Thanks to GoPro Cameras; Hoa Hele's Bright New Look

Now that I've imposed a more leisurely pace to my once hectic life, I can get to blog at more regular and frequent intervals about the progress of the trip and dedicate more time to thanking the people who are making this all possible.

Thanks go out in this post to Go Pro Cameras, who rushed a camera to me to meet the previously scheduled launch date but are now getting a full year of advertising on the car and canoe. Go Pro sent me their MotorSports Hero Quick-release video camera which is going to come in handy for those point of view shots from inside the Geo and on top of Hoa Hele. I'd like to thank Jason and Nicholas for donating the camera and mounts that will make filming the more interesting perspectives of the trip possible.

Hoa Hele's red hull has finally cured and John and I flipped her over onto some canoe mounts to pull off the masking paper and tape. She still has the boot stripe masking tape on, and we'll be painting that final touch this evening. We'll be putting in new rudder cables and pedals tonight and hopefully by this weekend she'll be ready for her inaugural cruise. I'm looking to get her blessed at the same time that Kaimanu gets the new Bradley Lightning and hopefully she'll live up to her name and really get to go somewhere. A few days ago I got the new tent I was going to use on the trip. I say was, because when I went to pick it up at the shipping company, I was surprised that it was so huge. Too huge in fact. Even folded up and put away into it's carrying case, it wouldn't fit into my car. I had ordered the larger size, being misled by a photo of the smaller version folded up. I'll have to return it and get the smaller and more manageable single size. Getting this huge tent knowing I couldn't use it on my trip didn't stop me from deploying the thing in my living room and trying it out for a few nights to see how I'd like it. It's amazingly comfortable despite it's bulk and if I was taking a Land Rover instead of a Geo, this would be my tent of choice. It's unfortunate that it's bigger than the cargo bay of my car.

Leave in 10 days or leave in 375? Well...

I'm sure it took everyone about a year to realize that I was serious about my intent to drive around the world in a Geo Metro with Hoa Hele. It's dawned on people and made them think "Bloody hell, he's really going to do this, isn't he?"

How do I know this? Because everyone at Bayer working on this project has been running like chickens with their heads cut off trying to meet my schedule of launching this endeavor on the 29th of May. I've finally gotten someone to take me seriously and now the real work can begin.

I've decided to take another 12 months to do this trip right.

Bayer Healthcare has been excited about this project from the start and they have been trying their best to get the resources necessary to make this a reality. What Bayer wanted to do was to make this a part of the Employee Giving Program so that employees from all of the divisions could make contributions that would be matched by the company. Since this is a new program, it'll take some time to get it up to speed - too late for my project and the charities to take advantage of the full benefits it has to offer. Bayer also needs more time to adequately publicize the event both internally and externally, and the timeline wouldn't allow for a complete publicity blitz.

Even though I could very well do this drive this year, chances are that the money I pull in for the Hemophilia Foundation and the Christina Noble Children's Foundation wouldn't be anywhere near what I could collect if I had the resources and time to publicize this right. Over the last year I was concentrating on the car and the route and not paying enough attention to the charity fundraising portion. A couple of guys tinkering with a car and a canoe really can't dedicate the time necessary to bring this idea to it's full contribution earning potential. Now that the car is 75 percent done, I can concentrate on the charitable donations part of the project.

Am I disappointed that I decided to wait another year to do this? No, not at all. The reason is that this next year will give me the opportunity to do really develop the publicity and meet with more potential sponsors. I'm actually more excited about the possibilities for contributions and the interest that this trip will generate, and I get to prepare the Geo and Hoa Hele to my satisfaction. I am looking forward to attending the Hemophilia Foundation's Camp Hemotion with the Geo and Hoa Hele. When I first showed the car at the Hemophilia Foundation's holiday party for the kids back in December, I got a real kick out of the kids getting excited over the idea of a car driving around the world. This is for them after all, and getting the opportunity to go to Camp Hemotion, get the kids and parents interested in the big drive, and making them feel someone is doing something to help them maintains my focus and momentum on what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. Additionally, I can take advantage of the time allocated to the Hemophilia Foundation for media public service announcements. Getting some air time on television and radio would be a plus in getting more contributions.

