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This post will remain at the top of the blog for the next couple of weeks, but to read the most recent posts, please just scroll down.

So the site says that I am in Denver, the trucks and rest of the crew are somewhere in Angola and blogs and content are sparse. For over a month we were all stuck in the Congo, as you are well aware from the blogs, we could not get visas for Angola.  Right now we are in the process of shipping the trucks to Buenos Aries and trying to raise funds for the South American segment of the expedition.

Since we were held up for so long, I had to fly back to the states from Pointe Noire, Congo, so that I would not miss my sisters wedding. Being forced to leave from such an odd place, it cost a tremendous amount of money to get me back to Denver. Where I am currently stuck… (more…)

We cannot thank all of you enough for your continued support of the expedition. Visas, fuel, accommodation and just about everything else are extremely expensive here in Central Asia.  In fact, we were recently charged and extra $50 “rush fee” for our Uzbek visas.  Apparently, it was a rush because we were early for our appointment to have them put our already approved visa stickers in our passports. I am guessing that Uzbekistan will not be seeing the extra $50 per visa on any of the accounting books, as it had to be paid in cash to the sleazy “diplomat” behind the glass.

I cannot stress enough how grateful we are to all of you for your continued support.  It is these donations that will continue to allow us to succeed in out mission to make it around the world in one piece.

Our most recent thanks go to:

Stephen Hibbard

The Magaras (Again)

Katie Shoppman (My sister, the subscriber)

Elaine Geffen

Brian Rogers (Recently Subscribed)

If you are interested in joining the ranks of these fine people, just click here.

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.

For those of you regular blog readers, you have recently been made aware of the trials and tribulations of Bouey’s recent Mongolian horse riding experiences.  The truth is that my jealousy abounds over this painful experience.  Instead of having wild experiences at a wedding in western Mongolia, I had the opportunity to fly home to meet with sponsors and collect some much needed supplies for the upcoming months through the remote stretches through West Mongolia, Siberia, and the Stans.

This journey home was packed full of so many meetings my head is still spinning.  I have been back in Ulaanbaatar for 3 days now, and it is quite apparent now that my home is on the road and Denver was a "vacation" for a week.  Although it was a lot of work, seeing friends, family, my dog and my house was a great reminder of all the wonderful things I have to come back to when I return.  So what did the week do for TWBR?

One of the meetings was with new sponsor ToyTec Lifts.  They helped poor Thundra and Little Pepe in a time of need.  After the roads of Cambodia, Laos, China, the Australian Outback and the Gobi, the shocks on both trucks had pretty much seen their last tour of duty. In fact the shocks responsiveness ratings were already noted as a little lower than passing when we had a required safety test for China requirements done on Little Pepe back in Thailand.  The trip through the Gobi nearly led Steve B. to roll one of the trucks on our rally north, clearly it was time for some replacements. We started talking with ToyTec and in a little less than a month Doug at ToyTec agreed to sponsorship (light speed in the world of sponsorship).  The agreement came just in time to pick up the lifts and new shocks in Denver.

Over the last two days I spent the majority of my time working with our two favorite Mongolian mechanics Davoo and Coche. These two great guys were introduced to us by a generous man named Chenzorig Chulaanbaatar. He runs a company here named Drive Mongolia.  They specialize in off road tours of the Mongolian countryside. Since returning Chenzorig has spent nearly all of his time the last two days helping us.  With nothing to gain other than simply feeling good about assisting a couple of needy Americans, he has been a true asset and friend to us recently.  We could not have accomplished everything we needed for our journey west without him.

The mechanics did not speak English and my complete lack of everything but hello and thank you in Mongolian provided an interesting couple of days as we worked together on the installation of everything.  Somehow, even with some cutting of different bolts and work that needed to be done on the installation, around 35 hours of work with little more than a mini jack and a bag full of tools had the trucks ready for some more Mongolian non-roads.  If you add to the mix a little rain and cold temperatures the experience becomes that much more authentically Mongolian.

On that note Bouey should give a special thanks to all of them.  His butt will have time to rest with some comfortable new suspension and the plush seats of the trucks.

The cutting of the bolts…note the excited mechanic when I gave him permission to use his saw.

The view from the mechanics work yard…downtown Ulaanbaatar in the background.

The work yard.

Much needed installation of new shocks

The yard dog.  He was a crazy little bugger.

The tools

The jacks

Safety First.

3" Lifts…Thanks Toytec!!!

We are proud to announce that we have added a new sponsor.  Sumo Lounge is a company that makes urban style comfort furniture, or the layperson, huge pillows that you can morph into just about whatever shape you want to get comfortable.  At this point you might ask yourself how in the heck we can use urban furniture on an expedition around the world.  The answer is that we can’t…but you can and so can our support team at home.

Sumo Lounge has agreed to help promote us and give a couple of their omni chairs to our home team to keep them comfortable while they are helping us take care of things at home.

So a big thanks to Sumo Lounge, and if you are interested in getting more comfortable in your abode while you watch us get more uncomfortable as we head off into the great unknown…click this link.