Tag Archives: toyota

Hang In There Old Friend

Toyota has been in the headlines a lot lately and you would have to have your head stuck in hole not to know that the attention Toyota has been getting as of late has been bad. It all stems around the recalls of several of Toyota’s popular models due in part because of potential problems with accelerators becoming stuck while the vehicle is moving. These perceived problems have triggered one of the largest recalls in consumer product history at nearly 8.5 million vehilces and caused Toyota to halt production on these models until the problem was idetnified and a solution put in place. It isn’t really the size of the recall involving Toyota that has got me a little bent out of shape recently, it is the hostility that is being directed towards this company, not by consumers, but by the United States government and the mainstream press.

Photos of the Week: Two Trucks, 4 Crew, a Warning Sign, Bighorn Sheep, & 2 Bears

There’s a very real risk of hitting some serious wildlife with your vehicle in Canada.

Photo of the Week: Denver Post

Front page of the Denver Post. Read the article here. Monday, May 18, 2009. Finally on the road again this Thursday. Alaska or bust.

New Photos – Lots of Them

I have been spending a lot of time recently trying to get to the point of where we have all of our photos up on the website. Unfortunately, the world was just so damn cool and we had a shutter happy bunch of crew members so trying to sort through over 27,000 photos to caption and upload is taking quite a bit of time. That’s right, 27,000 photos.

Photo of the Week: Homecoming

Congrats to the Steve’s. After over two years of driving and almost 70 countries, you made it back home safe and sound. Arrived in Denver on Wednesday, April 8, 2009. If you’re in the Denver area come on out to our Welcome Home Party.

Cruising The Open Roads

Mexico is a big country, the 14th largest country in the world by land area to be exact, and because Mexico is also a fairly developed country, that means we have a lot of pavement to put behind us before we cross the border back into the States. It is no real surprise that the roads in the major tourists areas such as the states of Quintana Roo (Tulum, Cancun), Yucatan (Merida) and Jalisco (Puerto Vallarta) are in really good condition, but you may be surprised to find that the roads in the rest of the country so far have also been in pretty descent shape.

Happy Late Anniversary

A few weeks ago marked the two year anniversary of The World by Road. It is hard to believe that two years have gone by since we pulled out of the driveway in Denver. A lot of people did not think we would make it this far, or even close to this far, and at some points, neither did we. It is a good feeling knowing that we have covered so many miles and also a good feeling knowing that in only a handful of weeks, we will be pulling back into that Denver driveway in the same two Toyotas we left with.

Done And Done

No more shipping the trucks! When we were in the planing stages of the expedition, we could not have possibly imagined how difficult, complicated, convoluted, annoying and downright painful the overseas shipping process could be. After four international, overseas container shipments during the course of the expedition, one would think that we are now knowledgeable experts when it comes to shipping vehicles abroad. The sad reality of the situation is the only thing we really know about putting a vehicle into a container and sending it to another country is that we never care to do it again.

Finally On Location

Colombia is always a place that has intrigued me for several different reasons. Maybe it is the lure of the jungle, maybe it the element of danger due to the longstanding presence of guerillas and revolutionaries, maybe it is the images of Juan Valdez and his coffee carrying mule, or maybe it is the curiosity generated by Pablo Escobar and the numerous cartels that put Colombia on the international map for less glamorous reasons.

Getting Closer to Home

We can all tell just by looking at the calendar and by looking at the odometer on the Toyotas that the expedition is drawing to a conclusion. We are so close that border crossings and navigation around the infamous Darien Gap aside, we could probably drive right back to the US in less than a week if we did it in a straight shot from our current position in northern Ecuador.