Blowing Past our Initial $4,000 Goal… NEW GOAL: $10,000!

Posted on December 22, 2018 by Pete

We did it! Our initial fundraising goal for SOS Children’s Villages was $4,000…and we just passed it, with a week to go before we even depart for the Rickshaw Run!

We are humbled by the generosity of our friends and family. Your donations will do so much to help underprivileged kids around the world.

But given that we have another full week before we depart for India, and then 2.5 weeks of Rickshaw Running to still do, we figured why stop now? We have decided to keep the fundraiser going and raise our new goal to $10,000!

Also, spoiler alert: We bought 400 little rubber duckies to bring with us on this adventure. 🙂 They’re coming with us regardless, so please “adopt” and name the remaining 300 ducks, so we can find good homes for them with the children of India.

Huge thanks go to our most recent donors, including our college friend Tim Reese who put us over the top with his $200 donation. We will give great homes to your eight rubber duckies, named after the heroes of Gremlins 2: Brainy Gremlin, Spider Gremlin, Bat Gremlin, Lady Gremlin, Googly-Eye Gremlin, Electricity Gremlin, Hulk Hogan and Star Magic Jackson Jr.

Click here to donate to our SOS Children’s Villages fundraiser!

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Ducky Business

Posted on December 19, 2018 by Pete

We just got these snazzy business cards made!

In addition to giving out duckies, we’ll give these business cards out to people we meet along the way in India so that they have some semblance of an idea who we are, and how to reach us. 🙂

Thanks Chris Burt for the original design – based on our Mongol Rally 2011 business cards, of which we printed 3,000. (About 2500 more than we needed. This time around, we printed 500 LIMITED EDITION RUBBER DUCKY BUSINESS CARDS.)

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Halfway There! (Living on a prayer…)

Posted on December 3, 2018 by Pete

Lucien and I want to extend our heartfelt gratitude for the HUGE outpouring of support for SOS Children’s Villages. In our first week, we already raised over $2,000 of our initial $4,000 goal. We are truly humbled by the generosity of our friends and family who have donated so far!

That means that we will be bringing *at least* 80 rubber duckies with us to give to kids in India.

But we’d love to bring a lot more duckies with us! If you would like to donate (and adopt your own rubber ducky), there’s still plenty of time left.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES

Every donation of $25 gets a rubber ducky, which we’ll bring along for a wild ride.

We’d also like to thank SOS Children’s Villages for sending us this awesome package of swag – stickers, balloons, temporary tattoos, along with shirts/hats/sunglasses for Lucien and I to decorate our rickshaw, and ourselves. Can’t wait to attach these to our glorified lawnmower when we arrive in Bangalore. We thank SOS for their amazing support of our team!

The Rickshaw Run begins in just over a month. We’re already halfway to our *INITIAL* goal. But at this pace, we’re thinking about setting our sites a little bit higher and raising our fundraising goal. How much do you think we can raise?

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Donations Page is Live: Happy Giving Tuesday!

Posted on November 27, 2018 by Pete

Today is Giving Tuesday, the perfect day to launch our fundraising campaign for SOS Children’s Villages!

Our initial goal is to raise $4,000 for this amazing charity, which provides loving homes for underprivileged children all over the world – including the USA and India. (Find out more about SOS Children’s Villages here.)

For every donation of $25 or more, we will bring a rubber ducky with us on the Rickshaw Run and give it to a child we meet along the way. You will get to name your ducky, and we’ll post a picture of where it ended up!

Donate to The Rubber Duckies at SOS Children’s Villages

In other news, we have gotten in touch with SOS Children’s Villages, and are hoping to arrange a visit to the Village in Bangalore, the starting point for the Rickshaw Run. Here’s a video of one of the SOS Children’s Villages in India:

Thank you for helping us support this great cause!

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Pimping our Rickshaw

Posted on November 1, 2018 by Pete

Per the “You’re On Your Own” rule, The Adventurists don’t provide much of any support during the Rickshaw Run – things like directions, mechanics, towing services, translation, logistical support, medical evacuations, bail bonds, etc…

But one thing they do provide: Pimping!

