{"id":11054,"date":"2016-08-11T10:08:14","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T17:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=11054"},"modified":"2016-08-22T23:20:56","modified_gmt":"2016-08-23T06:20:56","slug":"alan-soule-escapes-the-old-iron-curtain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/alan-soule-escapes-the-old-iron-curtain\/","title":{"rendered":"Alan Soule Escapes the (Old) Iron Curtain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now in its 57th<\/sup> day, the around-the-world-in-80 eDays tour finds itself in Ukraine, having crossed China, Kazakhstan, and a big chunk of Russia since mid-July.\u00a0 Alan Soule\u2019 a CAFE board member, drives the only American entry, A Tesla S sedan.\u00a0 From time-to-time, he is joined by assistant drivers on the long trek.\u00a0\u00a0 He and the Czech team are well ahead <\/a>of the other drivers, still clustered in the Moscow area.<\/p>\n

The trip through China<\/a> involved obtaining driver\u2019s licenses for everyone, negotiating many ways to pull electricity from the main power supplies to charge the 11 teams\u2019 vehicles, and enjoying the local cuisine.<\/p>\n

\"Alan

Alan Soule’ giving a farewell address to his Chinese hosts<\/p><\/div>\n

As one might guess, there aren\u2019t necessarily a lot of Tesla Superchargers or Aerovironment Turbodocks in the Ghobi Desert, and the Swiss team shows several alternatives they jury-rigged on their expedition.<\/p>\n

\"Swiss

Swiss team found many “alternative” charging stations. This looks like the most conventional<\/p><\/div>\n

Whether you remember David Niven, Jackie Chan, or (Heaven help you) the Three Stooges in the cinematic version of this epic journey, they didn\u2019t have to find charging stations, often totally unsuited to the task at hand, and improvise connections potentially (unavoidable pun) harmful to car and driver.<\/p>\n

\"Swiss

Swiss team improvised with great alacrity on their trip through western China<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Was

Was it the red wire or the blue wire? Swiss team’s options probably didn’t include instruction manual<\/p><\/div>\n

With only 23 days left in the run, it looks like most teams will complete the earthly transit on time.\u00a0 We wish them all well, and look forward to Alan\u2019s report of his adventures.<\/p>\n