VikkiDp:
I absolutely love your updates!!!!
Those doctors were something else. They look so composed in the picture we took with all the devices, but it was so wonderful watching them behave like children at christmas! 
It really made me happy 
VikkiDp:
I absolutely love your updates!!!!
Those doctors were something else. They look so composed in the picture we took with all the devices, but it was so wonderful watching them behave like children at christmas!
It really made me happy
Donation link updates!
Currently Open:
Kisgorbo Refugee Shelter (Monthly Sustainment): paypal@gmail address (Hungarian Forint)
Hospitallers Battalion (chest vents needed): paypal@yahoo address (US Dollars)
Currently in Work:
Hospitallers Battalion Amazon lists
Note on Amazon wishlist issues:
I'm afraid I have zero power over the Amazon wishlist issues. Once the warning is gone, we can try to fire off a test shot and see what happens.
Currently Closed:
GoFundMe: Expect this channel to open in early November for our Christmas run.
One more update:
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce someone I've been in the beginning stages of working with. Please meet "Rebeka Maciorowski".
She is a former nurse, a former Hospitaller, and a current Ukraine Army Combat Medic with the 53rd mechanized Brigade:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100076460695092
https://twitter.com/bekamaciorowski
https://www.youtube.com/@rebekahmaciorowski
A video of hers popped into my feed where she described the willingness of people to want to send her bandages, tourniquets, and other needed items, but then spoke of the hassle that was getting off the lines to get back to where those items could be delivered. All for three Israeli bandages at a time.
You can see that video here (2:56 mark): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ypifmnFZU&t=31s
I wrote her on her FB account and asked if our operation could be of assistance. I expressed a willingness to act as a collection hub, and then as a delivery vehicle (have 4wd, will travel). She responded in the affirmative.
I have since set up a PO box, with the intent to allow her to share with her followers (in an effort to protect my privacy a bit), and once that goes live then I'll share that info here as well. Right now, I need to fire off a test shot to make sure the PO box will deliver, and once done we'll proceed.
Here's a video outlining what she's doing and why it's important to her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In08IiDP7tw
Here is a video she created outlining what we'll be hauling, an what makes a good vs bad product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMT8dsWPUGo
I currently have an amazon gift list, but it ships stateside only (and is currently subject to amazons ongoing wishlist issues): https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1N9069PGEBW31/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_2
So yeah. Fingers crossed we can be of service here.
(Note: This will be "in addition to" and not "instead of" the aid we're currently bringing to Dnipro.)
Sent you an email Bill. If the APO Box is going away I'll consider this week to be the "last" for the donations; thankfully I have the next two days off so I can push to get one final, big item through.
Sadly, none of Vikki's pics of the doctors loaded :(
In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :
Just replied, sir!
The photos of the docs were in the last run report. Here's what they looked like:
Trip report 1
I need to go back and set the stage. Things are frantic.
We've burned through the local cash, and we're quickly burning through the GoFundMe cash. School supplies, it turns out, are VERY expensive. This is a lot different than our last school run as this time we have well organized lists from VikkiDp that tell us exactly what we need:
This is a FAR contrast from what we did last year (which was "take our kids to the store and make your best guess). Honestly I don't think we did too bad last year, but we're light-years more organized this year and I think we're FER more effective.
Mrs. Hungary is working the day shift, and I'm working a second shift. She gets off around 14:30 and we high-five each other as I drive into work at the same time. To keep our 24-hour a day operation going, I'm doing some shopping during the day, pack what I can, prep dinner, and she picks up the second she gets home. There's not a single day that goes by that I don't get home and see her working still at midnight.
Some children have other needs as well. You might remember that Milana's mom wrote and asked for clothes for a 3-year old. Well, we got that too!
We collected locally and got BOXES of stuff. Add in the new jackets (two of them!) and the backpack full of toys we bought for her and....
And then we had three new additions to our family. Two babies, and one on the way.
