It’s taken a few days to recover from the jet lag, but I am happy to say Baatar Hero has cars!

After driving over 1,000 miles in 3 days to pick these sweet rides up in Manchester and deliver them to F5‘s office near London, I feel like I already started the first stage of the rally!  I was only able to accomplish this with the help of some new friends.  Mike from F5 was kind enough to take me up to Manchester on his way home on Friday.  A fellow rallier, Jim, put me up at his place for the night, fed me, and took me to the first dealership where I picked up our silver Punto above. And our the dealer for the grey Punto, Steve at Church Lane Garage in Marple, drove all over England with me to help deliver both cars down to London. He also put me up for the night and helped fix the stereo on one of the cars (not even the one he sold us!).  He and his wife, and his two enormous dogs (St. Bernard and and Alsatian Shepherd) were so hospitable and helpful, I really can’t thank him enough.

If that weren’t enough driving, I also made a quick stop to proxy purchase Just A Steppe Away‘s Suzuki Wagon R+ for them  in nearby Ashton.

It was a whirlwind of driving back & forth between London & Manchester, but by Sunday it was done. And then, straight back to Heathrow on Monday to head home.  Four days in the UK and I didn’t even head into London proper to see any sights or friends. Oh well, I’m sure there will be time for that when I head back to London for the start of the rally… in less than 50 days!!!

I can’t end this post without a HUGE Thank You to everybody who has helped us acquire these cars.  To all of our friends & family who have come out to our fund raising events, we could never have done this without you.  To F5 and Honda & Toyota of Seattle, Thank You for support! And big thanks to TerraPass who offset my flight for this trip and is offsetting the driving of both cars. Getting the cars was a major task to accomplish, so thank you all for helping us complete that first step.  Now we just have to deliver them to Mongolia so they can be donated! After driving each car several hundred miles on the pristine motorways of England, what is a few thousand more over steppe and tundra?

Can’t wait!

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