On the Road to Fun City!

I spoke on the phone with mom and Mary Mike earlier this afternoon, and they gave me a collective update on the goings ons.

Keith, mom, and Tom Boulac arrived in Brooklyn, Michigan, late Saturday night (or maybe it was early Sunday morning) with the SGT01 safely in tow, and the team flying in arrived around the same time. Joe basically passed out in his hotel room from exhaustion, but Bryan Ford and his wife, Lisa, hosted the rest of the team at their house for an all-hands-on-deck build.

Bryan and Lisa were just fabulous, and Bryan's cousin Craig (whose nickname, I believe, is Wiki---serendipity much?) also apparently has mad automotive skills, so they were pretty much unstoppable. Another mechanic we'd previously gotten in touch with, Jeff Carter, was so excited about the prospect of working with us that he drove down from Detroit to meet the team "just in case they needed him." So he ended up staying for the build, too, has been fully assimilated into the team, and is just basically an epic win all around in human form.

Apparently several issues that had been plaguing the SGT01 (and flummoxing the team) were resolved handily by the new team of automotive experts, so the car is in an amazing place to head into the rigorous Consumer Reports safety inspection. Plus, they had time to give the SGT01 a paint job---a color that mom calls Home Depot orange (someone get this woman a job naming pigments at Benjamin Moore!).

Heavy rains Sunday delayed registration 'til 6 in the evening, meaning the team had even more of an opportunity to fine-tune the car. Fabulous.

Meanwhile, mom busied herself at a local laundromat, washing "the formaldehyde out of the team t-shirts," because of course she did. Apparently the printer failed to send Keith's 3x shirt, so he's trying to stretch a 2x to fit his manly frame. All I can say is if anyone on Team WIKISPEED rocks a shorty shirt, I want it to be Keith.

So, as a true believer in Joe and Joe's vision, but also as someone with zero automotive/technical/engineering know-how, I am THRILLED that so many of you who *do* rock the skillz are being so generous with your time, energy, and money. i would hug each of you personally for the support you've shown my baby brother, but we haven't all been introduced, and it might come off as fresh/creepy/invasive. So instead of some bear hug from an overwrought, rambling, misty-eyed cat lady, please accept my fervent, heartfelt thanks. You guys are amazing.

Team, keep up the good work!

And, folks at Shakedown, a special appeal to all y'all to please keep updating us on all the good stuff as it occurs. You have scores of fans crossing their fingers nervously from remote locations. AND DON'T FORGET TO TAKE LOTS AND LOTS OF PICTURES AND VIDEO (especially video). We need this stuff.

WIKISPEED for the win!