It feels like such a luxury to have working Internet connection again (though I do have to admit it was somewhat of a blessing to be disconnected for a while)!  Our final stretch of the actual Run was last Wednesday through Friday,  and we crossed the finish line at 2pm in Jaisalmer on Friday.  WE MADE IT TO THE GOLDEN CITY! We're now in Pune but wanted to share the stories of our final stretch of Run for now, with more on the victory parade and final days later...

After spending two nights in Jaipur we decided to take Soni up on her suggestion to check out Pushkar, a tiny little desert pilgrimage town on a lake.  It was the most unbelievable setting.  It was only 150K from Jaipur (all awesome desert scenery with hardly another car on the road...aside from the tourist van that stopped to take pictures of us) so we finished about 2pm, got hotel rooms set up for us and the 3 other teams in our convoy since we were there first (Jim "The Wrench" Matheson ensured our tuk didn't break down ONCE!...the 5 flat tires on the trip - including 2 within 20k of each other - were easy compared to what some of the other teams had to deal with!).  Bit of an adventure finding an okay hotel in Pushkar (the one with Mickey Mouse patterned curtains was a bit much for us), but we ended up having a great hotel owner with a nice room barring the 1 double bed we all had to share, but hey, rooms were 400 rupees. Pushkar's a funny little town - you have to pay 20 rupees just to enter the town and no alcohol is allowed within town limits yet they sell "special" lassis openly throughout the town at all the cafes. Strange stuff! Got there by about 2 or 3 in the afternoon though so we were able to watch the sun set over the lake.  Then we were in for a real treat as we happened to be there for the Ganesh Festival, a celebration of the god Ganesh (the elephant god that also happened to adorn our dashboard for 2K miles). It was absolutely spectacular with the music, the colors and the dancing passing through the streets around us, though one of the fireworks got a bit too close...we think we're still a bit hard of hearing between that and the constant "tuk-tuk-tuk" sound!

The drive through the desert of Rajasthan was incredibly beautiful - it was almost like the American Southwest or driving through Arizona with all the red rocks and open space...and, as a bonus, we only saw 1 giant snake. Luckily it was dead and in the middle of the road prior to our arrival. That's how we like to roll.

Leaving Puskhar Thursday morning we headed to Phalodi which we're quite certain is a town no foreigner visits (have you ever heard of Phalodi?) but we stayed at Lal Niwas Hotel which was also recommended by our new friend Soni and it worked out well as a stopover town. We've learned that sometimes uneventful is the best kind of evening here in India! In India we've had to rely on strangers which is definitely something that takes some getting used to.  A stranger offered to lead the way to to our hotel which we had driven around for a while trying to find.  We were hesitant to follow at first but soon started following him on his motorbike since we realized we really had no other option in terms of finding this hotel. As he started driving us down dark alleys and twisting side streets through seemingly residential-only areas we naturally got a bit nervous and slowed down to ask someone else if this was the right way. The man on the motorbike turned around, came back, and urged us to follow him...about 5 minutes later there we were in front of the Lal Niwas Hotel. Bri and Kate did some hardcore negotiating and we locked in a room that had THREE beds (2 doubles AND a king)...a very nice change from our 1 double bed from the night before!

Having dinner that night we had a lot to talk about, and a lot more to think about. It was our last night on the Run. We woke up, had some coffee and chatted with our Scottish friends who stayed at the same hotel before setting off together for Jaisalmer about mid-morning since it was only a 160K drive from Phalodi to Jaisalmer.

With Jim's Mexican wrestling mask (and our Scottish friends ironically bringing with them matching masks) we had an awesome last stretch of driving through the desert in Rocky.  We busted the tunes on the rigged up iPod dock and just enjoyed the last day together in our little tuk-tuk. There had been highs, lows and a whole lot of together time over the 2 weeks of driving, and here it was coming to an end. Was it possible we may actually miss Rocky??? And driving in a small, loud and uncomfortable tin can through the villages of India??

We arrived in Jaisalmer and found out our finish line was actually INSIDE the centuries old fort! We drove up the steep hills inside the fort and when we said earlier in this post that we never once broke down, I guess we really should have said, we didn't conk out until..our last 100 meters leading up to the finish line.  Luckily Rocky was just being tempermental (separation anxiety, perhaps?), we got the ol' gal going, and alas, reached the top of the fort!

Upon arrival we signed in with our time, date, and best story from the road ("Running into the cops...quite literally" - congrats to Kate for winning the best tale of the road story!) Raiders of the Lost Tuk officially crossed the finish line in the heart of the Jaisalmer fort at 2pm on Friday September 24th as Team #26 of 66 to cross the finish line.

What an adventure it was. Or, as our Irish friends would say..what a GRAND adventure it was!!!

Checked into a hotel nearby in the fort shared by many of the teams we convoyed with throughout the trip and shared some stories, victory beers and laughs (we were finally able to laugh about certain things once we crossed that finish line!) up on the rooftop overlooking The Golden City. VICTORY!!!!

More on the victory "parade," finish party (and trophy ceremony...yes, Raiders are coming home with some trophies thanks to all of you...., and post-Run excitement next post!

Cheers!