Oh Them Lovely Visas
Things were looking so positive to get all our visas in time, but now things are starting to shake out. All of us are on our last two visas, Azerbaijan and Russia. My intent the whole time has been to leave to the UK this Saturday, July 9th. This was to get some real time under the hood and finish up any details before we leave but that's all slipping due to Azerbaijan... I'm actually kind of sad. So be it.
I called Azerbaijan Embassy on the 12th business day at 7am PT as their website says "M,W,F 7am-10am PT" to learn that they aren't actually open until "M-F 11am-2pm PT". Rad! So when I finally spoke to someone I learned that "US company check" means the check I sent won't work. Doh! As soon as I could I ran to the post office to get a money order and shipped it next day to Washington DC. As of this morning the tracking number for the money order showed "10:08am Status: Notice Left (No Authorized Recipient Available)" WTF?!? Eventually my letter arrived and spoke with someone there to confirm that my passport is going out today. If the stars are aligned I will receive it tomorrow before noon so I can run to Russia embassy before it closes at noon! And just to think this is the easy part of the visa process, wait until we get to these countries' borders.
As for Jeff it's looking like he's on target. He did Russia first and confirmed that indeed it does take 4 days to process and Azerbaijan Consulate in DC has received his passport. If he's fortunate enough he'll be ahead of the game. However Bryan's passport finally got his passport back yesterday! Visa Machine lagged an extra week for him and at this point is not looking positive that he'll be able to join us at the starting line. If he's lucky and Azerbaijan takes less than 10 business days he can make it. Maybe if he drops an extra $20 in the envelope it could help. Not awesome...
In the meantime last week I had Kerri and Dylan @ D+K Mobile Servicing order my car parts. Though since I won't arrive until next week they are going to do the car work without me. This means I won't get to be intimate with the car until it breaks down en route. oh goodie!
Everything else is looking good so far. We are closing in on the last details of all our gear and now we just need some Team America schwag.
I'm gonna order me some car stickers and flyers.
The Mongol Rally is a UK-to-Mongolia, no back-up, no support, no set route adventure for charity - involving 15 countries and 10,000 miles' worth of mountains, deserts, bad roads, no roads, bandits, and various other pickles in comically unsuitable 1-litre cars.
Freedom costs a buck-oh-five. But we've heard that in Mongolia $1.05 also gets you a 3-story yurt mansion on the shores of Ögii Lake.
So off we go in our Fiat Panda. And since terrorism is officially over, Team America is now all about charity and liberation! Viva la Facebook!
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