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I guess when you ask for money from people, it is those people’s duty to question your merit.  Giving money to a group or a cause or an investment, whatever it may be, is something that requires a lot of thought.  So I suppose I can chalk all of the comments about our merit up to that, and respect all of those for asking us if our mission is truly worthwhile.  The latest:

"Assuming 12 miles per gallon for your vehicles, you’ve put more than 70 tons of carbon into the atmosphere! That’s more than three times the average total emissions for an American…….about 6 times that of a European and 20 times that of an average Japanese citizen. That’s only for your driving, not taking other activities into account which would increase that number significantly.

Are you doing anything to offset these emissions?"

Thanks for asking Green Bill.  We have been sponsored by Native Energy to offset all of the carbon emissions for the trip. Beyond that, you should take into account that we live like locals most of the time and our carbon footprint beyond the trucks is far, far less than anyone in the modern world. By the professional calculations of Native Energy in this partnership, our expedition is set to emit about 110 tons of CO2 over the course of the entire 2 year expedition.  This number is actually not very high on world standards if you take a couple of other factors into account.

This number has typically been divided by about 5 crew members and sometimes as much as 9, so even with this 70 ton estimate above, each member of the crew is still actually well below the 20 ton per year American average.  Considering the 110 ton estimate for the entire expedition spanning two years, if divided by 5, each crew member is effectively polluting 11 tons per year.  For the last segment of the expedition we should have no less than 7 crew members in the trucks at a time, so this number will be even lower when it is all said and done.

So what is my point?  The point is that we do everything we can to reduce the amount we pollute.  We eat local food instead of imports, we give other travelers a lift to the next town, we camp about 50% of the time, we share hotel rooms with sometimes as many as 9 people, we are looking at getting LPG conversions on both of the trucks, and all of our time and efforts are part of attempt to educate more people about what is going on in the world.  If there was a way to do what we are doing with hybrids or something else that pollutes less, we would be all for it, but the nature of the expedition requires these trucks, and many of the roads we travel could not be attempted without them.

So in response to Bill, we are doing quite a few things and believe that our goal will ultimately be worth the amount we have polluted.  Do any of our readers have additional suggestions on ways we could lower our footprint even more?  We are always open to new suggestions on this topic.

Since entering Europe we received quite the welcome from the local media outlets. In Bergen, Norway we were featured on the front page of the main newspaper in town. In London I was interviewed by the Guardian, and as we were told by a friend in London, it is one of the most respected newspapers in the UK. We were also featured by one of the top 4×4 magazines in the France. Marc, the writer for the magazine also helped us with the recent repairs on the Tundra and is planning a 11 page spread in the magazine in the next couple of months. Marc Mellet was introduced to us by our friend Chenzorig in Mongolia. Chenzorig helped us install the new shocks on the trucks back when we were in Mongolia. He told us about Marc and his trip to Kamchatka peninsula in Siberia during the heart of winter. Chinzo helped Marc to install many of the new heaters and components that allowed him to drive his car there in such temperatures.

As we approached Paris, Steve Bouey started contacting Marc to see if we could get some help with the damage to our trucks. We figured that Marc would just be a nice guy and hook us up with a shop, but things turned out quite differently when we arrived. Not only did Marc help us with the trucks, we are being featured in the magazine and quite good friends with Marc after our time in Paris. He even let the crew sleep on the floor at his house. To top things off, when we took photos of the trucks for the magazine, Marc talked with the Police and we parked the trucks on the Arc de Triumph for photos (this is one of the craziest intersections on the planet, for those of you that have not seen it in person).

For whatever reason, we continue to find the right people. People like Marc and Chinzorig, others like Thomas or Carlos who run hostels in Barcelona and Munich, and the countless other people around the world that go out of their way to help us out are what keep our operation from getting stopped in its tracks, literally. As we drive down tollways crossing numerous borders in a week, we tend to accumulate a myriad of different currencies. Often we get to a toll booth and do not have enough of the local currency, but over and over the toll booth operators call their supervisors to either use our credit cards, take the other currency, or in some cases take multiple different currencies to come up with enough money to get us on our way. Hostels and hotels continue to give us discounts and in some cases, like at the Easy Palace hostel in Munich, we were even given free beer for one whole night along with beer tasting lessons. Often it is hard for me to understand why so many people take it upon themselves to make sure that The World by Road succeeds. Over and over when it seems that we have hit a barrier, a smiling face, a phone call or an email come through to prove that there is always a way to a solution.

