Six months ago I
was still feverishly plotting on the 2013 Mongol Rally, scribbling on
notebooks, toying with routes in google maps, drafting solicitation letters,
researching charities, learning Russian using Rosetta Stone and of course
sending prying emails to the Adventurists.
Helpful as they were, they did feel compelled to temper my enthusiasm by
advising that I cease some of my efforts until I had actually registered. I sulked a bit and, faced with a diminished
workload for the rally, eventually fell back to the distractions of my fruitless
pursuit of a doctorate and an ongoing feud with my neighbor and the city of New
Orleans.
After that little
pep talk from the Adventurists the momentum behind my planning for the rally slowed
significantly. That’s not to say the
potential wasn’t still there because it most certainly was, it’s just that I
had to get the ball rolling all over again later on. I should have ignored the Adventurists
entirely and just gone about my business.
Since I did not, I again had problems rather than cherished projects occupying
my time, problems I had been quite content to ignore when I had such a pleasant
distraction as planning a trans-Asia expedition. Lesson learned. If the last six months have taught me
anything it’s that you need pleasant distractions.
A very long story
short, months passed and by June I’d managed to sell my house in New Orleans at
a comfortable profit and make the move to Colorado for a new job. This job, as I admit that I am not an
advocate for work in the professional sense, was a necessary evil in this entire
yearlong scheming process. Employment
with an oilfield service company is something akin to seasonal work, like
picking fruit or logging, only far more lucrative. It’s a crude but effective way for a
transient like myself to acquire an income, and a damn good one, without being
chained to a career. The last thing I
want or need is a career, as I’d much rather be in a position to make changes
and careers make that exceedingly difficult.
Having spent years in college and working a variety of jobs without much
improvement to my personal life I figure it’s time to concentrate on something
else, and job aside that’s exactly why I’m doing things like the Mototaxi
Junket and the Mongol Rally.
Seemingly out of
the blue I get an email informing me of a post on a long since forgotten blog
entry on the rally, the one preceding this post in fact. By now my teammate and myself were registered
for this year’s Mototaxi Junket and thus preoccupied with our trip to
Peru. Our original third teammate for
the Rally had dropped out months earlier and given it was still more than a
year away our attention was focused elsewhere.
As luck would have it that post was from a very well traveled,
adventurous and, as I’ve come to find out, thoroughly awesome young woman
asking for a spot on our rally team. Initially
two things went through my mind, the first being “what planetary alignment
caused this to happen, I didn’t know anyone actually read this stuff!?” – the
second was a mixture of shame and panic as I realized I had neglected to keep
up with the registration process (not to mention my blog which already has very
limited readership- thank you, Lisa) and thus may have jeopardized the whole Rally
scheme. I’d been told registration could
get very competitive, so I was fearful we couldn’t snag a spot. After shrugging that off as a possibility I
couldn’t effectively address at that point in time I at least responded to the
inquiry. We still had something like a
month to register, cash in hand to pay the fee, three people now interested and
what I could only assume was a much greater chance of success given how much my
own situation had changed since January.
That response paid off, and as of now we have secured a spot on the 2013
Mongol Rally with a compliment of three willing and enthusiastic
travelers.
Following this
blog I intend to provide some sort of haphazard breakdown of the planning
process, more information on fund-raising initiatives and equipment as we come
together as a team and begin serious plotting for the Rally. I assume I’ve troubled you enough with
personal details and will henceforth make an effort to provide more useful
information, like what I had for breakfast and so on.
