ALCON, like Vika said, I'm back safe from our run!
To put things into perspective: of the three vehicles we delivered to the units, two of them were immediately sent on missions near the contact line 😮 (it's very likely the third is in action as well, but we haven't been informed yet directly)
It was insane,to say the least. Full report to follow.
Welcome back, safe and sound! Looking forward to details.
VikkiDp said:In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
and speaking of kids. You may remember we've helped this mother with pet food in the past:
I made sure to send her a little bit of dog food on the Christmas run, but it looks like times keep getting tougher. Vika had some funds from another donor and was able to act quickly. We'll fill that back up with the $175 I just sent her from our Mother's and Babies fund. I'll be sure to send more pet food during our visit.
Hi everyone!!!
These doggies and kitties got some pet food before our run 
and today i ordered some more (thanks Bill!!!) 
Thank you for taking care of that, Viki!!!!
Sorry all, my mother-in-law was in town for vacation the day I got back from the run. We're on a bit of a road trip at the moment, but I've been chipping away at the work as we bounce between hotels. I should be able to get the run report started in the next day or so.
That being said, the success you guys made of this run is getting a LOT of attention. We had a vehicle request before we got back, and yesterday we've received another 😮
Good times
Happy Easter, everyone!!!
Have a great time with your loved ones, friends and families my warmest wishes for a joyful and blessed Easter!!!
Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:We're on a bit of a road trip at the moment, but I've been chipping away at the work as we bounce between hotels.
from one trip to another? 
i won't be lie, i can't wait the Easter trip stories 
i hope you got some rest 
We had a vehicle request before we got back, and yesterday we've received another 😮
Another crazy trip is coming up? 
In reply to VikkiDp :
i ordered some more (thanks Bill!!!)
delivered and received
VikkiDp said:Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:We're on a bit of a road trip at the moment, but I've been chipping away at the work as we bounce between hotels.
from one trip to another?
i won't be lie, i can't wait the Easter trip stories
We had a vehicle request before we got back, and yesterday we've received another 😮
Another crazy trip is coming up?
I haven't seen my own bed in MONTHS 😭
But yeah. One more run coming up for sure 🤘🏼
Quick mobile update as Gary called: He wanted to let you know that your ambulance performed it's first "blue light" run to the contact line.
A soldier named "Valentine" was hit in combat, rescued, and driven to Kharkiv hospital (accompanied by two medics).
Valentine suffered from multiple shrapnel wounds, a collapsed lung (he was placed on oxygen), and was in critical condition the whole way, while the ambulance bombed down Ukrainian backroads at 90kph, blowing its recently repaired rear suspension in the process.
The soldier survived the drive and was joined by his wife and two daughters (ages 2 and 4) at the hospital in Kharkiv.
Gary states that your ambulance was the only ambulance in the area. Without it, there would have been no rescue. ❤️🩹
In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
Great to hear about the successful run.
How are they on parts sourcing to re-repair the rear suspension? 
If all our efforts help save even one life - it's worth it, if it helps keep someone healthy - it's worth it, if even one child smiles - it's worth it!!! It's absolutely worth it!!!
Thank you guys for your help and support!!! Together we can do incredible things!!! So many amazing people around!!!
A lot has been done in the last three years and we're not gonna stop!!! 
Ummm... well, we never really stopped 
Hi everyone!!! Hope, you're doing well!!!
I got an urgent request from Yarik (our drone pilot) this week - he needs summer combat boots.
Raven's fund has fully ran out to buy meds for Dr.Julia and we delivered them during the run
There was a little money left in the Moms and kids fund, so i used it to order boots for Yarik
This one i ordered and they already received and delivered to the position he's currently in!!!
And a little bit about that life goes on, no matter what
as i mention, Yarik is on the front line now and on one side - death and destruction, on the other side - blooming and living on
He sent me these photos and it made me crying 
He's saying: "fpv drone" flew to us she flew in and she's just sitting there, she's beautifullll...!!!
