2012MongolRally

Idk if the new owner of the vehicle would know what to do with a coconut? It might a bit like Tom Hanks in Cast Away when he tries opening the coconut for the first time

What do you mean by 'ag'?

2012MongolRally

Hey guys, I haven't given you an update in awhile but here are some pictures (old and new stuff) and what is happening in the world of Team Quarter Life Crisis

1) We landed our 1st sponsor some 6 weeks ago - Fizz Corporation
2) Via our first sponsor we landed two other donations to our charity for my sister's handicap of Rett Syndrome, so things are rolling along with the charity
3) Our paint jobby job was completed and our truck is now Ninja Turtle Green, classy haha
4) The truck is out our hands and is as I type this being shipped across the pond to England, the truck shipped out on June 11th
5) All our visas are back
6) We are going to be in England for Independence haha how ironic a couple of Yanks partying in England, should be a great beginning the rally
7) We have 3 weeks till we leave the states
8) We got air time on a local radio station for our rally
9) We made our local newspaper Wahoo (my teammate is pictured, I was able to be present for the photo)

http://www.gazettejournal.net/index....of_a_lifetime/


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Picture CI - We absolutely need music for this trip


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Picture CL - Put in some new axles


Picture CM - Got some newish brakes


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Picture CP - Got some new U-Joints (we have a couple spares just in case


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Picture CS - Finishing fixing the exhaust leak


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2012MongolRally

Here are some dock pics of the rig, we will reunite with the truck over in Liverpool, England soon

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wii_tarded

If you still have a chance to get music:
Run Through the Jungle, CCR
Paint it Black, Rolling Stones
Black Sabbath
Seether
Hurt
Lenny Kravits: American Woman, and You Gonna Go My Way
The Beatles
The Eagles
and Avenge Sevenfold

Good luck

2012MongolRally

Hey wii_tarded, we...well I (Tom) have time to pick up some more music Good call on CCR that slipped my mind. I know the other day we completed our collection of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, every album they had, especially the ol' school stuff. I will pick up some Black Sabbath and the Rolling Stones, that almost slipped my mind as well.

On another note about listening material, we added more comedian soundtracks to our collection:
- Robert Kelly - Just the Tip
- Artie Lange - Jack and Coke
- Steven Wright - I have a Pony
- Eddie Murphy - Great Comedy Hits
- Mitch Hedberg - Do you Believe in Gosh?
- Patton Oswald - Finest Hour

Btw, we got our visas back and at last moment we got our GBAO permit for the Pamir Highway from Dushanbe, if you would like to know more about what this permit is check it out here, especially if you would like to do this trip in an upcoming year

http://www.traveltajikistan.com/visas/gbao.html

punkelberg

Good luck from a fellow Clemson boy!

2012MongolRally

Hey Guys, I am week into my rally and I have 4 weeks ahead of me. We have covered 3500 miles to get to Atyrau, Kazakhstan. We bombed through Western Europe visiting some of my friends in Germany and then headed into literally one of the most corrupt places we have ever seen....Ukraine. Poland and the Czech Republic weren't nearly as corrupt, but wow do cops in Ukraine and Russia love a bribe, haha they pulled us over for driving in the wrong lane, simply profiling our vehicle. It was fun though, the cops knew that we knew what the score was, so I knew I had to hand over some bribe money at some point, I got away with $20 US which is about 160 Ukraine. I have uploaded some pictures feel free to check them out. All of the ones below are from the beginning of the stans, I figured you guys would find the desert terrain such as the Pamir Highway much more interesting than flying around on the Western and Eastern Europe Roads, let know your thoughts I will throw up some more photos from Europe too. Check out our facebook page at Quarter Life Crisis 2012 Mongol Rally and you will find a ton more photos. Cheers

Picture DV - Welcome to Kazakhstan, literally the most relaxed border yet, Russia and Ukraine felt like cavity searches, although these guys at the border were talking to me about George Bush, Obama, and the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal, they spoke pretty good English but why is that a hot topic over hear haha