Another reason to take a year to do things right: The IVF World Outrigger Canoe Sprint Championships are going to be held in Sacramento this summer. This is a fantastic opportunity to publicize the drive around the world and generate interest in the canoeing aspect of the trip. There will be coverage by the outrigger magazines and international press as well as local media. Since the Hemophilia Foundation of Hawai'i is one of my supported charities, my hope is that the Islanders that are participating this year will spread the word about the event once they get home.

I might be able to add Australia to the list if countries if I plan things right in the next 12 months. I know Bayer has offices and facilities in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth as well as a big outrigger contingent. Then I can say I've driven and paddled on 4 continents instead of 3.

I don't think of this as a postponement, in reality it's a time extension for sponsorships and contributions. I can plan things more reasonably, concentrate more focus on the charities I'm supporting, and get more donations now that I've got people's attention and they're taking me more seriously than when I first approached them with this idea.

They still think I'm crazy.

Which is cool.

My calculations were right - well, mostly.

As if I had enough problems with this little pet project of driving the planet in a 500 dollar car. This time it was just a miscalculation and not enough double checking on my part. Initially I had thought that the canoe was going to fit on diagonal in the cargo container. For some reason, my conversion from feet to inches went seriously wrong. 7 feet 8 inches is 92 inches, not 152. In other words, there's no way a 23 foot canoe will fit inside a 20 foot long container that's only 7 feet 8 inches wide. Unless I cut Hoa Hele in half (which is completely out of the question).

How I came up with that faulty piece of data is anyone's guess but I'm grateful that I found out now instead of on the dock in New York when the shipping container was being readied. I have no idea what I would have done then, driving across the North American continent with a canoe only to find out they couldn't ship it.

Now my new big worry is how to ship the Geo and Hoa Hele to the UK. I can do a roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) instead of a cargo container, but now what worries me is whether they have one going to the UK at the right time.

Another thing that has me worried is the funding situation. I have no idea when or how or if I'm getting funds from Bayer. As I said before, I've turned in my request for a grant, but will it come in on time, if at all? Too many questions just hanging out there and not too much time left to answer them.

Which brings me to my next dilemma: what if despite getting funding I can't go this year? Well there is always next year, and the extra time will buy me a few things. Most importantly, it'll give me an opportunity to really raise some cash for the supported charities. Getting the car into rally shape would take another few months, but the advertising time and the publicity generated over the several months would gain the Foundations a few more thousands I'd think. I'd be able to attend car shows and fairs in full rally mode with the canoe on top and REALLY get some attention for the charities and my sponsors. On top of that, going next year has some added benefits. The eclipse in Barnaul this year is only 2 minutes and change. The eclipse next year in Shanghai is 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Additionally, I'll have extra time to plan on getting the Geo and canoe into Australia. The biggest hurdle to that would be China as getting the Geo and Hoa Hele through that country could pose some serious problems. I was informed by the tour company that there are laws that prohibit transporting something longer that your car on the roads there. My plan would be to put Hoa Hele on a freight train bound for Hong Kong and then cargo ship them to Australia when I got there in the Geo. Then drive from Darwin to Sydney. Then cargo the whole thing back to the States. Yes, it's crazy, but it just might work.

The additional time will allow the Skunkworks to really prepare the car for something as foolish as what I plan. Right now, the Geo still needs new tires, shocks, and a front support mount to carry Hoa Hele. It'll be a miracle if I can get all those things done in the next ten days. Of course, the RoRo's schedule might be completely different and may afford me the luxury of a few more days of preparation. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Strangely, I'm not panicked about what needs to be done or what the shipping company might tell me tomorrow. One way or another, I'm still going somewhere. Maybe not just yet, but sometime soon. The last year blasted by faster than I could imagine, and I feel that another 10 months would speed past just as quickly and I could get even more sponsors.

Giving Hoa Hele a New Look

I spent the better part of this morning masking and taping off the Hoa Hele's top deck to get the hull ready for painting. The yellow deck and the contrasting red is going to look great. I always liked the red and yellow colors of my club, and I probably would have picked this paint scheme even if I wasn't a member of Kaimanu OCC.

Most of my time was spent making sure the paint gun was going to operate as intended. The last time, we tried swapping parts from the old paint gun to the new with messy results. Now that I had everything dialed in, knew the exact amount of paint thinner to use, and what the settings on the gun should be, painting the bottom of the hull was a breeze. I am very happy with the results and can't wait to finish the rest of the boat and take her out for her inaugural cruise in San Francisco Bay.
All that needs to be done now she's painted is to add a couple of inspection ports on the topside. I bought a couple of large deckplates in order to satisfy any border guard's curiosity of what may be inside the hull. A perfectly sealed hollow container would make it difficult to prove that there wasn't any contraband inside and putting in the deckplates will mitigate the need for the canoe to be taken apart or worse yet, confiscated. Hopefully these two big holes in the deck will allow any overzealous guard to inspect the interior, see that there isn't 40 gallons of vodka inside, and let me go on my way.

