Across Mongolia like a Golden Horde

"Goddamn it, how come every time us Chinese put up a wall, stupid Mongolians have to come and knock it down?"

So we finally completed our trip through China, and then I chose to elongate our trip by veering westward through Mongolia. I will certainly regret this decision when we are stuck in the middle of Siberia on December 31, but I had two reasons for doing so: 1) I am fascinated by Mongolia, and 2) I wanted to visit Lake Baikal (we are currently in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia, and we will get to see the lake this coming week).

Why the fascination with Mongolia? I think it started out with a fascination with Ghengis Khan and the power he wielded during his hay day, largely fed by the History Channel. Then I picked up an Outdoor Life magazine in a doctor's office 5 or 6 years ago and found an article about fly fishing in Mongolia. It seemed like one of the few remaining frontiers on this planet. What else is cool about Mongolia? It is the most sparsely populated country on the planet. It is the second largest land-locked country on the planet (give yourself a gold star if you knew that Kazakhstan was the largest). The Mongol Empire, established by Ghengis Khan after he united the nomadic tribes of the region and set up kicking everyone's ass near and far, is the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world. At its peak it stretched from present day Poland to Korea, and from Siberia to Vietnam (almost 13 million square miles, 22% of the earth's total land mass). Pretty sweet. Unless of course you talk to people from the middle east, who apparently were not happy about the scorch-the-earth tactics and the destruction of a large chunk of their culture. Some people are so sensitive.

We have 4,000 miles worth of Siberia in front of us. There are some people who are continuing to kick butt week after week, and I commend them for that. If we can keep this up, and maybe pick up the pace a little, I think we can get back to North America by the end of the year. It won't quite meet the goal, but making it back to the good old US of A will feel pretty good.

A few goals to mention: Becky reached her running goal, and I reached my biking goal. Mike is making a big push to reach all of his goals and kicking big ass in the process. Rob already flew by his biking goal, and is closing in on both swimming and running. Lauren has both her biking and running goal within reach, and Alysha has surpassed her biking goal. Chris and Rachel are nearing 1,000 total running miles for the year, and Megan is nearing 1,000 total running+biking miles. Great job to everyone, continue pushing towards those goals.