Since we started the trip one of our biggest hurdles has been video. Although we film every day, with all of the trials of the road and technical difficulties we have obviously been far behind on our original plan to have more regular video up. Much like all of the other problems encountered since our exit from the comforts of home, this problem has also worked itself out. Brook Silva Braga is the latest addition to the crew here and his background is just what we have needed to take the load off my back managing the expedition and editing video. Since he has been here we have already managed to put together two different video shorts. So how did we find Brook? It is a long story, but when I was planning for the expedition the trailer for his documentary, A Map for Saturday, was referred to me by a friend. I thought it looked great and wrote a blog about it. A day later Brook contacted me…”Good luck on your trip, hopefully I’ll be back on the road sometime soon, maybe our paths will cross.” Our paths did cross again as he interviewed us in the Czech Republic for his site, The InterviewPoint. As a bit of a joke I poked Brook saying that he should join the expedition in Africa. I never really thought he would join, but only a month or so after the interview, Brook is now here in person.

It really is amazing how all of this works out. Each day brings us new challenges and difficulties, but each day also brings us miracles, for lack of a better word. In Tim Cahill’s book “Road Fever” he states, “This would not be possible without the help of all of the great people along the way.” I read that book very early on in this adventure and every day that statement rings true more and more everyday.

Below I have listed some links to the the articles and media I have mentioned above:

Brook sent me a copy of his movie when we first met, it is worth a watch. You can purchase a copy of it on Brook’s site - http://www.amapforsaturday.com/contact.html. It also is airing on MTV and some other stations worldwide, check out his site to see the latest times.

The InterviewPoint Interview
http://www.theinterviewpoint.com/ITP/Interviews/1E468135-B7D5-4CB0-87B2-47B8E74C8E6C.html

The Guardian Article - http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=505&catID=8

Interview in Bergen, Norway - Click here

Tim Cahills Book

We were recently featured in an english speaking newspaper called the Sofia Echo in the capital city of Sofia in Bulgaria.  The link to the article is below.

Click here for the article or click here to go to the Media Appearances page or click here to go directly to the Sofia Echo to read the article.

The article is called “A Truck Tale” and was written by Spasena Baramova.

When we first encountered water that would could not get the trucks through in Laos, we realized that we could wait no longer for some lifts on the trucks.  With the roads as bad as they are in some parts of this journey, backtracking as little as 75km can take the better part of a day.

We knew after the way we had beaten up the shocks through SE Asia, it was time at least get some replacements. On our first contact with Toy Tec we simply wanted to get some lifts and new rear springs for the Tundra, as we have had it severely overloaded with all the weight of our gear. Doug at Toy Tec suggested to me that we actually upgrade the shocks as well.

After 1200km of the roads in Mongolia, another 1000km of the insane roads of Kazakhstan and another 400km of snow and potholes in Kyrgyzstan, it has become highly evident that these shocks were not a luxury, they were a necessity. The corrugation of the roads in Mongolia is not paralleled in the world, it shakes you until you are on the verge of breakdown. The “paved” roads of Kazakhstan are in dire need of repair and they throw curve balls at you right and left with bumps and dips that will launch the trucks off the road at the blink of an eye. Kyrgyzstan’s potholes go back and forth from little minis to a whole chunk of the road missing for 50 ft.

With the experiences we have had over the last few weeks, we cannot thank Doug and the guys at Toy Tec enough for the gift that keeps on giving…their new shock setups.  We asked for lifts, they upgraded and now we have coil over shocks for the Sequoia along with Add-a-leaf springs for the Tundra.  The coil over shocks have outperformed Doug’s descriptions of a better ride, and the add-a-leafs have immensely improved the ride and handling of the Tundra with all the weight we are carrying. I am so impressed with these shocks that it seems wild to me that anyone would drive a truck with the stock shocks. So without further adieu…the top ten:

10) The Sequoia shocks were already noted as “not passing” when we had safety tests done in Thailand. After that we put more than 5,000 more miles on them.

9) Western Mongolia does not believe in bridges, river crossings are an hourly occurrence.

After a few hours with the new shocks, your confidence shoots through the roof with the new level of control. Confidence goes a long way when you are lost in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from civilization, running out of gas while the thermometer reads negative 18 degrees.

7) Mongolians joke that the roads in the west can rattle the bolts loose in your truck, we were happily driving by those guys with loose bolts on the side of the road.

6) Bilstein just sounds cool when you are talking about your shocks.

5) Occasionally, we pass old Russian vans full of travelers. I giggle on the inside when I think of their discomfort.

4) After a day of driving in Mongolia jarring your brain for hours on end, sometimes you consider just driving off a cliff to make it all stop.  Without the shocks, I think I would have chosen the cliff by day 2.

3) If you manage to not lose your sanity and drive off a cliff yourself, the uneven road will attempt to toss you off one on its own.

2) I got to be “that guy” at the airport ticketing desk, airport security, the Air China ticketing desk, Mongolian customs and Mongolian airlines baggage desk on my flight back to Mongolia. It is like shocks are made of plutonium or something.