Of course I'll need some way of getting this canoe to ride squarely on top of the Geo, and that's something I hope to get resolved before the end of this week.

I still don't know if I'm actually going. I haven't heard from Bayer yet.

$33,485.65

That's what I estimate this trip will cost.

Today I submitted a request for financial support from Bayer. I have no idea if I'm going to get it.

I've had assurances from the Bayer reps that it's a great idea to generate publicity, raise awareness and contributions, and boost company morale. But they can always say no. I'm bolstering myself for that possible answer.

If they say yes, it's going to be a mad rush to drive the car to New York in order to make the cargo container ship bound for Felixstowe in the UK. Then when I get back to California to wait while the car steams across the Atlantic, I'll be in a mad rush to get the necessary visas to traverse the countries I need to drive through to get around the world and back home.

In the meantime, progress continues on getting the canoe ready for the craziness that will ensue if I get funding for the trip. John Scheib of Kaimanu OCC and I have been working afternoons after work to get the canoe 'glassed, shaped, sanded, and painted in time for launch.
The yellow deck has been painted and it was a major undertaking to get it done. Part of the problem was a somewhat recalcitrant paint gun, resisting all of our attempts to work properly while making a gooey yellow mess of everything. The main problem turned out to be a part from the old paint gun not being 100% compatible with the new paint gun, even though they were the same model, make, and manufacturer, the only difference being about ten years between them. And several engineering changes, apparently. Once that problem was solved, it was a mad rush to paint the canoe before the sun went down, hence the night-time photo of the freshly painted canoe. Painting in the dark is challenging: how does one paint what one cannot see? Being able to use The Force helps.

The next day, John went out to inspect the canoe, which didn't look half bad for a first coat. He also took the canoe's measurements in order to confirm that it would fit into a 20' cargo container. In my rush to get things done, I booked a 20' cargo container to take the Geo and Hoa Hele to the UK. I figured that the canoe measured 21' and it would be a simple matter to skew the canoe on top of the car so that it would fit diagonally. Wrong. After measuring the canoe, John called me to tell me the bad news that it wasn't 21' long, but 23' long. Once I heard this, I gave myself 3 minutes to panic and them calm down enough to come up with a contingency plan. Just how was I going to fit a 23' canoe into a 20' container? I needed more info.

After getting the internal dimensions of the canoe, I turned to our old friend Pythagoras to determine the internal diagonals of the cargo container. Taking the measurements of the inside of the container, I was able to calculate all of the diagonals of the inside to see how I was going to do the impossible. Here's a diagram of what I plan to do:
Hoa Hele will have to be tipped along the longest diagonal in the container, the diagonal between the opposite upper and lower corners.

I really don't want any more surprises.

Well I do.

Pleasant ones like getting a $33,485.65 grant to do this.

Route for North America

View Larger Map
This is my route! Well, if I go. Google Maps tells me I can do this in 3 days and 3 hours.
That is, if I don't sleep, I follow a fuel truck and refuel like a jet fighter in mid-air, go to the bathroom through the drain hole in the floorboard, never stop to talk to anyone, and eat in the car.

I think I'll add an additional 4 days to this estimate since I don't have a dedicated fuel truck to follow.

Almost kinda sorta ready to go

But not really.

As of today, I can get as far as Western Europe. China remains a stumbling block and Vladivostok is a contingency if it all falls apart.

It looks like my company and major corporate sponsor, Bayer Healthcare, is very excited about my trip to raise awareness and funds for charity, in particular the Hemophilia Foundation. They're leveraging their influence in China to get my car and I into that country. As I mentioned in a previous post, China is an extremely difficult country to try to drive your own car into, given the bureaucracy that makes a week at the DMV seem like a trip to Disneyland.

