As I pull our Glacier White 2022 Rivian RlT electric pickup truck off its charger somewhere in western North Carolina overlooking the Great Smoky Mountains, I'm chewing on the idea that there aren't many firsts left in this world. Sam Garcia, one of Rivian's young electric charging engineers, catches me as I walk out of our hotel, loading up for the next day of our epic overland adventure. "Check it out," he says, handing me a Rivian wheel center cap and an official-looking business card. It reads: "This item flew to space above the Karman Line on Blue Origin's fully reusable New Shepard Launch Vehicle." Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has ordered a fleet of Rivian vans for his company (not to mention an RlT and an RlS SUV for himself), and just four days earlier he was among the first private citizens to reach outer space on a commercial rocket. A first, but literally not one of this world.
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