Team America
4Aug/11Off

gas prices abroad

Below is what we've been paying for gasoline along our journey. The highest so far has been here in Turkey due to high taxes. The lowest is Hungary most likely because it's hungary.

Hope this puts some perspective on our gas prices.

local currency per liter $usd per gallon
1.36£ british pound $8.45
1.56€ france euro $8.36
1.68€ belgium euro $9.00
1.51€ germany euro $8.09
35.70 czech koruny $7.87
297.9 hungarian fortints $5.85
399.9 hungarian fortints $7.84
5.57 romania leu $7.03
2.52 bulgarian levs $6.90
2.52 turkish liras $9.46
Filed under: We can do it! 1 Comment
3Aug/11Off

Night Time Lapse at the Beginning of Ramazan

Folks are still getting into the groove of going all day without eating, so we're trying to be extra patient when finding food during the day. The call to prayer last night came from the green glowing minaret on the left. We were five stories above the Black Sea Highway in the town of Giresun, Turkey.

2Aug/11Off

Some statistics so far…

Day 10:
Current Statistics from onboard computer:
Driven 3366.7 miles
Average Consumptions: 42.3mpg (I seriously doubt it)
Average Speed: 39 mph

From my logs:
436L fueled
3367 miles traveled

Average of 336 miles per day (assuming 10 hour driving days)
Average Gas Mileage: 31.2 mpg

2Aug/11Off

Turkey Time Lapse

It's a little rough, but it's something. There will be more of these, and they will be better, when, yes when, we get back:

28Jul/11Off

Pretty maps


Here is our trip so far with Spot Connect tracking us every 10 minutes. If you click on the map you'll be sent off to google maps where you can play around. You can zoom in and see where we got lost...

Filed under: We can do it! 1 Comment
28Jul/11Off

Some Photos by Jeff

Here are a few pics I've sent through Photoshop and/or my iPhone. Check back often for new ones!

26Jul/11Off

lacking the internet

we haven't had as much access to the internet as we wanted but we do have pictures and videos. Jeff is planning to upload some pictures tomorrow. I've just made the live page better, with better marked up map of where we've been from spot's site. Also make sure to check out the pictures from color on the live page. Though be aware that the web version lacks details and comments that only show in the iphone app.

it's day 4 and things are kind of a blur but are going well. We are getting into the swing of things and covering a lot of distance each day. At this point we are in a new country and language every night.

I'm pretty exhausted now and going to bed. Hopefully we will give more information in the morning before we depart in the morning.

22Jul/11Off

donate now!

welp it's finally here, the adventure commences tomorrow. We are as prepared as one can be. Jeff arrived yesterday and we delivered 130lbs of goodness to the car. Today we head out for chichester where tomorrow at 9am BST (1am PDT) all the ralliers will meet up for total chaos.

Join us for one last hurrah and all you dilly dalliers here is your chance to donate.

12Jul/11Off

Get Connected


It's 10 more days before the launch of Mongol Rally 2011 and we are getting fully psyched. I'd like to thank all of you who have donated and have been a part of supporting us, but I've been learning that people have been missing out on our updates.

Lucky for you, you can now sign up to get an email anytime we post a new blog entry on Rally Team America. Just put in your email where it says "Get Notified of New Posts" or here

In addition I'd like to point out that you can also get to via other media outlets.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mongol-Rally-Team-America/217665658248234
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TeamAmerica2011
RSS Nerds: http://rallyteamamerica.com/rss
Email: http://rallyteamamerica.com/subscription/

We will be updating as much as we can from the road, but don't expect any high bandwidth media (ie pics and video) until our return. You can track our location live on http://rallyteamamerica.com/live. The data you can see now is testing Spot Connect around locally, but in 2 days you can start following my travels around UK.

Lex is leaving wednesday at 1pm, and Jeff is leaving July 18. Unless I see you tomorrow, don't have too much fun without me and see you in a few months.

psss, if you haven't donated yet please donate to charity and Team America.

8Jul/11Off

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.