Picture DW - Mud Huts


Picture DX - Kazakhstan roads claimed another victim


Picture DY


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Picture ED - Can you read Cyrillic, good neither could I


Picture EE - Enjoying the open landscape, blazing heat, and mosquitos the size of small baby birds

2012MongolRally

Hey there guys, just dropping you another update. So we have been having a lot of fun once we headed out of Atyrau for Beyneu, Kazakhstan.....then our fuel lines broke away. Well the rusty old girl broke the fuel lines running from the fuel tank near the passenger rear wheel. The great/ excellence news is I after 8 hours in the desert with a Russian mechanic we sourced out some kitchen copper plumbing and constructed some new fuel lines by welding with a torch and a bottle of vodka The roads in the last part of Kazakhstan and for that matter Uzbekistan have all but disappeared from the map, but the copper fuel line fix is working just fine, so everything is good and we are back on the road.

Now I am not sure how many of you guys watch the news, but soon after leaving Kazakhstan we discovered that Khorog, Tajikistan descended into warfare, great ....... The Tajikis have prevented foreigners from entering the Pamirs effectively due to the conflict in the city of Khorog, luckily though no rally teams have entered the Pamirs, however, from the BBC report below we understand some 200 people were killed, so needless to say we have altered our route. This a bummer since the place we really wanted to have the truck was the Pamirs. Any who, we are now heading to Kyrgyzstan a little bit earlier than our original visas were going to allow us so we can see the Fergana Valley to salvage some of our trip to see some mountains. Luckily, Kyrgyzstan recently passed a revision in their visa process that allows 44 nations to enter their country visa free for up to 60 days, and guess who is on there, the U.S. so regardless of us being a little early for entry into Kyrgyzstan with our original visas, as of July 27th, 2012 all U.S. citizens can enter visa free. The Fergana Valley won't be as awesome as the Pamirs, but avoiding a warring area to save my life is a good reason to avoid the Pamirs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18965366

http://www.tjus.org/media-center/new...khorogs-events

http://www.kgembassy.org/index.php?o...=1:latest-news

I am currently in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, basically the hub of the Silk Road. The city is really awesome, and I picked up some pretty nice cloths and a rug (probably a fake, but hey its a nice gift ) Now we heading to Tashkent, Uzbekistan and then Osh and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Btw, the pictures of the old boating vessels, that is in the Aral Sea or what use to be the Aral Sea. The Aral Sea is literally a fraction of its former self, we have video of us driving the truck down the rusted out vessels that use to float about 20 years ago before 20 feet of water disappeared below them thanks for sandstorms. Our upload the video of us driving down the sea bottom sometime which btw, driving on sand is a lot trickery than I thought, I got stuck at one point but thanks to 4wd I her out

Laters

Picture EF - The 'road' from Beyneu to the Uzbek border, yeah it didn't exist, it was a trail for some 150 km haha


Picture EG - The broken fuel lines, I tried JB Weld but that didn't solve it


Picture EH - Some new friends


Picture EI - Dropping the gas tank to fix the fuel lines


Picture EJ - The mechanic shop


Picture EK - Off in Russian Lata to find some replacement fuel lines, or kitchen plumbing haha


Picture EL - Me and my new Russian friend


Picture EM - Cutting some fuel lines


Picture EN - Welding with a torch


Picture EO


Picture EP - Welcome to the Aral Sea, here is one of the now beached boating vessels


Picture EQ - Some new Italians friends riding in the back of the truck to the bottom of the Aral Sea to the boat to take a picture or....to get stuck in the sand too I will load the video of riding to the down when I get back

benja455

Awesome thread...but you haven't posted here in over two months! I hope you're okay.

aviator

You know we never heard about that Pamir dust up on the news here at all... I've got to start watching more BBC News they do such a better job on covering the globe...
How goes the rally?

SARtruck

Seven months and no word.

Jake P.

Just stumbled on to this thread. Anybody hear what happened to these guys?

punkelberg

Made it....here's their facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quart...82749081746820

punkelberg

http://www.gazettejournal.net/index....ol_rally_drive