Sometimes it's the the little and simple joys that remind us of the good and beauty in this world.
Driven5 said:Sometimes it's the the little and simple joys that remind us of the good and beauty in this world.
Exactly!!! Absolutely!!! Moments like this give us the strength to keep going and keep moving
Driven5 said:In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
Great to hear about the successful run.
How are they on parts sourcing to re-repair the rear suspension?
Gary is talking about converting it back to coils or leaf springs (whatever was original to the vehicle). Unknown yet as to his progress, but I do know that a request for medicine has filtered it's way through and to us from Gary. Vikki is currently in work on it.
Jack had mentioned wanting to fund raise to help Gary with the conversion, but I'm unsure as to his progress. Unfortunately, I received word that his motorcycle was stolen the day after he returned from the trip. Short story long, he found it and chased it down on another motorcycle but the bottom end of the original bike is "knackered". I'm afraid that might put his efforts out of commission for a while.
On the positive side, Cathrin (I think) is in possession of another vehicle and about to make another run on Ukraine. Unsure of all the details on that one, but I can not tell you all how much attention the success of this run got. We now have two people in line for vehicles. Both are serious enough that they do not care about the semantics. Simply "diesel 4x4, and soon" is all they're asking for. It's insane.
In reply to brandonsmash :
I owe you a response from your question about "efforts". Here's where we're at:
We're fundraising for another 4x4 for another drone unit within the 25th Airborne. Here is what the fundraiser looks like on Donorbox:
https://donorbox.org/keep-the-express-running
Folks at GRM, or people you know, can donate directly to the Yahoo paypal to avoid donorbox's fees though. As it sits, we have roughly $600 donated so far but I am attempting to post more official and regular updates on that one once I get the report out. Needless to say, not a lot got done on the "Mother in Law vacation". It was rough, and I'm just happy that everyone survived (mostly).
Back on subject though, this is the drone unit's previous pickup that we'll be replacing. I'm still waiting on the middle-person to get me more details but she's a nurse in country so things get busy (as I'm sure you can understand).
All that being said, I think GRM's efforts might be well suited to helping Gary with the coil/leaf suspension conversion. The van in question is a Renault Master, and we have all the details here:
Do we think we can find what we need through our keyboards and find a way to get the parts to either myself or Vikki? The problem is, I'm stretched too thin in the "account" department and don't have another bucket for which to collect funds.
The other problem is, Gary is collecting funds in conjunction to this effort and the possibility exists that he'll beat us to the finish line. On that front, I can say that he does have two identical vans and both need converting so we do have that going for us.
Looking ahead, this effort might benefit us directly as any future ambulance will need converting before we send it in. Maybe that's something we can do in our driveway before we punch east next time. We learned a TON on this run, and one of them is "there is no garage where they can (x, y or z) before taking the vehicle to the front. What's sent by us needs to be as battle ready as possible (within reason) the second the keys are handed over".
By that we mean "as mechanically sound as possible" (and not "go crazy welding armor, etc"). Simply having a reliable vehicle NOW beats all else.
Woof! Good times. Ok. now for the trip report
There we were. I had just dropped offline and Mrs. Hungary had just purchased all the chocolates.
I'm still away from home and still talking to Gary. I asked him about trench candles and he reported a "definite yes" in that department. Even though the weather is getting better and they wont be used for heat, he reports that they do a GREAT job of keeping the mosquitos away (big problem as the guys's shoulders get rubbed raw from packs and heavy armor. The bugs come in and people get sick.
This was perfect as Mrs. Hungary had just texted me about some big boxes of mosquito repellent that someone was offering to donate. Still on the phone with Gary, and he says that at this point he's adding mosquito repellent to the darn IFAKs he's handing out.
