It has been over two years that we have been on the road, and while we have made it back home the journey is not yet over. In some ways it has just begun. In three days we will leave for Alaska to start the final segment of the expedition to the farthest North point the road will take us in North America. This means that we will have driven from the most southern and northern points of the continents. The excitement of the crew is through the roof, but we realize that it was only possible with the help of all those who supported us for the last two years.
Locally, we have a handful of sponsors on board including Stevinson Toyota who helped to get us the trucks, Toytec Lifts who redid the suspension, and Performance Wheel who gave us the new wheels and tires for the journey. The excellence of all their products where essential to the success on all of the horrible roads we crossed for thousands of off road miles.
We had many other sponsors on board, which you can check out by clicking the sponsors link at the top of the screen, but much of our support also came from the aid organizations that we worked with along the way. Without their on the ground knowledge, hospitality and willingness to work with us, we would probably still be stuck somewhere in the middle of nowhere central Asia. All of the people that allowed us to interview them truly has given us an interesting perspective of the world and certainly given some very interesting content to the documentary and book we are currently working on.
Click here to read more about some of these organizations
Our recent fund raiser helped us to raise just over $2,000 and while we did not have quite the turnout we were expecting for the event, it was still an enormous success with the generosity of our supporters to help us finish this task. Many have still been making contributions via the web or mail to make sure we have enough to finish the journey and start working with schools here in the USA. One friend even made a $1000 contribution who requested to remain nameless; what a great person to give anonymously. Also we would like thank all of the local companies that generously donated items to the silent auction, it was a fun time for everyone. While we still have some work ahead of us for the funds we need to finish, we would like to thank those who attended very much for your support and attendance, it was an amazing night!
Those of you who were not able to attend the fundraiser/exhibition or did not get to see the displays can still check out many of the materials that we had on display with the links below. As soon as I get to a faster internet connection, I will have the latest video from Ushuaia up on the web, along with the slide show. The other videos that were played are all available on the videos page (just click the link above).
Most of all we would like to thank our families and friends who have been such awesome supporters for the last two years. Both financially and emotionally they have helped us with the rollercoaster of the expedition for the entire journey. None of us could have accomplished this without their help.
So we still have 9,000 miles and two months left in this journey and we do need more sponsors. If you are interested in supporting us you can click the link on the right to donate via paypal. TabootArt.com, one of our most recent sponsors, has agreed to give a World by Road t-shirt to anyone who donates over $50. If you have a local business that would like to sponsor us or the speaking tour please click the sponsor us link at the top for more information.
Again thanks to everyone for your continued support, we will keep the content coming as we make our way to Alaska, and check out the latest video!!
[podcast format=”video”]http://theworldbyroad.com/video/Ushuaia/Ushuaia-Desktop.m4v[/podcast]
Thanks,
Steve Shoppman
Expedition Leader
These links will be live in about a half hour, the documents are just finishing uploading.
