Category Charity

With only days until the launch of the 2010 Mongol Rally, Bill, Mike and I are busy outfitting the car, working on last minute paperwork, begging for expedited visas and enjoying a bit of what London has to offer.

For the most part, things are coming together smoothly. We dropped off our applications at the Uzbekistan consulate in London last Friday. There was quite a long line, and there are (we were told) no guarantees that your visa will be returned in 5 working days. Nevertheless, we leave on Saturday the 24th and have no word from the consulate yet. No pressure! We also managed to apply for our Kazakhstan visas in a very last-minute manner. They were extremely helpful and quick and assured us we could pick them up well before the launch of the rally, which we managed to do after only a three day wait.

In terms of acquiring last minute items, as I type Mike and Bill are out scouring the city for a roof rack for our tiny red beast, as well as gas cans, spare tires, a tire jack and a few items like new wind shield wipers and a tool kit. We went and looked at the car for the first time last evening. It is much bigger than I originally thought it would be. In fact, there is even room for a fourth person should we meet someone who already has a barrage of visas and a pocket full of cash (unlikely). We’re extremely pleased with the car and the condition it is in. If it makes it to Mongolia, we’ll be even more ecstatic! Bill has changed the oil and has done a once-over on the engine to secure back-up parts. We’ve managed to acquire camping equipment that borders on the extreme, meaning we’ll be one of the most outfitted teams in the rally. Yes, we have our car insurance, we have our travel insurance, we have a massive first aid kit, a roadside kit, a triangle, orange vests and a jack. We’re really ready….. I hope!

The launch itself is at Goodwood Estates, which is apparently a race track in West Sussex. Events kick off the night before on Friday at 4:00pm when the Adventurists cater in free beer and provide us with a camping spot so we can test our gear, get to know fellow ralliers and even partake in a massive soccer game. Sounds fun! The following morning at 11:00am cars that are registered begin to take off for Mongolia with a pre-victory lap around the race track before gunning it to a full 30 mph before heading to the tunnel or ferry. We’re hopping on a ferry and have plans to make it all the way to Paris by the end of Saturday night. Fingers crossed on that, since it is a bit of a drive.

When next we write we should be in Paris, and I’ll hopefully have quite the story to tell about the launch, the ferry, France and its most cherished city Paris.

Abandon the Cube has been extremely fortunate to be featured across the web and in print media while in the USA. Below are some of the media mentions we’ve received this year. We’d like to thank everyone for taking an interest in our Mongol Rally team, and for taking the time to write about us and our mission to raise money for Mercy Corps – Mongolia.

Nisqually Valley News – “Abandon the Cube Preps for Insane Race” Yelm, WA

Rockford Register Star – Article Coming Soon!!! Rockford, IL

And across the web on the following sites:

Far West China – “Mongol Rally 2010: Help Support Our Neighbors”
Fox Nomad – “Racing from the UK to Mongolia for Charity with ATC“
Nomadic Chick – “Mongol Rally – ATC Needs Your Help.”
A Pair of Panties and Boxers – “ATC and the 2010 Mongol Rally”
Ottsworld – “Help a Mongol Out…”
Flip Nomad – Interview – “Meet the Nomads, Lauren of ATC”

Please take a moment to look through some of these online stories or check out our print media. If you’d be interested in running a story on our team, we’d be interested in helping! Please contact us to get the ball rolling!

We have been extremely fortunate in who we have come in contact with through Abandon the Cube. We’ve met so many amazing travelers, as well as great writers, photographers and people on amazing missions across the planet. While we’d love to tell you about everyone we meet, there literally isn’t enough space for the high praise we’d want to laud on some of these worthy travelers. Nevertheless, here is a glimpse at two travel writing teams and how they have chosen to spend their lives on the road fighting for a cause.

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We were recently contacted by two inspired travelers named Bernard and Danielle who have been traveling throughout Africa interviewing local farmers, NGOs, and community groups who are working to alleviate hunger and poverty. They operate a travel blog site called Borderjumpers. Danielle, who is a livestock and sustainability expert, is traveling across the continent for Worldwatch, a USA-based think tank. She talks with farmers about their ongoing projects, their efforts to combat hunger and poverty, and the sustainability of their work. Bernard is an expert on local labor movements and communication, and travels with Danielle helping to discuss important issues with locals in every African country. Their mission is to visit every country in Africa and talk about farming, labor movements and the future with everyone. You can learn more about these travelers by visiting their travel blog. While they are traversing the continent they are uploading blogs when they find internet. We encourage you to check out the duo’s work and link to their site!

