Cracked egg pics

Day 6, We are done

Well, shit. I'm sitting in my car, on the back of a tow truck, in the middle of Mongolia.  Again. This country kicks my ass.

The front left steering knuckle is twisted up, the wheel is sitting at an odd angle, the driver door won't open, and the roof is smashed in.

The first stage of the day was pretty good.  I haven't seen any other times, but mine shouldn't have been awful.

The second stage was a problem. About 3k from the start, we found ourselves quickly approaching a hidden ditch large enough to swallow most of the car. The ditch entry was somewhat gradual; the far side, steep. A long, sharp V dug into the ground. Head on, the front end would probably have been stuffed into the far side.

I was beginning to set up to go left, but Hayden said to go right. In retrospect, it was too late to change direction. As I swung right, I lost the backend to the left. I was "hazard fixating" us straight to the ditch.  We lost a bunch of speed traveling sideways before the left wheels hit the ditch. The car rolled over on to the side, continued uphill on to the roof, and then rolled back downhill on to the wheels. We were rubber-side down, firmly strapped into our seats with 5 point harnesses, apparently uninjured,  our left wheels in the ditch; the rear of which, was hissing out air rapidly. Amazingly, we were able to drive out of the ditch before the wheel went flat.

That's the end of the story. A bunch of other events occured over the next 12 hours, but they are boring and irrelevant. It doesn't matter how long we waited for the truck. It doesn't matter that the valley was green and beautifully lit in the waning sun. We were out of the competition.  Done. Kaput.

So now my car and I are heading back to Ulan Butar to find a ride home.

Terrible News!

Using his mechanic super powers, Hayden was able to get the car running decently while Team 54 was in Ulaan Baatar. Unfortunately, a mere 125 km outside of the city, on their way to the next check point, tragedy struck. Garrick somehow managed to roll the Bug. It wasn't a bad roll and both Garrick and Hayden are OK. The car landed on the drivers side, so Hayden got knocked around a bit and his neck is a little sore. It seems the Bug got the worst of it - a broken steering knuckle and crunched-in driver's side door.  Garrick says that the car still runs, but only at about 30km/hr...and it can no longer turn left. The insurmountable car troubles coupled with the knowledge that the next 5 days will take the rally through the barren wastelands of Mongolia and topped by the fact that they are now in last place have impeled Garrick and Haden to decide to drop out of the race. They are currently in the Mongolian desert waiting for a truck to tow them back to Ulaan Baatar where they will catch a flight back home. It's a sad ending to this illustrious adventure.

Bad news

Turns out, the engine problems are worse than just altitude. All of the valves were incredibly loose and two of the pushrods got eaten. We've replaced the two pushrods and tightened the rest. It seems to be running mostly ok at the moment but we don't know if it will stay together.

Today we are in a nice big city with resources like trains, cellular service, and airports. Tomorrow we leave for 5 days in the desert with no resources at all. I'm not sure I want to leave the city with a possibly buggered engine. We are thinking of coming home early.

The Most Recent Rally Results

Ulaan Baatar

Breaking News!
I just got a phone call from Ulaan Baatar.
Garrick and Hayden have arrived safely and are spending their free day searching around town for alternator bearings and breather hoses. Apparently the Beetle is not running very well. Garrick says that he spent most of yesterday's second stage with the throttle to the floor - quite possibly due to the effects of the higher elevation.
They were on their way to an outdoor car parts market when Garrick called. In Ulaan Baatar, there is a part of town where merchants have shipping containers full of car parts that they unpack and display during the day. The merchants then pack up all the parts in the containers for the evening. Team 54 is hoping to find some of the needed parts for improved car performance at this locale. Stay tuned for more breaking news.

Along the great wall.

This was the first stop after the start of the rally.