Of course we set aside boxes of extras for them as well:
And then the clothes. All sorted and organized. Destined for the hospitals.
We didn't need to do any work to these, but we did pull from them to meet the needs of our three newest family members. One in particular was looking for warm clothes for a 9-12-month old. They were planning ahead for the upcoming winter.
Trip Report 2
Conversations between Mrs. Hungary and I are 100% only taking place via video recordings on Whatsapp. It goes like this:
I shop and pack all afternoon. Right before i head out to work, I break out the camera and record.
"ok, these are the items I bought (pans around with camera). This is where I went. This is what I was able to find. This is what I couldn't find. One child is just going to have to make due with 'x', it's all there was. I can NOT find 'y' ANYWHERE! Don't touch these boxes over here. I moved those boxes over there. Did you still have....." and so on.
When I get home, she does the same (but in person, as it's midnight and that's the only time the two of us are home together).
During the day, messages get sent out to Vikki. We have a group chat going on whatsapp called "Plans". All day, every day, Vikki is hot on the spot with the answers to our questions
"Hey, we have this jacket, these shoes, and half a rear seatbelt for a 1966 Impala 4-door. Can you find homes?"
VikkiDp: "family 7, family 3, and family 37. Not an Impala, but a '67 Biscayne so it should work"
Our entire operation at this point is running on what I call "remembering what we forgot" (RWWF). It goes like this:
In 30-minutes I need to take the dogs to the dog-sitter for when we're gone. I pack their food, their meds, their leashes, but then I remember I forgot that I already started loading the Toyota and I cant take them there in that (the Mazda wont fit all our dogs AND their stuff.
That means I need to put that stabilizer bar link on the Saab, and get it off of jack stands.
Done! I don't even bother putting the tools away. All the wrenches, jack, and jack stands are just thrown on a table where they wont get rained on, and I call it "good enough" until I get back.
Ok, dogs dropped off but I just remembered I forgot I had to go to the grocery store! I'm in socks and candles and carharts (that wont do) so I head back to the house to grab a pair of shoes. When I get there I remember I forgot the dog meds!!!! crap! Ok, grab the meds and head back to the pet sitter, and THEN I'll go to the store.
Then I remember I forgot I was expecting a wire transfer to arrive so I could send it to VikkiDp. Crap, ok. Check phone for moeny, drop dogs off, go shopping... I get the wire transfer started, drop off the meds, and just as I was leaving our village I remembered that I forgot to grab the money envelope to buy the school supplies!
this goes on.
things are so frantic that one morning I dreamed my alarm went off, and I just pushed myself out of bed not even half awake and tried to start packing. It was 2am, and I had just gotten to sleep about an hour-and-a-half ago... Luckily I came-to before I got to the room with all the school supplies....
Our budget too is well beyond what we were ready to allocate to the shopping. In teh GFM we stated that if we didn't meet our goal then we'd split the difference half and half between the hospital and the kids. Well, we've used half the GFM money, ALL of the local donations, and we're DAMN CLOSE to having everything we need. Out comes the credit card and we hit the entire thing with a hammer (those kids are getting their dang school supplies, dang it)
The night before our run and our entire house just looks like one big bomb went off... Laundry is piled up, dishes too. Mrs. Hungary is going to kill me for this photo, but it really captures the moment:
In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :
Sadly, none of Vikki's pics of the doctors loaded :(
Sorry, man 
There's no other photos besides the ones Bill posted (thanks Bill) because of this
Inside there's a group of doctors waiting for us and when they see the blood pressure monitor and the microscope, they absolutely lose their cool. They're just so excited they cant contain themselves!!!! I don't pull out my phone for pictures as I want them to have a bit of privacy, but MAN was it hard! They're all pouring over the manuals, the devices, the accessories, everything, and all at the same time! They're thanking us, and one doctor speaks english, and then the go back to pouring over things, and then they're thanking us again...