Jack is still in the UK and we're trying to sort out the darn paperwork for this darn ambulance. We have more questions than answers at this point, and various people are giving us conflicting instructions. One person tells us to lie to Polish customs and say the van is returning, another tells us there's a form called a "T1" that's needed, and Pickup4Ukraine has never dealt with a UK vehicle before so they don't even know where to start. Another point of contention is that we want this ambulance to go in as "humanitarian aid" and not "Military aid", so it goes directly to Gary and not to his command (who will allocate it as they see fit). In all, we seriously have a dozen chats going on at least two apps.
Going forward and Cathrin has called and wants to volunteer to drive into Ukraine. This works because we have Dr. Julia's Pathfinder with Pickup4Ukraine and they still need another vehicle + driver for the run. Cathrin is 7-hours out of their usual stomping ground and was able to find a 4x4 Ford Ranger within their budget. The plan is to have her drive it down to meet up with P4U and punch east with the convoy from there. The problem is, she can't really afford the drive so I kick her some Euro to get her to Poland and offer to put her on my card from there. Making matters slightly worse though was the fact that the DPF filter light came on shortly after said purchase. We're butted RIGHT up against the drive date with this one and dont really have time for a mechanic, but Cathrin manages to have the vehicle inspected and the mechanic recommends a hard drive for about 45 minutes to burn the soot out of the filter. Needless to say, that wont be a problem. But with the light on, the vehicle is speed limited to 120kph (about 72mph) on the autobahn.
Definitely a headache we don't need right now.
Vikki is in work as well, and has our train tickets booked from Kyiv to Budapest. We're still not sure where the drop point for Gary will be as he's on the move a bit. Might be close to Pokrovsk, might be Kramatorsk, might be Kharkiv, or it could be anywhere in between. We don't really have a choice but to wait on this one.
On my end, I'm printing all the paperwork we're going to need and making hotel reservations for Poland and Kyiv. When I get home, I'm going to have exactly 2-days to drop my bags and run, and we still need to inventory/pack everything for the customs declaration, so I'm trying to do as much as I can to lean forward now.
A couple days later, Jack reports that he found two schrader valves under the hood of the ambulance. He's pumped them up with a 12v compressor and the van rides like a dream. the problem is, on bag bleeds down after about 45 minutes but the other one seems sufficient to drive on. We forward this info to Gary and the head scratching begins. Ultimately he finds a ambulance specialist in Kharkiv and that person can send him the bits he needs to replace that bag.
But of course after we solved that issue, the brake wear light comes on. Jack reports that the front pads are about shot, and the rears aren't much better. He finds front pads for $12.95 and rear pads for $14.99 and changes the front out. Unfortunately that's all he has time for as we're STILL fighting to get all the documentation for this darn thing. It'll take this whole day of chatting, and another half-day but ultimately we'll get the insurance and everything sorted. This is about when Gary calls. He's happy to hear about the papers but is SUPER busy at the moment. He's driving near the front and only gets service when he's going through small villages. Between then, it's nothin and of course we're not the only thing he has going on. He's got legitimate missions he's trying to run and absolutely does not need us being another headache.
One night he'll call me and I'll kind of get the feeling he needs to vent. Apparently he's just deployed a team to the front and they've gone completely quiet, but for some reason all their equipment is responding. The unit sends a drone to investigate with thermals, but the warmest thing they're able to spot is the ecoflow they were using for a power source. It was dark at the time so they cant investigate further. I guess that morning they sent out another drone and found everyone dead. With all the equipment undamaged, he's saying it was a gas attack. I really don't know what to say at this point.
We do sort out the meeting point though. It's going to be at his "old office". If you've clicked on his youtube videos then you've seen it. Right now he's out looking for a new building to set up as a warehouse so opsec on this old location is no longer an issue.
Fast forward a few days later, and I'm on my drive home from Germany. I'll be picking up about 12 tires, a camp cook stove, and a propane heater for a drop in Lviv. The person making this request is the same person who helped us donate blood in Kyiv, so I'm happy to help. Her name is Viktoria and she works a lot of logistics behind the scenes. The guy I meet to pick up the tires is Ukrainian but speaks some English. With my luggage and everything in the truck already, we're forced to ratchet strap two of the tires to the roof. The guy asks if I'm worried about the police and I basically respond with "berk it, we're sending it!". We get a good laugh at that, but I wish I had gotten a photo.