As far as getting visas are concerned, again, I am hoping that my company can help me out with expediting the logistics of getting entry on business rather than tourist visas. I have, after all, decided to use this trip as an opportunity to see just how Bayer helps people around the world. They do a whole lot more than make aspirin, and part of the trip will be dedicated to showing what my company does in different countries around the world. I'll also be taking the opportunity to see how the Hemophilia Foundation and their chapters helps those with bleeding disorders. Sponsors and supporters will see firsthand how this organization helps people and what they are doing to find cures for the spectrum of bleeding disorders. I'll also be spending time with the Christina Noble Children's Foundation once I get to Mongolia, hopefully riding along with the nurses and doctors that help the street orphans in Ulaanbaatar.

I've been putting in a lot of time reconditioning the outrigger canoe that I'll be bringing with me and with the help of John Scheib of Kaimanu OCC, we'll be rolling out the freshly painted canoe I'll christen Hoa Hele in a week or so. Hoa Hele seemed an apt name as it means "fellow traveler" in Hawaiian.
Chris and I have also been putting more than a few hours in various salvage yards, and our sponsor Pick and Pull, has been generous in providing spare parts for the Geo Metro, so long as we're able and willing to remove the parts and leave with a healthy layer of grease on our clothing and faces. Salvage yards may seem like desolate places where cars go to die, but in reality, for tinkerers, you can't get more entertainment for two dollars than a few hours in the junkyard. Just look at how much fun I'm having. It's a childhood dream come true: you get to get filthy dirty, disassemble something, and leave with the satisfaction of paying a fraction of the price for a perfectly good part you removed yourself. Okay, maybe it's just my dream.
Chris has been hard at work at the ARL NorthAm Skunkworks making mods to the car late into the night. He has been invaluable in providing his expertise with adverse terrain and making modifications to the car to handle it.

I'll be throwing a fundraiser soon with another one of our sponsors, Albatross Pub in Berkeley, hopefully before I leave. More details about that will be posted once I figure it all out. All my free time is dedicated to this project of driving around the world, and some days I have to make an extra effort just to remember my own name.

As I promised a long time ago (it seems) when I first started this blog over a year ago, I'm going somewhere, at this point it's just a question of how far.

3am - What's sleep?

Pile it on - I've got more work to do on the car tomorrow, er, today. I'm up late because I had to get something done for tomorrow for my real job.

I plan to leave work early today to be able to get all the stuff we need to get the car into shape this weekend. Welding, lots of welding. I'll be picking up seats, some brakes, new drums, and various other bits and pieces and bringing them over to the ARL NorthAm Skunkworks to get installed. It's going to be a long weekend of working on the canoe, car, sponsors, fundraising, and route.

I'm still not sure I'm even going yet, even though the sponsorship money is starting to trickle in. I'll keep going until I find out for sure.

The canoe is getting prepped for paint next weekend and John and I spent the evening identifying small holes in the ama that might need to be fixed. We washed the main hull down and examined it for major damage. It holds air, which is good, and most of the work that will be done is mostly cosmetic. I think we spent more time drinking beer tonight than actually working on the canoe once John and I realized not much actual repair needed to be done.

[place photo of me examining hull here, when I'm not so tired and remember where my camera is]

All right, that's it, I really ought to get some sleep.

OK, So You Thought Driving Around the World was Crazy

As you all know by now, because all of you read my blog so faithfully, I'm attempting a drive around the world in 1991 Geo Metro that I bought 368 days ago for $500 dollars. What was a bid to do the Mongol Rally has since evolved into a global circumnavigation for charity, namely the Hemophilia Foundations of Northern California and Hawai'i, and the Christina Noble Children's Foundation. I started my own non-profit and in the course of getting my own 501(c)3 status, I requested that my outrigger paddling club be my fiscal sponsor so I could extend tax deductions to donors this year while I wait for my own status to be cleared by the Federal Government. For all the meaty details of how I got to this point in my drive, peruse the archives and read all the gritty minutiae that I uploaded to Google's blog server. It's because of Kaimanu OCC and their extension of their tax-free status to my project that I am able to sway those sponsors that might otherwise say no to supporting this event. I am very grateful to Kaimanu Outrigger Canoe Club for being my fiscal sponsor.

Feeling obligated to give back in some way to Kaimanu OCC for their generosity, I decided that the best way to do that would be to somehow promote their mission "to encourage, maintain and perpetuate outrigger canoe racing. [Their] goals are to introduce, train, and teach men, women and children the ancient and modern art of Hawaiian Outrigger canoeing regardless of race or creed."