Just getting us to stand still long enough to take this picture was almost impossible
Can you imagine kids finally being allowed to open Christmas presents after a long wait? That's what was going on there - very approximately
I don't have any photos from the last three runs on my phone at all - in the moment, we act so fast and need to pay attention to so many things that i forget about it. It's good that Bill remembers about the photos, but when he has time to take them i have no idea
In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce someone I've been in the beginning stages of working with. Please meet "Rebeka Maciorowski".
if you need any help with that or if there's anything i can do to help - you know where to find me
Ohhh, Bill i have no words - you and Mrs. Hungary have done an UNBELIEVABLY GREAT job!!! 
love you, guys - you're AMAZING!!!
I've tried to organize the lists to make them easier for you to work with.
And love your stories
and half a rear seatbelt for a 1966 Impala 4-door. Can you find homes?
Ha-hahaaa, Vikki can - no doubts
VikkiDp said:In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce someone I've been in the beginning stages of working with. Please meet "Rebeka Maciorowski".
if you need any help with that or if there's anything i can do to help - you know where to find me
Absolutely!
Right now I've set up a box at the post office so I can receive things locally but keep my privacy (somewhat). I was thinking that Novaposting to our favorite office might be an option, but I'm not sure if we want to sign up for that yet (as a plus, it would save room in the truck so I could bring more to Dnipro).
Now that I'm back and at my home computer, I've spent some time on Amazon. I'm sending myself a test package from amazon.com and amazon.de to ensure that the lists and the PO boxes are working. Here are the links:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1N9069PGEBW31?ref_=wl_share
https://www.amazon.de/hz/wishlist/ls/3MMLJUWGLY7JS?ref_=wl_share
If someone wasn't busy, I was wondering if they could attempt a mock purchase from the list. I've found that if I select the item, and then select my payment option (but not pay) then it will usually show me if there's an issue with shipping or not (and there were a LOT of issues with shipping. It's taken me a couple hours to find items that didn't red-flag at checkout)
If things still don't work for guests, then I guess that will be that until Amazon unscrews itself. If it DOES work, then this will be how we can support Rebeka M in the future (aside from sending items directly to my PO box that is).
I know that we here on Grassroots will scour the ends of the earth to save precious challenge money (ooh! That reminds me: Comparing the two sites, I've found that things are slightly cheaper on amazon.com). But it's been my experience that the general public prefers an easy button over all else (hence the amazon lists).
Cheers, guys!
VikkiDp said:Ohhh, Bill i have no words - you and Mrs. Hungary have done an UNBELIEVABLY GREAT job!!!
I've tried to organize the lists to make them easier for you to work with.
And love your stories
and half a rear seatbelt for a 1966 Impala 4-door. Can you find homes?
Ha-hahaaa, Vikki can - no doubts
The lists were PERFECT! you did an amazing job with those (as you could tell, by how easy it was when it came time to mail everything off)
Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :
Just replied, sir!
The photos of the docs were in the last run report. Here's what they looked like:
Looking handsome in that fine shirt sir!!!
In reply to 84FSP :
Hahahahaha! Thanks, man! That really is my favorite shirt. It's now my dedicated "delivery shirt".
I picked up one more patriotic Ukraine shirt when I was in Kyiv last time, but this one here will still be my favorite.
Happy Monday, everyone! here's our update!
Let's see. Going down the list, we have:
Kisgorbo shelter.
Donations are still coming in, and our next transfer is scheduled for Friday of this week.
GoFundMe
Trip report is in progress. I got a little busy as my phone stopped charging and I had to button up a trip report for the Kyiv Independent on their Discord server before it went completely dead. The phone is off for repairs, and I should have it back on Wednesday of this week. Trip reports shouldn't be delayed any longer.
Ira's Art Supplies
We Vikki's chocolates and sweets ready to go, right now we're just waiting on those last boxes to arrive via APO and we'll deliver the whole sha-bang. Ira has been informed and is standing by.
