Feet On The Ground

Still adjusting to local time, the last few days have been a whirlwind for Tom & I.  We’ve got a ton of updates to make, but also still a ton of work to do on the cars!  We just now have made it to our base in Reading where we should be able to make good use of the free internet at the house we’re staying at (thanks Colin!).  Tom’s writing an update now, and I will have more later with photos of everything we’ve been up to… but for now I need to shower and head out on the hunt for more car gear.

Back tonight w/more details…

Camp Baatar Hero

Our Tent Village!

The team packed our backpacks and set up our tents in eager preparation and practice for the rally.  Here are some pics of Camp Baatar Hero!   We all fit snug as a bug in a rug, errr. . . I mean in our tents.  Thank you to Mike Warner and Mr. Starr for your generous donation of tents for us to use on the rally.  And a huge thank you to everyone who has donated to us so far!  You helped us purchase our third tent, sleeping pads, chairs and stove and we can’t wait to put them to great use on the steppes of central Asia.   But mostly we look forward to donating them to Mercy Corps at the end of the rally!

The inside of our newest tent, compelete with sleeping pads!

Space Planning: 6 weeks, camping supplies for 3 people, 70 gallons of cargo space in one punto. It fits!

Car Wrap Up

The first of our two cars came back from the design company with the F5 logo wrap.  The 2nd car is in progress and when Tom and I arrive we’ll be applying the rest of our decals next week.  It already looks faster!

Punto Numero Due

We have found our second car! Car #2 is also a 2003 Fiat Punto 1.2 Active with low miles on it, so both cars are almost identical but for their paint jobs.

I am flying out to London this week, heading up to Manchester to collect both vehicles, and driving them back to secure storage in London where they will lie in wait for their preparation to become Mongol Rally cars!

In July the 6 members of team Baatar Hero will transform these perky little city cars into desert consuming beasts of glory ready for the 10,000 miles of pot holes and sand dunes we are sure to encounter… at least as soon as we depart the ferry in France.

Can’t wait!!

48 Hours in the Life of Baatar Hero

Wow, the last few days have been a whirlwind of Baatar Hero activity.

Thursday morning:
We purchased our first car! eBay Motors UK and a few international phone calls later, and we are now the proud owners of a 2003 Fiat Punto Active 1.2 liter with 40k miles on it. 1 down 1 to go!

Then we dashed off to a sponsor meeting with F5 Networks.  They are excited about the car, and found us a place to park it near London!  They’re providing us with a lot of logistical support in addition to a communications platform, and will be helping us wrap the cars in logos, add gear, etc between now and July.  They even gave us racing jerseys! We are super excited about the collaboration and support F5 is providing.

Thursday afternoon:
We got our Russian Letter of Invitation.  And then we ran into our first Russian bureaucratic snafoo.  After downloading our visa applications from the Russian consulate website and diligently filling them out, I was told at the consulate in Seattle that those forms… the ones I JUST DOWNLOADED from THEIR website, are out of date.  We had to pick up their new forms and fill them out. I would formally like to invite Russia to the internet, and let them know they can upload their latest visa application form to their website BEFORE they print them out and make them available physically.

Thursday night:
We got off to a late start departing for Boulder, CO.  Kim and Jean and I loaded into our Honda Element bound for I-90.  First obstacle: I-90 eastbound ramp from I-5 was closed.  We aren’t even out of Seattle and we’re taking detours.

Friday:
We drove all day through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming & Colorado to Estes Park to meet up with other rally teams for Afternoon Tea with The Adventurists.  The drive took a little longer than expected, but we finally made it.  The mad dash continues as we are taking off now for Tea, will update with photos/video/etc when we get back!

70 days and counting down!!

Party Success!

We had such a great time Friday night at our kickoff Holiday Party and Fundraiser! Friends, new and old, and family all joined us at Roq La Rue to celebrate with wine and music.  We presented our plan and everybody donated generously to help us make it to Mongolia.  Not only did we raise funds to get started, but we’ve acquired reserve fuel tanks (jerry cans), a tent, sleeping bag and a donation of environmentally friendly soap!

Baatar Hero’s Premier Holiday Party!

In two weeks we will be celebrating the holidays at local art gallery, Roq La Rue, with our first fundraising event.  We hope to entertain and educate our friends and family with more info about the Mongol Rally and Mercy Corps.  We also have morin khuur (Mongolian horse hair cello) players lined up to give everybody a taste of what we saw at the Khoomei-Taiko Ensemble performance.  It’s shaping up to be a fun evening! I can’t wait.

The Pitch

I sent this email out today to launch the site and announce to friends and family that we are participating in the Mongol Rally.

The time has come again when Kim and I set about taking another long and far flung journey around the world.  And this time we are taking you along for the ride! Literally.

We Are Registered!

Kim and I just registered for two cars to participate in next summer’s Mongol Rally!

Starting around some time late last year we knew that we wanted our next big trip to be Mongolia, but when we started planning we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  Our original plan was to take the Trans-Siberian Railroad across Russia and trek by horseback over the Mongolian steppe.  We also wanted to be involved with some kind of volunteer opportunity during part of the trip.  After a few months, in the course of my research, I discovered this video of the Mongol Rally.  Adventure. Culture. A good cause. It took us about 2 seconds to decide this was how we were going to Mongolia.