My son and his buddies just drove from London to Mongolia

[Scottyb]

I am having trouble getting my kids to help me with my Deere's. They keep coming up with more important things to do in their spare time from school.....

It is called the Mongol Rally. 10,000 miles of border crossings, three mountain ranges and thousands of miles of deserts to the capital of Mongolia in a peice of s*** car. A charity fundraiser for a orphanage there.

Our kids even won an award before they set off......

The award for 'Least Likely to Make it to Mongolia' went to Team Gold Strong mainly due to the fact that they couldn't even start their car to drive up onto the stage to receive their award and were henceforth pushed (see below photo).


That is my son Aaron (19) in the middle with his two buddies Grahame and Logan as they were leaving in mid july from London. 12 breakdowns and many countries later they make it to the finish line in Mongolia. My wife and I had tears of relief that they made it there safely last Saturday.



I have not been able to keep my son interested in helping work on my Deere's. He has adventure on his mind. Hopefully he will spend a little shop time with me when he gets home on September 11. ( he was pretty excited that he saved 400 bucks by flying home from Beijing to LA on the 11th.) One more thing for parents to worry about.


Aaron Bartlett wrote...
hey we made it to ulanbataar!!!
i cant believe our car made it this far, we had 12 breakdowns since we left glasgow, we are working on getting our chinese visas right now. Mongolia is like nothing i have ever seen before. It is incredibly vast and there are hardly any people or roads. Most the time the road is about 10 different trails going towards the next city. We are pretty happy to be able to chill out for a while , we were driving sun up to sundown for 6 straight days. It was absolutly incredible. I just put up some photos, i have alot more that arent on facebook aswell. Love you guys!


Scott

[JD440ICD2006]

Plants will not grow when they are covered up with "experience" and direction.
Be thankful that he has the enthusiasm to be himself and pursue his own dreams.
If it is in the cards, I am sure he will eventually take an interest in the Deeres, just like most of us eventually did.

[kedorland]

Sounds like a great adventure. Memories that will last forever.

Good call.

Kevin from Iowa.

[Scottyb]

Our young men sure did see a lot in their 42 days of travel. They were treated to amazing hospitality by everyone in the break away Russian countries, were awed by the size and culture of Istanbul where they crossed the bridge connecting Europe to Asia. Crossed the Gobi desert, three mountain ranges, and most of Europe. 17 countries in all. They paid one police bribe in Georgia of 150.00 then learned that if you just refuse, play dumb and even lay on the ground they will eventually send you on your way. They never paid another bribe to traffic police although they were stopped about 15 more times. They even got many of them to sign their car. As parents we were worried every day and seeing the boys return home safely was a big relief. Lots of growing up in a short time. He is now busy catching up on the first week of University missed while traveling but I hope a day with Dad on the Deeres is not to far away. The shop work is caught up for now so maby we will pull some stumps and just do some digging.
Scottb