Hospitallers
We've met our goals for the decompression needles, but have not yet received anything in the way of chest vents. Hopefully that will change shortly. I had a couple hours of free time this morning, so I gave Mrs. Hungary's car a full detail job and posted it for sale. I'll be honest, we're asking quite a bit, and there are some blemishes. We're hoping that our local supply of Americans in the area will gravitate towards that automatic transmission and the long lead before its next tech is due.
Also in terms of the Hospitallers, I've reached back out to North American Rescue who has a Ukrainian operation established. The UA rep and I were in discussion last week, and it looks like they are able to offer VERY competitive prices on a lot of the items we'd need to pack IFAKs (Individual First Aid Kits). Almost 100% of this is MILES better than I could do with the Amazon lists (the only hangup is the long lead time). See below for details. All prices include shipping to a UA address:
With the above pricing, a CAT tourniquet direct from NAR is $37.76. Check out Amazon in the clip below:
Communication with the Hospitaller though, has not been reestablished (see aforementioned phone issues). I'm going to keep pressing forward, but if we can't get reconnected then Rebeka M. will be our next "go to" for supply delivery.
Ok. Donation link updates
Currently Open:
Kisgorbo Refugee Shelter (Monthly Sustainment): paypal@gmail address (Hungarian Forint)
Hospitallers Battalion (chest vents needed): paypal@yahoo address (US Dollars)
Currently in Work:
Hospitallers Battalion Amazon lists
Note on Amazon wishlist issues:
I'm afraid I have zero power over the Amazon wishlist issues. Once the warning is gone, we can try to fire off a test shot and see what happens.
Rebeka M. Communication is ongoing. I've fired a test shot from each amazon list to my PO box. Once success has been confirmed then I will post the address here and give her the green light to share with her followers who want to send their items instead of money.
Currently Closed:
GoFundMe: Expect this channel to open in early November for our Christmas run.
Trip Report 3
Well, no getting around it. It's D-day (drive day).
Again we were up until midnight the night before. Throughout the course of the week, we had to watch helplessly as boxes piled up in the house and we had no way of knowing if they were going to fit in the Toyota. Were we going to have to take the roof off?
Unfortunately that question was hampered by two things. A lack of time, and a continually changing weather report. We couldn't load anything but clothing into the truck in advance, as the high afternoon heat was bound to melt or dry out anything that resembled a school supply. Worse yet, random rain showers (and we do mean full on showers) kept popping up and we never had a pattern we could predict.
And so that's how it was as we inched closer to midnight on that last day. Mrs. Hungary taping and labeling the last of the packages to the kids, and me playing Tetris with them in the rain in back of the Toyota. I'm doing my best but the pile in the house just never seems to get any smaller. Trip after trip, I somehow find the exact right magic spot that fits whatever I'm holding and I just don't know how long I'm going to be able to keep it up.
But I do! And I even got the bicycle to fit (a real space eater! I took the handlebars off to make it as narrow as possible and that did wonders to slim it down). I throw the tools needed to put the bike back together behind the passenger seat and I'm strutting back inside when Mrs. Hungary hands me two more bags (a backpack and a re-usable grocery bag). Our clothes, and our snacks.
There's nothing else for this. There's just no more room, and at this point there's no time to take the roof off and barely any justification to do so. I've got boxes and bags so packed in the back that there isn't enough room for another slip of paper. Behind our seats they swell over our headrests and rest on the center console all the way up to the ceiling. The only spot left is the passenger's seat, and that's where they go.
We're running non-stop, you see (we always do). We stop for fuel and gas, and that's it. No fast food, no restaurants, no sites. For the week prior we pack fruit, pastries, granola bars, chips, chocolates, sandwiches, cola, energy drinks (for emergency use only), canned coffee, and I even have gotten to get in the habit of curing sausage in my oven for something hearty to munch while driving. The snack bag is pretty darn huge with two people in the truck.
