Sometimes when we travel we get the chance to help out some people with the thing everybody loves most. Physically intense manual labour. Some examples of more or less backbreaking forms of work we had the pleasure of doing this last half year displayed below.
Being on the road for more than two years we have slept in a Eureka! tent for an estimated 700 nights. Milo the touring dog, leaf cutter ants, hurricanes, mud, UV rays and two touring cyclists have taken their toll on this once waterproof tent. Camping in the wild Mississippi riverside of Venice, LA, David and I were sharing campfire stories and drinking American beer with good friends when we heard a not so uncommon Louisiana sound, automatic gun fire. To us, the pow pow pow of fire arms had become common place, no need for alarm but our furry friend, Milo is still not familiar with the second amendment and he, napping in our beautiful Eureka! Summer Wind tent, proceeded to rip a doggy sized door in our orange, fabric dwelling. Eureaka! USA generously provided us with a new tent, the Midori 3, slightly smaller and lighter than our previous Eureka! We continued our bicycle trek, from the Gulf shores of Texas, to our preferred camping spots in unstable Tamaulipas, in muddy underpasses of notorious HWY 101. Through our adventures in Mexico we would often gather crowds of curious locals and giggling children, intrigued at the sight of their first tent. They would watch wide eyed and with much feed back as we would build a home in seconds from a seemingly useless bag of cloth. Our Midori 3 kept us dry in many a Norte (ferocious Mexican rain and wind storms) and protected us from slews of venomous snakes, spiders, crazy chickens and scorpions. Over time in the jungles of Veracruz, our mighty green tent was scouted by a variety of local ants. I guess they noted its dry properties and decided to call it home. Unfortunately, the holes the leaf cutter ants created for their entry quickly became access point for rain water. In the jungles of Veracruz Milo gained non sanctioned entry into our Midori 3 home so many times we lost count and simply stopped repairing the tears. It was about this time, with easy access doors on both sides of our tent that i was awoken one night with something crawling on my head. Eeiiikeeek!!! "David a mouse" the mouse turned out to be a fist sized red land crab. Nearly a year later, 300kms further north we had the same crabs scamper into our tent only this time via the ant holes and by the hundreds. More recently, in Austonio, TX something more discomforting entered into our tent. It's quantity would have to be measured in litres or perhaps gallons. H2O.
Remember that vanilla that we traded for fish we had caught, cleaned and dried in Mexico? Transported by bicycle and with the packaging hand made from 100% recycled products this is a natural and environmentally friendly way to make your baked goods more delicious. For a limited time, we will mail (or hand deliver depending on travel plans) a vanilla bean for all $20 donations made from the Support Us page.
we've been back in the North, sort of at least, and it's cool to be surrounded by plants that we know, and know to eat. Some pictures to demonstrate.
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AuthorDavid and Hannah - cyclists extraordinaire Archives
October 2015
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