To Brisbane... and beyond!

Well, Duncs and I have made it to Brisbane, and it's been a pretty eventful journey so far. We survived freezing temperatures in Orange in tents (seriously, consider what it would feel like to put your tent up inside the fridge and sleep there), found some awesome pies in Dubbo - the second time we drove through, and appreciated Melbourne coffee in Goondiwindi.

Over the 25 or so hours of driving, we've managed to come up with a name for our shitbox. She will henceforth be known as Dixie.

Making good use of velcro, we have every possible technological device attached to the dashboard, making it look like some kind of control centre in the front seat, and true to form, the back seat is packed to the rafters (this would be the appropriate moment to mention that my bag is half the size of Duncan's, that's right half the size, and I still managed to fit my hair straightener in).

So now it's time for a little bit of sleep before we leave civilisation. We need to be at the starting line for media at 6:30am, if you're still awake, or an early riser, check out the Today Show at 7:20am or thereabouts. I'll be switching to a Telstra mobile from tomorrow, so won't be contactable on the normal number. Hopefully we'll be able to update the blog nightly as we go.

Vroom.....

Well kids, it seems all of our plans are slowly coming to fruition. We finally have a car, it's at the mechanic, and apparently it's pretty damn close to being mechanically sound enough to take us there. It's a little blue Mazda 323, and we're pretty happy with her.

Huge thanks to everyone who came along to the party, it was a resounding success. We managed to raise $900 from the evening, which has helped us get over the line. That's right, we now have enough moulah to make pole position on the rally. Not only that, but we had a great night in the process. Hopefully you did too!

Photos will be up soon enough, I managed to take a few of them before the night got too messy!

And the date is set...

7pm, May 7. Put it in your diaries boys and girls.

It's a party as wild as the wild wild west, so come on a journey with the Pony Express. It will be dangerous, it will be thrilling, but most importantly, there will be food and booze, and all it will set you back is a measly $40.

Hit us up on the everydayhero page to confirm your attendance. Make a donation of $40, put Pony Express Party in the comments, and we'll make sure that there's enough food and drink and good times for everyone.

AND just to make it even more super awesome, this party is totally tax deductible, feel free to chuck in a few extra dollars if you want to get some extra back at tax time!

You guys rock! Thanks so much to everyone who has gotten behind team Pony Express so far. We're a quarter of the way to our starting funds, having just broken the $1000 mark. That puts us just over a quarter of the way there, with only 3 weeks left to go. Any of you out there who have been procrastinating on the donation front, get to it!

Sadly we still don't have a shitbox, but we're certain the right little beauty will show herself at just the right time (ideally a week before the race, with 1 month of rego left on the dial).

Other than that, things are ticking along well. The Savannah Way, which has been underwater, is slowly being repaired, and should be ready for us to drive along. And we're looking forward to seeing some wide open spaces. We're also starting to stock pile bits and bobs that we need for the trip - we're going to need a whole lot of driving tunes to say the least!

So while Duncs is updating the blog at absurd times of the am (4.25? I hope it was just a bizarre failing of the computer clock), he's also been hot on the tail of sorting us out a shitbox. Sadly the very pretty Commodore that we had our sights set on only comes unregistered, and some stupid Victorian rule about only being able to register a car for a full year is going to put us way over budget. To top it all off, there was a truck load of work to be done before it hit roadworthy, so no go.

In the meantime, plans for our May 7 party are coming along. It's looking like being the kind of arrangement where you pay us, and we feed you and provide you with booze and a rocking atmosphere. We'll get details of how to get tickets etc to you soon, although most likely we'll get you to hit us up on the everydayhero website, which, just in case you've forgotten is

www.everydayhero.com.au/ponyexpress

PS Don't we look cute standing in front of Calamity Jane? We'd look even cuter standing in front of a car that was going to get us the distance, so if you hear of anything, send some car info love our way.

Hey hey! Things are coming along at an increased rate in the last week. We've been interviewing potential cars, terrorising those with cash and starting to get a bit bloody excited about the rally.

It's now a month until we cross the start line in Brisbane, which is awfully soon for a team without a car, but this is a job for a team with true grit.

And we're chock full of that.

Under pressure

So this is the first post, and I'm feeling a bit of pressure here. Hopefully there'll be more than a few peeps come to read this blog, and you know, we want to make it good.

So the story so far... Duncs and I decided to embark on a fairly epic fundraiser: Drive a shitbox (n: a motor vehicle with a road value of less than $1000) from Brisbane to Darwin. The aim is to raise some money for the Cancer Council, and hopefully have a bit of an adventure along the way. Now this isn't our own initiative, we've joined on as part of the Shitbox Rally. This is year's rally is version 2.0, with the inaugural SBR held last year between Sydney and Alice Springs.

Earlier in the piece we were bequeathed a car. Calamity Jane, a old Subaru Brumby ute, inspired our team name; Pony Express. Unfortunately it's looking at this stage like she won't make the distance, so we're on the hunt for another shitbox that will get us all the way from Brisbane to Darwin. In fact, with freight costs for cars being pretty high, we're actually hoping to make it all the way from Melbourne to Brisbane first.

As for the fundraising, well we have to raise $4000, just to enter the rally, so we're putting the word out. If you could help us, that would be ace. Thanks a million to all those kind peeps who have already thrown us a donation via our everyday hero website, we really appreciate it. Keep your eyes peeled on all the usual social media channels, as well as this blog for some kind of fundraising event which will be coming up soon. Right now, it's looking like some kind of a party could be in the making...