20 SEPTEMBER 2013: Spent a week out on the iconic Rubicon trail. It was an amazing experience. Training on the Rubicon presented plenty of challenges and a chance to learn how to handle all kinds of driving obstacles. While the terrain is totally different than what we will face in the Sahara, my feeling is that If we can conquer this trail, we can get over anything… (Stay tuned for a complete feature on the Rubicon trip …)
4 SEPTEMBER 2013: It’s official. We have a number… USnomads is Team 171 for the 2014 edition of Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles 2014. We are on our way to a new adventure, excited to confront the challenges ahead. We have been preparing for a while already, mentally, physically, and technically, but now there is no turning back. We’re in it! (Don’t forget to “like” our official team USnomads Facebook page, if you haven’t already…)
12 AUGUST 2013: The Jeep is getting a bit of a facelift, as we are starting to make it a more capable off-road vehicle. Though the plan is to NOT take our personal Jeep to the Gazelle Rally, if the rental vehicle we are hoping for doesn’t come through, we will be ready for “plan B.” And our Jeep is definitely beginning to look the part…
31 JULY 2013:We are taking some time out to practice plotting on the “official” maps we will be using for the Gazelle rally. Being able to accurately plot the GPS coordinates of the checkpoints will be critical to our performance in the competition. It is too easy to make a small mistake on paper that will translate into many extra kilometers in the desert. At this scale, even the thickness of the line we draw from point to point matters…