Good times.
Back home and things are FRANTIC!
Mrs. Hungary has collected a few things in my absence, and one of them is a box of 3m masks and filters. Gary's direct quote was "you know, mate. These buildings we're setting up are so full of dust and AIDS, I can hand them out to the workers" so we pack them up
On the plus side, a package has arrived in my absence:
middle picture is a cat with a cat. That's funny right there.
So the catalytic converter is for my Mazda that's failing its tech inspection. This means I've been driving the Toyota non-stop between runs. Having the Mazda back in operation is going to be a serious help is getting the truck sorted (there is a LONG list of things that needs doin) so a HUGE thanks to WVUMTNBKR for sending that my way. But also a HUGE thanks to DarkMonohue for sending the sealant and those transmission bits in the package as well! Having those will let me finish the disassembled transmission on my bench and get that stuffed back in the truck to fix our "missing third gear" issue. (like I said, a lot going on...).
Oh, and part of my "planning ahead" back in the hotel room was the purchase of some very cheap radios for our vehicle to vehicle comms. Those arrived and I was bummed to see that they all needed AA batteries as I was dead set on finding radios with USB charge capability.
I guess I just missed that in the mad dashing we were doing. I'll admit to being slightly worried about battery life on the trip, but make note to snag a butt-ton of batteries on my next trip to the store.
The next morning, I'm up at 3:45 and as if on cue the darn coffee maker breaks. I know this isn't something to really complain about when Gary is out there dealing with gassed soldiers, but it really isn't needed right now. Luckily, I still had our camp coffee maker and some grounds in my luggage that I still haven't unpacked yet, so I pull that out and put it on the stove.
The morning is spent organizing boxes, cleaning the kitchen, and getting the kids out the door, but I'm able to get out around 8am to start work on the truck. When you see pictures later, just know that the grass has grown knee high in my absence and I really do need to knock it down before the drive.
Having just got the truck back from the welder, I do have a panel I need to paint (where I plan on putting a sticker), the exhaust needs installed, and of course there are the fluids and filters I wanted to change:
Oh crap, and there was the hood I wanted to paint flat black (because it's uglier than it needs to be with its clear coat peeling off the way it is) and the spot light lense that needs replacing... (see? More problems than time at the moment). Really, I just want the guys on the receiving end to have a good first impression of the truck we're sending them. Our budget at time of purchase was $3500 (if I remember correctly) so there are some things that just need to be done to bring this up to snuff.
And stickers. Always stickers. I had been in contact with a local sticker shop in my absence, and we 100% guessed on all of our measurements on all of our designs. Truth be told, they all worked out WAY better than they had any right to:
It's the million little details that I think will add up when we send this one:
Of course I took TONS of video on my phone as I was working on this, but of course NONE of them will open right now because our primary laptop has crashed again and the one I'm using needs a HEVC extension to play any of the files (we definitely do not operate in the absence of issues, but very much in spite of those issues) so please pardon the time lapse that is me skipping over some of the sticker installs, the hood painting, the spotlight repair, and the packing of the truck (that I did before all the stickers were on... because I ADD'd that one). Of note, I did not have time to change the trans, t-case, or diff oils but did include the required oil so Yaroslav could have that performed in country.
In that last one you can see the hood paint and the spotlight repair. But if you look REAL close, you can see the "raven" windscreen sticker at the top of the glass (it's black, but just says "raven" in Ukrainian with a wing on either side).
Obviously the bed topper is no longer installed. With the addition of the tires and the cook stove (etc) there was no way we were going to keep that in place. We're not worried at all as we were 100% sure this was going to be removed and discarded in country (big drone, remember), and I plan on selling it to help bolster our funds later.