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You might also be extremely interested in learning about Josh, who created and runs Far West China, a travel blog and information site about Xinjiang, China. Xinjiang is a little mentioned area in the world’s most populated country, and one that is distinctly different. A primarily Uyghur, Muslim area, Xinjiang is home to Kashgar, Urumqi and Dunhuang– just a few treasured locations you’ve probably heard of. Josh writes extremely well researched guides to attractions in the area, like his ebook on Turpan. Josh not only keeps up with local news, local travel info and local culture, but he is an active advocate for the Uyghur people. His passion for China’s far west province has landed him an endearing spot in our travel hearts. Check out his blog, check out his site and definitely grab a peek at the newly released ebook.

We (Mike and Lauren) are happy to announce that we have a new team member who will join us for the 2010 Mongol Rally!  We asked Bill to write up a little announcement and some information about himself for our site.  We have also posted some information about him on our Mongol Rally Sponsorship page.

Bill (Verbatim from Email):

Bill and his Motorcycle

I am from the deep South; Huntsville, AL to be exact.  Up until the age of 23, I never really left the country (the border towns in Canada and Mexico not really counting).  But then with my job as a mechanical engineer with a pulp and paper equipment design company, I started leaving the country and visiting far off locations, a lot of the time, on my own.  This is when the travel bug really bit hard.  I had always liked the idea of going new places; I went 1000miles away from home for college at RIT in Rochester, NY.And I was always going on road trips and traveling around with my buddies in high school.  But I never knew how much fun experiencing other cultures in other countries could be.  Also, the challenge and adventure of figuring out a new place and exploring…sans guidebook…is exciting.  It’s almost like being a secret agent.  Especially when I get phone calls in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning asking me to run out to China or Brazil or Russia, or any other number of countries on just a few hours notice.  Which is what my job entails now.  Now I’m a a mechanical engineering consultant that specializes in supervising the erection, commissioning, and startup of mill equipment.

So all I do now is travel for work, and luckily my wife Jacqui works through the internet so she travels with me the majority of the time.  The only problem is that for work, I end up going to a lot of the same places over and over again and only get to see a new place occasionally, so I need vacations like this where everything is different and there is constant movement.  As my wife says, I don’t relax well…

I try to live life by the mantra “Nobody says you have to order an entree in the restaurant of life, you’ll only be here once! Order the sampler, try as many as you can before you’re full; odds are one of the items on this menu does more for you than you ever thought. And if I’m wrong, tell the waiter that his menu sucks, throw the cook aside and invent your own masterpiece. Just pour ’em all in, all your favorite ingredients. With enough imagination, any combination will work — there are no recipes for the paths still awaiting discovery.”

We are very happy to have him on our team.  Thanks Bill and welcome to Abandon the Cube and the 2010 Mongol Rally.  See you in London!

Cover Art

This is the only book written about the Mongol Rally. As many of you know, we are participating in this 10,000 mile adventure across Europe and Asia this summer, so naturally we wanted to size up what the forerunners have done in this amazing race. Rising / Falling – Always Hoping offered invaluable insight into the inter-workings of a team undertaking the rally.

The book begins with the author and his friend solving the plethora of problems they encountered in registering their car, finding visas and making their ancient car ready to hit the road. Nevertheless, their team encountered an unnatural amount of problems on their route from the UK to Mongolia.

Throughout the race, their team had several breakdowns with their tiny car. It seemed 90% of the book was taken up with the team dealing with their failing auto. At one point they were left with no options on fixing the car, no parts, and no help in the middle of Kazakhstan where they had finally laid waste. In the end, the team was forced to abandon the race and just hope to find someone to haul their dead car into Mongolia. They succeeded in dragging the dead machine to Ulaan Bataar, only to discover that the finale they were hoping for did not exist. They simply left the wreaked vehicle in the appropriate parking lot, and had a Genghis Khan beer and then shrugged and flew back to the UK.

