Tuesday, Oct. 14: The Send-off.

We got a call in the morning from Jake. He said they were all meeting at the Sahara lobby at 0900. Unfortunately, he called 15 minutes before 0900, so we didn't have time to get the Merc running and get him down there. Before we left, dad, out of interest, tried to start the Merc, but the engine barely turned once. Looks like the battery is pretty much dead. So we hopped into the chase vehicle and took off to the Sahara.





As usual, we got there late. The Green Team and many of the event staff had already taken off. But Jake and a few others still remained, along with Kristie's Flyer and MAX.

And, since we missed the awards ceremony the previous night, Jake presented us our awards!

Our awards were:

"Worst idea actually made to kind of work" - "An award for an engineering solution to a problem not wisely chosen, but made to somewhat work anyway. Bestow on the team who was not tempted by more simple, direct and elegant solutions, and in their stead pursued the more esoteric, vaguely evocative or just tragically heroic and difficult solutions to a problem much more simply solved by other means."

And:

"Exceptional Community Building" - "The Judges also awarded the HOMESCHOOL HEROS an award for EXCEPTIONAL COMMUNITY BUILDING in their approach to gathering fuel. They combined reliance on a broad social network and recycling of waste material, changing it into a resource."

Good work I'd say!

We spent the rest of the morning taking pictures and shooting the breeze.

Finding articles on the Escape in the New York Times.






Scott getting the angle again.


Then Jake joins in.


The trusty steamer.


Dad talking with Shannon.

Finally, we bid farewell to everybody, and made off to get the Merc ready to return home.

In the resort parking lot.

A great deal of thanks goes out to all the organizers and support crew for Escape from Berkeley. You guys put together an awesome adventure, and we're waiting for next year's race!

To our frustration, when the temperature was over the 70 F mark, Dad tried to start the engine. It worked flawlessly. Apparently the battery doesn't like the cold either...

So for photo verification, we drove back to the Sahara for a final "yeah-we-made-it" picture.

Also note that the external fuel line is still in place.

With everything running fine, the oil in the main gas tank loosened up with the help of diesel and additives, we made the trek home.

Thank you to all our supporters, our fellow racers, and the event staff for making this an enjoyable journey!