On the ambulance front, we are now at D-day (drive day) and Jack's new registration has not arrived yet. To make matters worse, the title to the Mitsubishi was delayed another week so I don't have that either and my D-day starts just after tomorrow! To make matters WORSE the person sponsoring us for the import declaration on the ambulance informed us at 1500 that they were being audited and were delayed in that department as well. They pinky promise that having the declaration sent the "day of" is normal, and that's kind of nice to hear as Vikki hasn't received the declaration from the charity that was sponsoring the Mitsubishi either.
And then, when you thought that was all that could go wrong, Cathrin writes the P4U chat and reports that she is getting pushback from the German DMV. She's been in the office since 10:45 and they do not agree that the Ranger she purchased can be registered to the non-profit.
So, with nothing in place to get us across the border Jack starts his drive from the UK to my place and immediately reports that the brake wear light is back on. It seems that the rears have now worn themselves to their wear point. He has them with him, and I prepare my garage for his arrival in my absence (tomorrow evening). Our plan is to change them in my driveway at midnight before our run. I pull out all the fluids and tools I think he'll need and take a quick video of where everything is in the garage and send it his way. I get a thumbs up as a reply.
Honestly. At this point, what the hell were we thinking?
I decide that just because we have nothing we need and that nothing continues to go right, that's no reason to stop now. Instead I shrug it all off, and send Vikki the inventory for the items inside the truck (that's a completely different declaration and charity as well) around 1400 before heading in to work. By 1630 we have it signed and returned to us. By 1645 Cathrin reports that the DMV has relented, and is sending P4U the Ranger's papers.
I begin to feel like the most basic things are JUST starting to look up, when Gary calls. He's sent an SUV to what we're now referring to as the "ghost unit" to investigate. He says that vehicle was immediately hit with artillery. Instead of sending another group, he punches in with his Kia to rescue the survivors in the stricken SUV. He's telling me now that everyone is dropped off, but instead of returning to the warehouse he's said "berk it all" and went and got himself a pizza and fries as a treat for surviving the run.
I tell Gary that when we get him this ambulance that I'm buying the pizza and fries. He counters with an offer to take us to a "proper smash burger joint", which I accept.
The next morning we're up early with the kids to get them ready for school. Jack has arrived late the night before, but we were both too dead-darn-tired to have a go at those brakes. Instead he crashed on the couch, and I zonked out after work. The Hungarlings are taking a lot of delight in telling me "the red-coats hare here!".
Jack is up at 6:30 and reports that the 5 hours he's slept last night were the most he's gotten on this run so far. We're out at the vehicles by 7:30 and start the prep. The ambulance needs a little oil, and the suspension is soft (with only that one air bag inflated) but things look good.
We throw a tarp over the Mitsubishi pickup to cover the bed and secure it in place with the cargo net I've used on previous runs and some bungee cords. When you see the pictures, just know that I honestly cant remember when I found time to push my lawn mower around, but I 100% did not care to take a rake to anything.
There are some serious "Country of volunteer" vibes coming from that Mitsubishi, I tell you what:
We have to stop for fuel on our way out. Jack was able to cover the costs from his house to here, but we'll be picking up the tab from here on. Unfortunately I didn't have any cash on hand (we haven't even left Hungary yet!) but I buy one of those mini bottles of jack daniels to tip the guy who pumped the diesel and cleaned our wind screens (he got a good laugh out of that one).
From there, we headed east at about 110kph. The tarp is looking good, but about 1/2 way to the main highway we pull over to add some more bungee cords. It's then that Jack informs me that neither of my brake lights are working.
I figure it's probably the switch or something that's come unplugged but there's no time for diagnosis now. With him knowing this and with him following me, I figure this is an acceptable risk and we continue.
Through Slovakia, and into the Czech Republic, Gary calls and gets the good news. We're headed east! Even better, our charity for the ambulance has messaged us. Our declaration for the ambulance is now at my e-mail. We can have it printed at the hotel tonight.
