All four events were a blast. Everyone seemed to agree that the speed driving was the most fun.  We were assigned a professional race driver who accompanied us and gave us tips on how to drive faster. We were accompanied by an Argentinian driver named Giordy, who was quite the taskmaster but also really instructive.  His most memorable line to me after the first lap was: "Believe me when I tell you to accelerate."  OK, I believed, and I went faster, and I didn't crash. So that seemed to be a big success.  Cath performed marvelously and got a rave review from Giordy.  Here is a photo of us with our instructor

Our video was supposed to showcase the amazing technical features of the car (which includes a wi-fi hotspot) so we made up a vignette about how our team was lost and couldn't find its way, and asks for directions from a Spaniard who speaks no English (yours truly, in one of my most memorable roles) and uses the mobile hotspot to dial up Google Translate.  We felt it was a pretty funny video, so we will see if the judges agree. The winners will be announced at dinner this evening.  

Here's a photo of the cars we drove today: 

All in all today was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  I can't imagine what it must have cost Ford to put this event on but believe me it wasn't cheap.  Getting this large a group of people moved around smoothly and efficiently is a pretty complicated task, and Ford pulled it of brilliantly. 

With the day done around 4:30 p.m., we were all pretty tired and ready for a short break before dinner. So we headed back to our hotel and took a very brief nap before being awakened by a call from daughter Jane (first we've heard from her, despite numerous emails and text messages from us to her). Jane was happy to hear about the iPad, and glad she didn't have to suffer through a bathroom with glass walls.  I'm with her on both counts.  

It's almost time to head upstairs for our awards ceremony and dinner, so I will sign off now. I will take my camera tonight and send you some photos of the festivities tomorrow.  Tomorrow's schedule includes video making classes in the morning and a trip to Toledo in the afternoon.  The fun just never seems to stop around here!  

Jim S., reporting from Madrid