And that brings me to this point, how and why I ended up with either the most brilliant idea ever conceived to raise money and awareness for my chosen charities, or the most foolhardy and ill-advised plan to be proposed since I decided to drive a beat-up broken wreck around the world. Of course that beaten-up broken wreck is looking less broken and beaten and more brilliant and unbroken as recent photos can attest. Not only is it looking better, modifications done by Jimme Moller may make it more likely that it will survive the overland voyage. More sponsors are adding their logos to the car every day and given the progression, I'll likely run out of space. They seem to like the novelty of a Geo Metro attempting a drive around the world. You're probably seeing the evolution of my thinking here: novelty = cash and support for charities. Add to this my desire to perpetuate outrigger canoe racing and you can guess where I'm heading with this idea.

Or maybe not. Often, photos outdo any attempt by a written description, so I'll let a picture do what my incredibly diverse and extensive vocabulary cannot. Here are the 1000+ words painted thusly by my digital camera:
Yes, I am bringing a 21' one-person outrigger with me around the world. You may have read that before in a previous post. You may have thought that it was a cool idea. You may have thought, "now that'll be something to see." I thought all these things as well. However, thinking is not seeing and the reality and the sheer magnitude of my stupidity and/or genius is apparent from the photo. Not until I put the canoe on top of the car did I realize the extent of just what it was I was attempting. It wasn't so much an epiphany as it was a feeling of sheer terror mixed with excitement. Intuitively I knew that I should just dump the idea of bringing an outrigger canoe as it raises the level of logistical complexity several magnitudes and I have enough on my plate already. However, I didn't quite see a nightmare of maneuvering or shipping. Instead I saw an additional 42' of advertising space and a great way to get people's attention and funds for charity. I did get onto Google maps to see if it is possible navigate through London and Prague without poking someone's eye or windshield out, and it seems as long as I don't drive down any streets narrower than a bus, I should be all right.

Bolstering my resolve was the reaction I got from fellow ralliers when I sent them the photo. You can see for yourself what they thought of my idea.I'm sure that this will probably be the foolish/stupid/brilliant/inspiring idea that will finally get me on television. Anyone out there want 21 continuous feet of advertising space?

Thanks to Chiri Enterprise for Saving my Eardrums

I'd like to thank a great sponsor, Chiri Enterprise, for donating 2 gallons of their "What A Liner" truck bed liner. The Chiri Enterprise website says that "What A Liner is Eco-Friendly, nontoxic, nonflammable and noncorrosive. It's a water-based liquid polymer truck bed coating that protects your truck against salt, hard use, and corrosion."
At this point you're asking why I would need truck bed liner coating. I do not own a truck nor do I have a truck bed to line with a coating. Here's why: A few months back, wanting to drop some superfluous weight in the Geo and to avoid rotten carpet smell when the interior gets wet, I ripped out all the carpeting, soundproof lining, and headliner in the car, as well as the rear seat, much to Chris' dismay. I also removed all non-essential plastic paneling and trim. I'm basically left with seats, dashboard, and the door trim that holds the door handle and associated latch and lock rods in place. I trimmed a few tens of pounds and mitigated the rotting carpet smell that would linger after I cross rivers. Unfortunately this modification came at a price: all of that carpet, soundproof lining, and paneling in the Geo acted as a road sound deadener and ever since, the only way to communicate in there while driving above 25 mph is to shout. If I knew sign language then I could wear ear plugs and my passenger could have a one-way conversation with me. I couldn't say anything back because signing and driving don't mix.

In order to save my eardrums and avoid the need to actually learn sign language, I started shopping around for some soundproofing material that would cut down on the din of road noise inside the passenger compartment. I looked into several businesses that catered to applying the material; one seemed interested but basically I was getting nowhere with that avenue of sponsorship. I then thought to myself "How hard could it be to apply that liner myself?" Googling "DIY truck bed liner" led me to Chiri Enterprise. Reading about their enviro-friendly products and seeing the testing conducted against General Motors specification GM-4350-GM convinced me that it is a great product and that I had to at least give them a call to see of they were interested in sponsoring me. I called the number listed on the site and Dominic Chiricosta, the owner, answered. I told him about my trip, what I needed, and if he would sponsor us by donating some What A Liner in exchange for advertising on the cars and in the websites. He was very agreeable and even told me he wanted to come along. Well, unless you can afford to be away from a successful business for 8 weeks Dominic, I think that running Chiri Enterprise takes priority over the insane idea of driving around the world in a Geo.

