Day 1: Dream on, little dreamer, this is how it all begins

Miles: 3500
Countries: Canada -> UK
Stops: Ottawa -> London -> Colchester
Playlists: Above and Beyond ACOUSTIC album on repeat 6x


This is it folks, we are officially in the UK and although the rally hasn't even started yet, it's already been an interesting journey.

Still waiting on filling you in on the promised visa post seeing as we have yet to acquire the rest of our visas, and yes, that's right, we still don't have our Russian visa considering we depart this week.

For starters, one of us, and I will spare names to avoid public shame, went to run errands yesterday morning specifically to get US dollars and pounds for the trip. Somehow, this somebody ended up coming home and forgetting to do all of the above until all the banks were closed. So we are now travelling cashless. If you are planning on robbing us along the way, please read this and note, and I emphasize, WE HAVE NO CASH. We also have no jewelry and our car is ... well... I'll get to that in due time.

Just checking in at the airport and at the lounge made the staff's day as they all snorted with laughter at seeing us walk up to the counters; definitely a good conversation starter, and of course, everyone at the Ottawa airport is so fantastically nice and enthusiastic.

In case you missed our wonderful travel photo: us at the airport in the Maple Leaf Lounge courtesy of an excellent friend who understands us. We walk in and it's a full self serve bar. It's heaven. 

Apparently, I don't know how to use those automated shot pours though, and so I kept letting the bourbon pour thinking it'll automatically stop at 1 ounce until I realized my glass is more than half full before adding a splash of ginger. This set the scene for our hike across the airport to our gate where we came up with an excellent anthem for our team. It goes like this: moose moose moose moose moose moose moose moose.

I guarantee you, it sounded wonderful last night. Unfortunately, upon waking up in the middle of the night on the plane, neither of us remembered the tune so now the above lyrics are set to George of the Jungle.

...

...

You just tried it, didn't you.

In the first 5 min of settling in our seats, somebody managed to keep forgetting things and having to reach into their bag in the overhead compartment 3 individual times and dropping an item out of their bag on the bald guy's head in front of us.every.single.time, including this. 

Otherwise, we did spend most of the night listening to the same album on repeat, and I have to tell you, it's godly, specifically "Sun and Moon", "Satellite", and "You Gotta Go", but honestly, the whole album. I'm melting just thinking about it. 

We woke up, listened to it yet again, then stepped up to another album that has the same songs but more upbeat to wake up to. Pretty sure we both sang out loud. Bought an enormous amount of duty free cigarettes for future bribe needs, put our hats back on and made our way to the customs line while the antlers got stuck in the first class aisle curtains may or may not have happened. 

The customs line. Sparing you the full story, all you need to know is it was over 2 hours long which we stood in our hats and were asked for pictures. 

Our wonderful host in England who checked our car out, tested it, negotiated it, bought it, invited us to stay over for the week, and then offered to pick us up at the airport(!) was there on time and just waited this whole time. And then, of course, we find out he lives 1.5 hours away! And to top it off, the highway was closed 3 of the 4 lanes and the trip turned into 2.5 hours. Not sure what kind of thank you is sufficient enough for this.

And now the car. We finally got to meet No Ragrets, and it just so happens that No Ragrets also has No Keys to open its gas tank which has almost No Gas.

Otherwise, it seems pretty solid so far, and the current project is figuring out a roof rack so we can set the back up as a bed.

Speaking of No Fuel though, we're both pretty delirious and going on almost no sleep, so with that, I bid you adieu.