The next morning Mrs. Hungary is up at 2am. She's frantically cleaning the kitchen that we've left a complete mess and taking care of the trash (you know, the stuff that's REALLY going to stink if you leave it for a few days). I'm not going to say our place was spotless, but she definitely put a darn good dent in things. I got to sleep in 'till 4am.
A quick shower, brush our teeth, and our coffee goes straight into our to-go cups. I head outside for the final preflight on the truck (tire pressure checks, and fluids). Somehow we stumble into clothes and we're butt-in-seat by 5am. It poured rain over night (probably a good thing the roof stayed on)
Right about here is where i realized that I haven't watered my plants all week. it's silly, but we have tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries growing in planters and I really don't want them to die. All week I've been reminding myself to water them and all week I've been too busy. I do a quick splash and dash and pull all the planters out as far as possible into the lawn to catch any rain that might fall in our absence.
Mrs. Hungary took my picture before the last trip, so I took hers this time:
Here goes nothin!
Trip Report 4
Right away the driver's side window fell off track. I wanted to roll it down a bit as we were leaving our driveway and I watched as the glass cocked itself a bit in the frame and then just dropped right into the door (and it's been working perfectly for MONTHS now too). Luckily this isn't a new issue and I had my dad-like reflexes about me. I was able to pinch the last inch of glass with my right hand thumb and pointer finger before it disappeared completely. Working the window switch into position and adjusting the glass accordingly, I finally got it kind-of on track. But we're just going to have to make do for now.
Also up are the windshield wipers. I mentioned it's raining and they are LAME. They're just smearing water and dirt all over the windows and the sprayers are no help either. I broke on of my original sprayers before the December run, and I had forgotten that the only replacements I could get came from a Lada Samara... They don't work, and just dribble windshield juice into the cowl panel.
Well, I mean we're off to a normal start.
At least the drive is pretty uneventful. Mrs. Hungary has the camera:
The two bags that were on her seat are now in the foot well. We've eaten the pastries we packed for breakfast (gotta eat the perishable stuff first and all), and she's sitting criss-cross in the seat as to not squish things. This can't be comfortable.
What happens next, I have to own. I know I've said it a thousand times but we've been so busy I never got around to taking those zip ties off my upper radiator hose. And as we all know, there's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix.
Unfortunately, the Toyota didn't like that one bit.
We were bombing down the highway, heading east, when a huge river of liquid comes pouring out of the panel gap between the hood and the passenger side fender. It didn't even take me a second to realize what had just happened. I just felt so darn dumb (there goes all that fresh green antifreeze I bought).
I've already shut down the engine and am coasting when we pass a sign "service station 500m". We coasted most of the way, but had to run the engine for about 5 seconds to make it the last 100 meters or so. Once there, we got to work:
There we go. Buttoned up, cleaned up, and topped up. Mrs. Hungary was even able to score me a bottle of green-stuff from the fuel station store.
I'm just glad we bought our spares kit with us. I know I didn't bring a full compliment of tools, but when packing space got tight, I almost ditched the spares kit. Next time I'll know better.
Putting things back with how tight things are packed is tough. We were able to egress our spares kit from under our sleeping bags via our sliding side window. When I put things back in that way, I'm greeted with a "crunch". Looks like the plastic tub that's been holding our spares just gave up the ghost.
I'm not going to make things worse by digging it now though, I just stuff our sleeping bags on top of it and we're on our way.
Trip Report 5
Back on the road, and we're still not in the groove. Ideally we'd do as much as we can in a single stop, but no one told our bladders that we're on a road-trip. That means that both our fuel tanks and our bladders tend to be full at the same time (and that means twice the stops). I'm trying to take advantage of the situation though, and am using the frequent bathroom stops to e-mail my bank from my phone and see what's taking so long for that bank transfer to get to Vikki in Ukraine. The response I get is "well, it's a foreign currency so it might take a few days"
bull. This isn't our first rodeo and we've never had this issue before.