The liner gets here Friday and I'll be documenting the work with before and after photos of the interior. I'll coat every metal surface inside the Geo with the liner. There's even an added bonus because the liner comes in red, so I'll finally get rid of the blue interior and get the inside to match the outside.

I'd like to thank Dominic Chiricosta and Chiri Enterprise for their What A Liner truck bed liner. Please visit the Chiri Enterprise site and have a look at their great products. They're not limited to truck bed liners so take a look at the site. Chances are you'll find at least one of their products making its way onto your "must-have" list.

One year ago today

I purchased the rally car exactly one year ago today. Right about this time one year ago, I was standing in line to withdraw cash to bust the soon-to-be rally car of my dreams out of an impound lot.

One year has just blown by, and I'm still no where near ready to do this drive if I had to leave today. Jimme has been fantastic in helping me get the rally car into the kind of shape it needs to be in to survive the trip around the world. I'm hoping to have some kind of answer with regards to funding in the next few days. Stomach is in knots.

For those of you who subscribe to this blog and don't remember what the car used to look like, (or you're to lazy to scroll down and find the entry from one year ago), here's what the car used to look like:
And what it looks like now.

What a difference 31,556,926 seconds makes.

Sponsor update: If you've been wondering why I never got any calls from the manufacturers of Howling Monkey regarding sponsorship, you can read the reason why here. Bummer, that logo would've been pretty cool on the car and the Howling Monkey simulates my appearance lately.

I'll save $12,000 NOT driving into China

After a long time considering my options regarding the Chinese and their idiosyncratic attitudes towards driving a vehicle into their country, I've decided to go with Contingency Plan Gamma as explained in my last post. The logistic nightmare of driving into China precludes any notion I might have had of actually having any kind of fun during my foray into that country. The idea of having a constant companion making sure that I follow a verified path makes me wonder if I shouldn't just take a train into China from Mongolia, and the sheer cost - something on the order of 13,000 dollars USD - also keeps the dream of driving through China at bay. The biggest reason for me not to drive into China is the element of uncertainty that the Chinese government seems to enjoy throwing at me. From the CIQ deposit to the reams of paperwork required to get a driving license, the Chinese seem to elevate bureaucracy to a level far surpassing the former Soviet Union, indeed they've redefined it. I decided Friday that I'll give up the dream of driving into China with my own car and trade it in for the more sane and attainable goal of reaching Vladivostok, putting the car and myself on a slow boat to South Korea and shipping the car back to the US from Pusan.

So it's back into the former USSR and the Tran-Siberian Highway and east to the Pacific once I've spent some time with the charities and friends I've made in Ulaanbaatar. I'm a tad anxious about this part of the drive since no one is going to be headed that way after they get to Ulaanbaatar. Most of the teams will head back to London or go on to Beijing via the Trans-Beijing Express. I'm the only real crazy one attempting to go around the world this time around, unless Jimme decides to go east in his Range Rover. A lot of things need to be ironed with this new route change, but this will result in less work in the end compared to trying to drive into China.

Most of my today was spent with Jimme and a breaker bar at the Pick and Pull in Oakland looking for spare wheels and parts for the Geo. Jimme successfully blagged a product sponsorship from the manager with hopes that the owners of the Pick and Pull franchise, Schnitzer Steel, might want to sponsor us. We managed to find new seats, several wheels with tires, and a couple of spare radiators and hoses for the Geo. Juan, the manager of this particular Pick and Pull, led Jimme to a Land Rover Discovery that held several parts that he could use for his Range Rover County LWB. We found a Dodge Colt that had some wheels and tires in good shape and a Hyundai that had a good radiator and good wheels as well.
We also pulled the seats out of an Acura that might be a good fit in the Geo. It was a pretty good haul and the fact I had several good spare wheels made me feel a little better about driving across inhospitable landscapes.

Spending time at a salvage yard was a nice break from the usual blagging for sponsors or route planning. Rallying around the planet takes a lot of research and time in front of a computer. Jimme and I have spent literally weeks in front of computers doing research, emailing potential sponsors, exchanging information with other ralliers on the Charity Rallies forums or poring over Google Earth to get an idea of conditions and the terrain related to our respective routes.