Through the Czech Republic and into Poland, it's noticed that the deflated air bag has now departed the ambulance completely
Through Poland, I've given Jack a wad of Polish currency to pay for the toll booths as we go though. Unfortunately neither of us thought that this RHD vehicle might be an issue for a toll booth expecting LHD vehicles. It's comical, but we manage.
Around this time though, I'm starting to get some vibration from under the truck. It's speed related, so I slow down (it slows as well). I decide to stop for fuel and an inspection and when I do, I inform Jack of the situation. He reports seeing a lot of dirt and mud departing the truck as a result. When we start off again, the vibration is gone.
weird... We decide that maybe 120kph was too fast for the carrier bearing on the driveshaft and decide to slow to 100kph for the remainder of the drive. This isn't the farm or fields this truck is used to, after all.
About 20-minutes from the hotel, Gary calls. he want's to inform us that he'll be heading to the front in that Kia again, and doesn't know when he'll be back or when he'll have service again. We tell him it's no problem and that we just HAPPEN to know a safehouse in the area where we can leave the ambulance if needed. As soon as I hang up, the vibration from under the truck returns and Jack is on the radio reporting more flakes/chunks of mud departing. We decide to push through and get to the hotel for an inspection. It was not a comfortable moment for me. This truck REALLY needs to make it a very long way east. Ultimately it was Jack that found the driver's side outer CV boot torn. It's thrown all its grease and we suspect that's what's making all this fuss.
On our phones, we can see that no one else is having better luck. The 8-vehicle convoy that is P4U is stuck at 80-100KPH due to an issue with one of their vehicles, and Cathrin is stuck in traffic somewhere behind them.
We head on in to the hotel and get checked in. Shortly after we print of the ambulance's declaration and cross our fingers that our charity will come through with the declaration for the Mitsubishi before our departure time tomorrow. I'll also post a request for a front/driver's side drive half-shaft to the various logistics group. It's a long shot, but if someone in country has one (even if it's used) then I'd like to pick it up and include it in our delivery.
Shortly after, the band arrives:
Jack and I are up at 5am the next morning and none of the Mitsubishi's papers have arrived. Everyone has met downstairs for breakfast but we were up late to meet Cathrin when she arrived so we didn't join in. Instead we meet everyone in the lobby and head out to the parking lot where all the vehicles are.
Apparently it got a bit COLD last night!
So, not only is this the first time we'll see all the vehicles together but this is also the first time we'll see Dr. Julia's Pathfinder. And let me tell ya, it is easily the BEST damn vehicle in the lot.
Annette from P4U is wanting to get everyone together for a group photo, and the parking lot is big enough so I suggest we create a horseshoe shaped lineup of all the drivers with their vehicles but Michael isn't on board and wants to get moving. Instead, I take these photos and send them to the group:
It's a bit of a hand-full getting everyone going. P4U has a numbering system where every vehicle has a known position in the convoy (1 of 9, etc). Annette tells me that this is a big moment for her as as soon as they started running multiple vehicles she stated that if they ever had 9 vehicles in one run, she wanted to be "seven of nine". A Star Trek reference I can appreciate.
While this is happening, there's a loaded VW T5 that requires the assistance of a jump box to get going, and a Nissan Navara that is going through multiple start attempts with the engine not catching. Eventually though, it seems things get going.
With everyone heading off, Vikki, the person who helped us buy the ambulance, and another gentlemen are all at work trying to get us the declaration for that Mitsubishi.
On a whim, I message Viktoria and tell her I'm delayed with her tires and give her the reason why. By 8am, she responds that she has a sponsoring org that will get us the paperwork and to sit tight. Jack and I decide to wait in the van
I know he's smiling there, but we are all texting like frantic across all our group chats right now. In one of the breaks, I decide to slap a couple of our stickers on the roof of the Ambulance where any stretchers will sit
Maybe the winged trident, and the sticker from a volunteer org will give an injured soldier the motivation to hold on. A little something to remind them that there's a world of people pulling for them right now? I figure it's a bit of a stretch, but you never know.
