Well, we have made a lot of progress on the mongolf this week, including getting most of the stickers on (note: if you are aver doing vinyl stickers for a car, pay twice the price to get the thickest vinyl possible, the thinner it is the more impossible it is to put on correctly)

Today we got the engine running much better with some tuning and thorough cleaning of the spark plugs and entire intake/throttle body, bracketed down the Hella 2000’s, and found a whole set of almost brand new wheels/BFG all-season tires, picked them up and put them on. We now have 12 wheels… we are going to get rid of the alloys and take two sets of simple steel wheels instead.

Tomorrow is more administrative stuff and then Monday is the last day of prepping the car before our Copenhagen launch party at Hello Monday afternoon.

We have just gotten sponsorship from United Mobile, who will be supplying us with free voice and data services in all 25 countries through which we will be traveling. This will let us keep our blog updated the whole trip, and even publish photos to it as we go. This will be a huge advantage over the other teams who will most likely be unable to communicate through most of the countries they will be going through. Thanks again United Mobile!

Thanks to everyone who has made donations both online and offline, we are getting near our launch date and would really appreciate reaching or passing our goal on the Save The Children donations. You can click on the box over on the left that says “JustGiving” and make your donations directly through there. Time is ticking!

Sorry for the delay in posts, we have both been really busy at work, and have not had much time to work on the car at all. BUT today I drove out and picked up the metal roof basket to go on the roof rack Søren picked up last week. It is now mounted on the car and looks cool, and will hopefully stay where it is supposed to. Pics coming soon.

Also today, the exterior sponsor stickers arrived from London where we had them all printed, cutting it a bit close time-wise, but eh, we got them So, we still have a huge checklist to go, but hoenstly most of the major stuff has been done administrative-wise, and we have done a little bit on the car itself. This Saturday is going to be a solid day of working on the car, and then Monday will be our last day to get everything finished up before we head out Tuesday morning… our departure is FAST approaching.

We took The Mongolf out for a drive on Sunday and came by the office cause Soren had to get some work done… and we got a FLAT TIRE! What the hell?? Neither of us has gotten a flat tire on a regular street in yeeeears, yet, we did. So, we pulled a ghetto move and decided to just change the entire set of wheels over to the alloys, on the street, in front of the office. We will be using the 4 steel wheels as our “spares” for the trip. Now we have to get a tire repaired before we even leave, haha. Yes, we are taking 4 full-size wheels as spares, we will need them.

Well, we have both gotten a few things checked off the “list” in the last couple days. The car has been re-registered properly, international drivers licenses applied for etc. This weekend we did some work on the car itself, and will get some pics up soon. We have both been super busy with work last week and this one, so we have not really had any time to do anything much since then… 

After the ridiculous process of waiting in a long line on the sidewalk in front of the Russian embassy for 1.5 hours yesterday morning, only to leave empty-handed, e decided to just pay a travel agency to do the visa thing for us. So, this morning we went and turned in new applications, and handed over our passports to the Russian travel agent… a bit unnerving giving someone else your passport for two weeks. Oh, and since there are several Russian holidays this week and next, I am apparently going to get my passport and visa back only a day or two before we are scheduled to leave!

We thought you might be interested in seeing some more info about the charities we have chosen to support. Along with the Childrens’ Development and Protection Fund, which will be receiving The Mongolf itself as a donation at the end of the rally, we have selected Save The Children to be the benefactor of our other fundraising efforts. Please take a look at the save the children page to see more about where your donations will be going. Thanks again!

We picked up the car this morning, handed over a wad of cash and drove The Mongolf home. Well, sort of home… we kind of just parked it on the street in front of the agency until we figure out what to do with it tomorrow. Luckily, it’s free parking after 5 on Saturday through Sunday night!

Tomorrow we will begin working on the car to get it into rally shape! Now the fun part begins…

Please visit The Mongolf Store to buy yours now!

The US store will be up and running shortly…