21st century technology makes things extremely easy compared to the old days when you had to make dozens of phone calls and face to face meetings to make something like this happen. Thanks to VOIP and other services, I can speak and even do video conferencing to people all over the world for free or nearly free, on the order of a penny per minute with a good rate plan. My friend Shireen was in Seoul and just had call to show me what she was drinking in her hotel room while she waited for her flight to New Dehli. As a kid growing up, I can remember seeing broadcasts on television that proclaimed that the video was "live via satellite" and thinking how incredible it was to see things happening on the other side of the planet live. Now here I am on a nearly daily basis talking and seeing people on both sides of the planet to plan a rally or see what they're drinking. Even more amazing to me is that I can actually drive across a good part of the former Soviet Union, something that my parent's generation probably thought would be impossible in their lifetime.

When did I start living in the future I imagined as a kid?

Contingency plan Beta, or will Ziyi Zhang show me around China?

China is a tough country to try to drive your own car.

Let's just take a look at the monetary costs: for a tour company to get me in there with the Geo, it's going to cost a whopping $7270 USD. Of course this doesn't include any accommodations for me or my guide. Yes, my guide.

Here's a little more on the guide: in addition to showing me the hungriness and the grassland along the way to Beijing and and Shanghai, the guide will be my official "make-sure-he-doesn't-get-into-trouble-or-see-anything-he-shouldn't-be-seeing" escort who will hopefully be highlighting the more culturally interesting parts of China, and not the recent controversy and attention they've been getting for their handling of Tibet. (I'm not even going to get started on that...I'm on a voyage of discovery, not political pressure) This guide accompanies me through my entire journey through China so not only do I have to pay for my food and accommodations, I have to pay for my guide's food and accommodations. Of course none of this was figured into the original quote, as the choice of accommodations and food will be up to me. This guide has to ride shotgun in the car with me from beginning to end and will probably be shadowing me during my "free leisure" time while I'm in Beijing and Shanghai. For what I'm paying, my guide had better look like Ziyi Zhang and not Wo Fat.

Here's something else that wasn't figured into the quote NAVO gave me: the deposit on the car. Deposit, you ask, on a $500 car? Why yes, a deposit. It's called a CIQ deposit and even though they never explained what CIQ stands for, I do know that it might be between 3000 and 6000 dollars US. Even more obnoxiousness: For one, I have no idea what the deposit will be. I won't know until the officials at the border assess the Geo and assign an amount for the deposit. Could be 1000USD, could be 10000USD. It's totally their call. Even more obnoxious is the fact that they want the deposit paid in their currency, 人民幣, better known as the Chinese Yuan. Just where I'm supposed to get 70,000 Chinese Yuan when I get to the border is beyond me. I doubt they'll have an ATM machine that will spout that out, but even if they did, my bank limits me to ¥2100 every 24 hours. NAVO did offer their deposit service, which, for a nominal fee, will take my US dollars, convert them to ¥, and pay the deposit. More fees.

So what initially looked like 7270 USD will in fact be more along the lines of 14-15 thousand including the deposit. Sure, I'd get that deposit back. Maybe.

I've been entertaining options to driving into China. Contingency plan Beta is to find some way of getting the mighty Geo and canoe onto a freight train bound for Shanghai to be put on a freighter bound for the US. Contingency plan Gamma would be to drive to Vladivostok, completely circumventing China. Of course I could pull a socially conscious u-turn and protest the Tibetan conflict by not going into China. But I won't do that because it's not the point of my trip. I'm supposed to be experiencing new cultures, not admonishing governments and their policies. If that were the case, I would stay home and start by protesting the USA's involvement in, well, everything.

Either way, I'd be missing out on having Ziyi Zhang as my guide through China. Which would totally bum me out.

Beauty and The Beast get rally prep treatment

It's Easter Sunday. Today is also day 57 in the 60 day countdown before I start driving East to New York. It's an ambitious schedule to be sure, even more so since I'm not even close to the 25,000 dollars needed to complete this trip. I'm waiting for an answer from a large corporate sponsor without whom I'll probably not be able to do this trip, not this year at least.

On the good side of things, I manage to get a donation of oil filters that I'll need for the trip from Lee Auto Supply of Alameda. They're literally one of the last independent auto parts stores here in the Bay Area, one of two. If you live in Alameda and work on your own car, buy your parts and supplies from Duane at Lee Auto Supply, 1525 Park Street in Alameda. His advice is free and he'll even throw in a cool story too. The shop is very much the opposite of the big box stores and photos of race cars adorn the walls. You'll get a good vibe just walking into this place.

