A lot of people – friends, family, girlfriends – have asked us, what sparked the idea of this trip? What compelled four employed post-grads to take unpaid leaves off work, cram into a crap car with 6 inches of leg room, and huck it to Mongolia? Well, ironically enough, Mike drew inspiration from work. A short 2 years ago, I was browsing my company’s internal online portal page and a news article flashed across the screen. A Danish co-worker had done the Mongol Rally and lived to tell the tale (Shout out Søren). It sounded like an incredible adventure – trekking over unseen territory by 99.9% of the world’s population and experiencing cultures that no one ever hears about.
I immediately told Dan and Tanner; they seemed interested – the concept doing the Mongol Rally was born. From there, we all put that idea in the tickler file to simmer for a bit. It wasn’t until Tanner brought up the idea to Joe that the idea finally had a chance of becoming a reality. What if we actually did the damn thing? Tanner, the ever so responsible project manager set a deadline – we all decide by end of year 2017. You’re either 100% in or you’re 100% out. We’re only getting older where every year creeping towards 30 equates to rising job responsibilities and rising pressure to settle down and get married. We either do it the summer of 2019 or we don’t do it all. Thus, by January 1st, 2018, we had all agreed that in 17 months, we’d start the Mongol Rally. We had no idea what that entailed, what our life situation would be, or how we could actually pull it off.
As I type this on my flight to London, I can’t actually believe I’m doing it either. It feels surreal – I’ve had a lot of swirling thoughts flying through my brain the past several weeks. I’m excited to see the birthplace of wine in Georgia and drive the rugged Pamir Highways. But at the same time, I’m nervous if our car experiences any breakdowns outside of a flat tire or if we get stuck on the Baku to Turkmenbashi ferry for a week. With all this excitement for the future, I know I’m extremely fortunate that I have the job flexibility and good graces of my girlfriend to go on this trip. I don’t know how this trip will pan out – Where will a lake-sized pothole try to blow our suspension to kingdom come? How many times will we get pulled over and haggled for bribes by police in Georgia? When will Joe, Tanner, and I have our first shouting argument? I’m not too concerned at the moment, I just know I’m in for one hell of a trip.
Landing in London, I’ll be shooting directly to Oxford. I’ll meet up with Joe and Tanner who’ve put in some much appreciated leg work on the car and supplies for which I owe them a very much deserved round of beers. We’ll put a few final touches on our car, Stevie, and then our Rally unofficially begins as we head to Dover. Going forward, our team will do our best to blog daily, but don’t quote me on that.
Mike