Coffee too, isn't doing us any favors. My to-go cup is usually enough to wake me up in the mornings but we're still groggy as heck. Plus it's not so much giving me energy as it is giving me a headache. I've been drinking carbonated water as well, but I think that's only contributing to my sleepy-ness. About this time I go to make a note of this, and I realize that my book of notes was on the roof of the truck when we left the last filling station... Weeks worth of notes that describe everything we've done in great detail just lost to the rain as quick as that....
I decide it's time to pound a monster. As I crack the can open and pour the fizzy energy giving juice down my throat, Edwin Starr's song "WAR" starts playing on our Funk play list:
Thinking the song is fitting for what we're doing, we crank up the volume and sing along. About the time it's coming to an end we pass our first UA (Ukrainian) license plate. Just a man in a van really, and we pass him on the left without occasion.
I'll pause here and in a bit of foreshadowing I'll talk about the big red-crosses and "humanitarian aid" stickers that now adorn my truck:
At work (as I do still commute to work in the truck from time to time) I simply tell my coworkers "they get me through the checkpoints quicker" and everyone nods in understanding.
The truth is, I never had any problems getting through the checkpoints. Not when they were plentiful and armed to the teeth at the beginning of the war, and certainly not now when the war is well established far to the east. The truth is, I wanted people to see the decals. Specifically, I wanted to see Ukrainians to see the decals.
I realized long ago that I could haul way more goods (assuming I could gather such a quantity) were I to purchase a dedicated vehicle like a sprinter van or a Ford Transit. But I always thought that took away from the organic feel of what we were doing. When you see the Toyota, there's no doubt that this is someone's personal vehicle. Not a charity, not an organization, but a person.
And when you see that person, in their personal vehicle, headed east, loaded to the axles... well, there's no question what that person is going to do. When you see that person headed west, dirt covered, adorned with "Humanitarian Aid" decals, completely empty... There's no question of what that person just did.
I always hoped that people in Ukraine would see that connection and relate. This isn't a million dollar charity, it isn't the Red-Cross, this isn't a person in uniform. Someone in jeans and a t-shirt, with a vehicle that's really no different than the Mitsubishi Pajero or the Lada Niva that their neighbor has, is hauling stuff in and handing it out to where it's needed. I want more than anything for people to be able to relate to it and see that it could be them in the driver's seat instead of me.
I digress. Shortly after we passed the Ukrainian man in a van, I smell coolant and bring it to Mrs. Hungary's attention. "It could just be because our last leak coated our engine, but we should keep an eye on things just in case!" I shout over the noise.
and it's a good we do. Not long afterwards the gauge starts to creep up. The very split second it does, I shut off the engine and coast to a stop. We aim for one of those emergency phones that dot the side of the highways and make it with plenty of momentum to spare. Opening the side window I fish out the damaged box of spares and wouldn't you know? That Ukrainian man in a van is pulling to a stop just in front of our truck!
Trip Report 6
Mrs. Hungary is the first to meet the Ukrainian man, and I follow shortly after. I have a length of F4 tape in my hand (proven to be an effective fix to leaking hoses in the past) and the hood is already popped. I show him the leaking line (a heater line right next to the header sprung a pin-hole leak) and I show him the tape. He gets the idea, and goes from offering help to thanking us for helping. Hands are shook, he even says "thank you" in English and we tell him the same in Ukrainian. We wave goodby and now it's time for the fix.
Ok, first up: I'm only taking the blame for half of this one. I tried to order this part from Toyota when I got the others and they told me it was no longer available (NLA). I inspected the hose and decided it looked "good enough" (it wasn't squishy. It wasn't dry and cracked. it didn't even look that old) for this trip, and I would use our GRM powers when I got back to find a replacement. It's literally one of only two hoses that hasn't been replaced in the entire engine bay... (the other hose is 2-inches long, and I'm looking at its replacement on my workbench as I type) Honestly, what were the chances???
Anyhoo. Tape and zip ties in hand, here we go:
When I started the repair, I saw a dark spot under the pin-hole. Once I was close enough to put the zip-tie on, I realized I was actually looking at a split hose.