I also managed to blag a sponsorship from a limousine company for $500. He'll be getting a nice decal on the car for his donation. I'll report on this sponsor in a later post (once I get the check in hand).
Kaimanu Outrigger Canoe Club got their decal on the car last Sunday since they're my fiscal sponsors in this endeavor. I'm proud to be promoting the sport by driving around the world with a one-man outrigger canoe on top of my car and paddling whenever I find a pond, lake, river, waterway, or reservoir. I'm especially looking forward to paddling across the river Bosporus in Istanbul. I'll also be paddling the canoe in The Backs on the River Cam along with some of the rowers once I get to the UK. I don't know if an outrigger canoe has ever been on that part of the river, but I like to think that I'd be the first to do it.

Jimme Moller is here working on both the Geo Metro and his Range Rover he calls The Beast. He assessed the suspension of the Geo and found it to be in pretty good shape considering that it has more than a quarter million miles on it. The Geo never ceases to amaze me considering the initial terrible cosmetic condition that I found it in. Jimme's assessment did find that the rear brake shoes needed replacement, but the bearings were in pretty good shape. He did suggest that we strengthen the suspension arms, replace the shocks and upgrade the coil springs to gain another couple of inches on the ground clearance. Other than that, it seems that the Geo's in pretty good nick and only routine maintenance will be required. Jimme did seem concerned that the bearings were in bad shape due to how they sounded when we were driving around, but that may have been just normal road noise. Normal road noise in the Geo is fairly loud, as I've gotten rid of all of the carpet and panels in order to lighten the Geo as much as possible and make it proof against smelly carpet rot when I have to cross rivers, as I inevitably will.

After assessing the Geo's suspension, Jimme got to work on some of the electrical on The Beast, installing a starter switch and figuring out why a wiper arm had seized. Since Land Rover body panels are made of aluminum, any penetrations through the panel that involve dissimilar metals need to be well insulated due to a nasty galvanic effect between the electropositive steel and electronegative aluminum and any breach separating these two metals rapidly reduces one to rust. Apparently this is exactly what happened to the steel sleeve around the wiper arm post, turning it into a solid block of iron oxide that seized the mechanism to the point that it wouldn't turn. Jimme was lucky that the motor driving the wiper blades didn't short out due to the massive load from the seized arm. He'll look for a spare to replace it this week.

Rally prep is ramping up, even though there isn't any funding (yet) and it's keeping us busy while we wait for the funding to trickle in. We'll be spending the next weeks focused on getting sponsors, prep, and route planning with the other teams. I'm either going to be extremely relieved or extremely disappointed in the next few weeks. Nothing is more stomach wrenching for me at this moment than waiting for an answer from the big sponsor. We'll see which it is.

Visit the hungriness and grassland on the way

This is actually on my itinerary. On my second day in China, I'll be visiting the hungriness and grassland on my way to Beijing. I've been in contact with a Chinese tour company called NAVO, who, besides offering visits to the hungriness on the way to Beijing, apparently offer Brid-watching. No, that's not my typo, it's theirs. Unless it's not a typo, in which case, I'm all up for seeing my very first brid.

The interesting noun usage pales in comparison to actually talking with them. Or her, actually, since I've been assigned a very sweet woman named Vicky who is handling my itinerary. Although her English is rather good, there are times where I've had to stop her to re-explain something. I had no idea she was referring to general sightseeing and touring in Beijing when she was saying "free leisure." When she said it, her accent made it sound like "free lizzar" or "free lizard." I understood free, but I didn't know what lizzar was. I do know what a lizard is and my brain made that the most logical alternative for what she was saying. This only made me more perplexed. Why they would give me a free one made my head spin. Scenarios involving eating lizard, or getting one as a pet, or even riding one trickled through my head as I tried in vain to understand what my involvement with this lizard given gratis would be. This line of reasoning triggered a cascade of thoughts, some funny and some not so good. In one scenario, I feared an international incident would brew after my outright refusal of a lizard, given as a traditional Chinese symbol of the spirit world and the union of Heaven and Earth, insulted my generous hosts. It wasn't until Vicky suggested I open the itinerary file to review that I realized she was saying "leisure." I was both relieved and somewhat disappointed at the same time. I was kind of looking forward to getting a lizard and perhaps even getting the chance to eat one, or maybe part of one.

Riding a lizard would have been cool too.