1) I recently saw an ad in Russia warning mothers not to shake their babies for risk of brain damage.  Thanks shocks…enough said.

A week does not go by without hearing the question, "How are you two funding this adventure?" The usual answer if we have the energy, takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 minutes. Of course we go through the usual explanation of the generosity of Stevinson Toyota, followed by the list of the rest of the sponsors who helped get this thing off the ground.  At some point Bouey chimes in with the usual, "I cashed out my 401K," and the looks that follow have a myriad of faces.

Some look disgusted that we would take such a risk putting all of our savings on the line without guaranteed sponsorship. Others have a look like they don’t believe it and that the sponsors must have given us more. It is the facts, whether stupid or not, we put a lot on the line to get this going, and even more to keep this going. Over a year ago the two of us flew out to California and talked with some potential sponsors.  After the business was over we made our way up to wine country near Sonoma, CA. In traditional TWBR style we chose the vineyard that was the most remote down a dirt road far off the main highway.  By accident we even ended up taking the scenic route out there.  The drive paid off as it wound through row after row of different types of exotic grape varieties lining the countryside with vivid color patterns. At the end of this long dirt road we found the Matanzas Creek Winery sitting on top of a hill in a quite picturesque setting with small mountains on both sides of the long valley.

After driving up the long driveway to the beautifully landscaped grounds of Matanzas Creek, we walked into the tasting room located at the end of a path making its way through gardens full of water features and lush greenery. A warm hello greeted the two of us. The man behind the tasting counter was a white-bearded mountain man looking character. His refined demeanor was welcoming as we started to talk with him and taste our first samples of wine for the day.

Tim, if I remember his name correctly asked, "What brings you gentleman all the way out here on a Friday?" As this was early on in our career of TWBR explanation, we were more than happy to give him the long of the short. He was overjoyed to have an interesting story to listen to as his days are slow during the week.  As the only two customers the entire hour of our time with Tim, the long winded story was welcome. Upon finding out the crazy scheme we had planned, Tim commended our ambition and praised our coming up with the idea at all.

"You two are some of the most determined guys I have ever met."

"Thanks, hopefully the sponsors will feel the same way you do."

Tim laughed and replied, "One of the things I like most about the two of you is the way you talk about the adventure." At this point in time we did not actually have any sponsors, the trucks, or any of the gear we needed other than a few cameras.

He continued, "Most of the time people talk about an idea they have with a hopeful attitude, which is great, but the two of you speak like the adventure is going to happen even though you are just getting started."

Over the course of the two years, as bar conversations and random thoughts led to Steve and I teaming up, not once had this thought ever crossed my mind. It was just something that had been on my mind for many years, my best friend was in, and the time had come to actually follow through. Hearing his cheers at a time of doubt certainly helped to keep our spirits high at the beginning of such a huge task.

It is hard for us to believe sometimes that we have made it this far.  We are ever so close to getting into China and have been on the road officially for 6 months.  It has finally set in as real…our lives are lived out of two trucks on the opposite side of the world.  The web stats keep on growing and we are gaining momentum with sponsors every day to help get funding to finish this adventure.  However, another reality has set in as well–we need more financial support.  Daily we work to get blogs up, find new team members, upload new photo galleries, deal with truck problems, get visas, and more.  We continue to get helpful words of encouragement just like the ones at Matanzas creek.  For that, we would like to offer a huge thanks.  Keep the comments and emails coming, it certainly is a wonderful end to a day to get a complement on all of the work we are doing. The problem is that compliments don’t put fuel in the tanks.

Beyond the wonderful compliments, we also get a lot of questions and requests.  Many of the requests are for more video content, others are for more photos. Truthfully, we love putting the content up and we certainly love producing it for all of you to enjoy. It does however cost a lot of money to produce it. There are fees for hosting, Internet connections, visas, hotels, gas…the list goes on and on.  Let me get to the point:

We need your help. For the cost of a magazine each month, you can help two broke guys go around the world and keep the content coming for your enjoyment. A magazine comes just once a month. Our content is updated almost every day. With the help of PayPal, have setup plans to help you support us.  The more support we get, the more likely you are to see even more content. If we did not have to spend so much of our day trying to figure out how to get more funding, we could spend it editing video, posting photos and writing stories.

So I will end with that.  Click the link below to learn more about the myriad of ways you can help us out, and please take the initiative to follow through with some of them.  We will be ever so grateful.  Some of the subscription plans are automatic, so just get it started and you don’t have to worry about it any more. It’s actually quite easy…support us and the content will get even better and more frequent.

Thanks again to everyone for everything.

Click here to learn more about helping us out.