Holy beans...
Ok, my first instinct was to wrap that portion of the hose in F4 tape and clamp down several zip ties to reinforce it, but as I got to thinking I thought "why risk the failure point"
Next idea was to cut my current repair off, and slice the hose back to an undamaged section (and that's what I did). First, I have to bleed off pressure in the cooling system:
Ok, good in theory but the problem is (and I thought this might happen) the hose is now too short to connect back to where it goes...
I'm certain I have some replacement hose of this size tucked away in the side panels of my cargo area, but fishing it out means unpacking things (and I don't want to do that on the side of the highway). Instead I decide to completely bypass the heating system in the truck by using the other good hose and connecting it's inlet to the burst hose's outlet (hey, it's summer time! We don't need "heat", right???)
Ominous foreshadowing about the heating system aside, the whole stop only took us 15 minutes from start to end. We finish and top up with coolant again just in time. Lightning strikes over a hill nearby, and as we're pulling back into traffic we find ourselves right in the middle of a thunderstorm.
But I'd like to take a second and go back to the Ukrainian man in a van. That guy got it.
What he saw when we passed him, I think, was 100% the reason he stopped to help. That man and the way he felt when we uneventfully drove by as nothing more than "traffic" in the left lane on the highway.... I really hope that more people out there see it too and feel the same way.
We're all in this together. Help is on it's way.
In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
NLA? I bet not. If I am seeing it correctly, that's 87245-89181, and believe (EDIT: CONFIRMED) I can have one sitting at the counter in Seattle on Thursday morning. And if that doesn't work, you can cross that number at Rock Auto to a Continental 63235 or a Gates 18789.
Say the word, baby bird!
In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
Ha-ha-haaa!!! i found the cat in the middle of all of this she/he(?) looks very surprised - what the hell is going on here?
In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
But I do! And I even got the bicycle to fit (a real space eater! I took the handlebars off to make it as narrow as possible and that did wonders to slim it down). I throw the tools needed to put the bike back together behind the passenger seat and I'm strutting back inside when Mrs. Hungary hands me two more bags (a backpack and a re-usable grocery bag). Our clothes, and our snacks.
There's nothing else for this. There's just no more room, and at this point there's no time to take the roof off and barely any justification to do so. I've got boxes and bags so packed in the back that there isn't enough room for another slip of paper. Behind our seats they swell over our headrests and rest on the center console all the way up to the ceiling. The only spot left is the passenger's seat, and that's where they go.
I'm still amazed every time i see how much stuff you can cram into the truck. when it's time to unload, it's just hard to see how it all fit in there. 
Ohhh, man, what again - window, radiator, hoses, and the same thing in a row - i'm glad you fixed it so fast and this old baby was able to run to Dnipro and back
In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :
But I always thought that took away from the organic feel of what we were doing. When you see the Toyota, there's no doubt that this is someone's personal vehicle. Not a charity, not an organization, but a person.
And when you see that person, in their personal vehicle, headed east, loaded to the axles... well, there's no question what that person is going to do. When you see that person headed west, dirt covered, adorned with "Humanitarian Aid" decals, completely empty... There's no question of what that person just did.
I always hoped that people in Ukraine would see that connection and relate. This isn't a million dollar charity, it isn't the Red-Cross, this isn't a person in uniform. Someone in jeans and a t-shirt, with a vehicle that's really no different than the Mitsubishi Pajero or the Lada Niva that their neighbor has, is hauling stuff in and handing it out to where it's needed. I want more than anything for people to be able to relate to it and see that it could be them in the driver's seat instead of me.
You know - I always tell everyone that you are a simple person who is just helping and there are many, many more simple people around the world who also support Ukraine - just people who come together and do what they can and as we can see they're doing a lot!!! It always impresses people - they feel that support!!!
Many times I've been asked what kind of a foundation, a charity or an organization you are, and i've said it's just people like you and me.
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