They have enlisted a team of local Indian artists who paint a rough approximation of your team’s artwork on your rickshaw, based on whatever you scribble onto this template.

After a few versions, this is what we submitted:

Yes, our design features no fewer than 17 rubber ducks on it. (What did you expect?)

We’re told that the artists do a decent (though sometimes laughable attempt), at translating your masterpiece to the side of the rickshaw. It usually has a couple spelling errors or bizarre flourishes…but by the time we land in India on December 30th, we’re told that our ‘Shaw will be painted all pretty-like.

We excited to see how it turns out!

Here’s an example of another team’s rickshaw from a few years back…they went with a Cheshire Cat theme. It turned out really well.

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Rickshaws are Temperamental (Why the Rickshaw Run is a really great bad idea)

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Pete

The Auto Rickshaw is a monumentally stupid vehicle that just barely works. Driving it across all of India is, therefore, a monumentally stupid idea.

We can’t wait!

The auto rickshaw, to scale.

Whilst researching the Rickshaw Run, we did our most basic homework (reading the Adventurists website), and found that the Auto Rickshaw sports many excellent features, designed to make traversing hundreds of miles spectacularly difficult.

A former Rickshaw Run team (Jaisalmer Taxi Service – 2013) put this great video together to demonstrate the Auto Rickshaw’s unique charms:

Amongst the many great features:

  • 7 Horsepower Engine
  • Three tiny tires
  • No airbags
  • No seatbelt
  • Lever start
  • Horn (essential)
  • Awkward foot brake
  • Rudimentary electrical system
  • Full of dents
  • Full of rust
  • No legroom
  • Worthless little mirrors
  • Cracked windshield
  • Crap for headlights
  • Overheats
  • Prone to fail
  • Slow as hell
  • Stalls easily
  • Everything leaks
  • Parking brake doesn’t work
  • Puny
  • Shitty turn radius
  • Flimsy roof rack
  • No protection from the elements
  • Top heavy
  • Poor suspension
  • Nimble
  • Temperamental
  • Temperamental
  • Temperamental
  • Temperamental
  • Tips easy
  • One hell of a good time

In other words, the perfect vehicle for an adventure!

If you’re wondering how the Auto Rickshaw came about, look no farther than this gentleman:

The Birth of the Rickshaw: “These wonders of the motorised world were invented by a chap called Corradine D’Ascanio who we were delighted to discover also invented some quite resplendent flying machines (one we note has three wheels) and designed the Vespa scooter before his career topping moment of bringing the Piaggio Ape to humanity in 1947. Later this trusty marvel was licensed to a little known Indian company by the name of Bajaj.”

Corradine D’Ascanio – Father of the Auto Rickshaw – Laughing in your face for thinking about crossing India in one.

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Tuk, Tuk……Duck!

Posted on October 28, 2018 by Pete

Here we go again!

Like a pesky strain of dermatitis that won’t go away, that itch for adventure has once again crept up on us… so myself and my good friend Lucien Delabruere have decided to take the plunge. Yes, we’re going to drive an underpowered tin can across an entire subcontinent. Yes, we’ve signed up for THE RICKSHAW RUN – January 2019!

It’s time for the triumphant return of THE RUBBER DUCKIES, after heroic appearances in the 2011 Mongol Rally and the 2014 Mototaxi Junket.

This website will be updated with more information soon. But in the meantime, enjoy this photo of a bucket of duckies…duckies who will soon be traveling with us to India.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Rickshaw Run, check out this video from The Adventurists, which gives a little rundown on what we’re in for. Yes, this adventure has been going on for over a decade, and it’s still just as bad an idea as ever:

We will be again raising money for our charity of choice, S.O.S. Children’s Villages. Our Donations Page is already live, so if you’d like to contribute, please do! (We’ll take a ducky with us in your honor.)

Pip Pip.

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