The frantic texting continues.
By 8:21 the declaration for the Mitsubishi has reached my e-mail account and we start off for the hotel to have it printed. Along the way my phone will die and I'll have to use Jack's power bank to bring it back to life. Right now though, I am REALLY glad I snagged those tires for Viktoria, and that got me thinking:
When the donations came in, we had zero drivers for two of our vehicles that we bought for this convoy (the Nissan and the Ambulance). Two days ago, we had absolutely nothing in the way of paperwork to get us across the border legally. Yesterday, Gary reported that he might not even be there to accept delivery of the ambulance. And the entire way, something has come out of the woodwork that's allowed us to continue at every stopping point and I don't think I've taken the time to think about why that's the case and I DEFINITELY haven't taken the time to appreciate why that's the case until this very moment.
We found drivers because of the work we did in the past. It's all friends we've made along the way. Jack, Cathrin, Annette, Michael.... When we bought the Pathfinder, we had a driver for it only because we attended an event held by Annette and Michael, and we washed the dishes for them when no one else could (I mean, it was just a work trip and we just happened to be in the same area!). When we were looking for an ambulance, it was a man we'd never met named "Taras" in the UK who found one as intact as this one is (and for the price it was) because of some logistical work we had done in the background on whatsapp. I had no problem trusting him with our donated money because of his presence and reputation in those logistics groups. I mean, who else would you just randomly send $3800 to??? Jack dropped everything and drove the ambulance east because of our connection on the Bamako run. And we could deliver that ambulance to a safe place even if Gary was absent because we brought some soldiers some Christmas cheer last December and knew people who lived in the exact area he's operating in. Cathrin is here and driving with us because she just happened to be visiting the 25th Airborne when we needed to send Yaroslav trousers and an IFAK almost two years ago!
And right now... when we were literally AT the border with no papers, Viktoria had us sorted in 20 minutes and it's all because we donated some blood once and hauled some tires. (and I really have to point out that she has literally EVERYTHING to lose and nothing to gain if we screw this up for her. People get banned from re-entry into Ukraine for not importing vehicles correctly/legally).
I've mentioned the "million invisible hands" before, but I can not tell you how taken I was with this network of helpers that we had at this very moment and how EVERY LAST ONE of them came to our aid when we were stuck. Part of the messaging that's happening right now in the ambulance is Taras looking for that half-shaft, and the guy genuinely cares about us enough to keep working at getting us one on our behalf. It's insane.
I digress.
We make it to the border with papers in hand, and we can see that the P4U vehicles are still there and getting checked in. It's nice to have them around as the first border guard (at the weigh point) is super grumpy because he is very busy today. One of the P4U volunteer drivers "Sonja" is translating for him and speaks to everyone in German and English. This guy just wants the vehicles papers and your passport, and then just go after he stamps them (which we all do).
Next we go through the inspections and then into a basement. This is the only new part for me, but we're prepared. Everything is printed in triplicate and the only thing we were missing was two copies of our vehicle registration (not the title). Luckily there is a copy machine we can use and that's easily sorted (but something to know for next time). Also lucky is the fact that the woman helping us speaks English.
Once through we immediately stop at a fuel station for a top up and a bit of a long stop. It's a chance for everyone to regroup.
Jack and I use my printed papers to buy fuel and the attendant has a laugh before showing it to all the other workers. I'm used to it by now, but Jack sure got a kick out of it.
I use the wifi here to purchase a data plan for our time in country, and give Jack my spare sim card that I bought on the last run. I don't remember paying very much for it, but he's got like umpteen billion minutes and gigs of data all of a sudden so we're good to go.
I message Gary and Vika and let them both know we're in country. Let me tell ya, it feels good to be here again.
You'll need to log in to post.