It was a bit depressing to read this tale of wonder and woe, simply because the author’s team had experienced such hardship on the route that it seemed they were not ever enjoying themselves, and always working overtime to achieve a goal that, in the end, was a let down. Nevertheless, the author proclaims the joys of the road only after completing the rally and returning home.

Being unemployed, we decided to try to make ourselves useful to society in a way that doesn’t include posting comments on various websites. We decided to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity in Texas.

Logo

Texas is a remarkably transient place. In the winter, all the snowbirds from up north evade the winter chill by vacationing in the south. They are known affectionately as Winter Texans. Between the months of November and March, they invade the south and the sale of liquor and geriatric products both go up (as most Winter Texans are retirees). In March along the southern border, Spring Break fanatics show up with kegs and short skirts to celebrate their brief freedom and terrify the locals. Afterward, the local Texans are left reeling from the not-so-subtle transition from Winter Texans to screaming, drunk teens until the cycle starts over again in November.

We woke up at 5:30 in the morning and jumped in the car for the hour long drive to McAllen, TX, where the local Habitat for Humanity chapter was currently working on two side-by-side houses. We arrived and discovered we were younger than everyone on site by at least 35 years. Nevertheless, the all-male group was in chipper spirits as they showed us how to hang drywall. These folks spend every winter in Texas helping Habitat for Humanity. They show up every work day and donate their time and energy to a great cause, without complaining or politicizing. In truth, these were some of the nicest, warmest and most thoughtful people we’ve met while traveling. We worked from early in the morning until 4pm, and these volunteers took only one break and a short lunch break. They worked at a brisk pace that left us, the younglings, out of breath and exhausted. They had lots of little tricks to teach us about hanging drywall, and were so helpful that soon we were well into the swing of things. That day, we finished the entire interior of the house so it was ready for an expert plaster layer to come in. More importantly, we got to know some of the folks we were volunteering with, an experience that left us smiling all afternoon. These folks take, “salt of the earth” to a whole new level.

If you want to donate your time to Habitat for Humanity, contact your local chapter and find out what they are working on. If you don’t have any construction experience, usually someone on site can teach you enough to help out. If you have free time, why not spend it on something meaningful and lasting, like supplying someone in need with a beautiful home.

Mercy Corps Mongolia helps these folks

Last weekend I saw an episode of Conan on Late Night where Ben Stiller wore the stillerstrong.org headband. It made me realize our targets in fundraising have been grossly underscored. While they are ripping off Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong philosophy, it still seems to be raising an astronomical amount of funds. I feel like all I need is one big celebrity to get Mercy Corps Mongolia a crap-load of money for their good deeds back on the old’ Steppe.

We want to raise a ton of money for our charity and for our team, and if any celebrity out there still has the balls to take on Ben Stiller and Lance Armstrong to fight for the greatest charity (and the coolest team in the Mongol Rally), then don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m more than willing (and capable) of standing up to these Hollywood giants to fight the celebrity charity stand-off this Christmas season to win it all for Mercy Mongolia and for the Mongol Rally and Abandon the Cube. Bring it on, Hollywood!

Mongol Rally Logo

Lauren and Mike landed a team in the Mongol Rally 2010! We’re in the process of picking a few team members, looking for sponsors, and planning our route. You can follow all of our progress via the blog, but we’ll also be creating a Mongol Rally page on our website soon with updates and more information.

The Mongol Rally is a charity event wherein each team (500 total) take a 1 liter car from Europe to Mongolia to donate the car to charity along with $1500 for Mercy Corps. We’re overwhelmed with glee that we get to participate in the event this year, having witnessed several teams from the 2009 rally while in Turkmenistan. It is a once-in-a-lifetime, crazy event and it’s for a good cause.

Our team, the Abandon the Cube team, is conjoined with the Not Cubists team from Yelm, Washington. We’re busy with the preliminary aspects of putting together two winning cars with one winning strategy to make it to Mongolia in our perfectly unsuitable, tiny little cars.

More information on the Mongol Rally  or for other volunteer experiences, see our “Events ” drop-down menu.

To sponsor us, or if you have ideas for sponsors please send us an email at lauren (at) abandonthecube.com or mike (at) abandonthecube.com