My, what an engaging blog!

Hey ya'll! Did you see the feature I added to our home page? A countdown timer until we start the Rickshaw Run! Kind of a fun little feature that, admittedly, is more for me than anything.

So when I started this blog, a year before our trip, I told myself I would write about something at least once a week. This week, I want to write about all the rickshaw related things we did in the last week. As much as this trip isn't about planning, there is quite a bit of planning going on!

1. We applied for a new credit card that will get us over our mileage threshold to purchase our tickets - whoohoo!

2. We bought a road map of India. This purchase scared the bajesus (shut up squiggly red spellcheck line bajesus is a word!) out of me. Unfolding the map and seeing just how far we are traveling was shocking! Seeing it in this perspective made accomplishing this journey seem much more difficult. The fun part about it was we also saw via this map all the amazing museums, temples, forts, and places of interest that exist between Jaisalmer and Shillong. We won't plan our route for quite some time (maybe not ever), but it was really cool to see all the places we will be able visit (and by visit, I mean drive by at 25 mph).

3. At work my employees wear heavy duty gloves while they are in the field. Mike had been wanting a pair of good gloves to take to India, so I brought him home an extra pair. Another item to cross off the 'To Purchase' list.

4. Speaking of items to purchase. I recently discovered that my lovely blog editing software doesn't allow mobile updates. The whole point of this was to be able to update everyone about the trip before, during, and after our travels. Well I really did not want to lug around a huge laptop across India, and since the blog couldn't be updated via phone or tablet I had to make a choice. I decide to purchase a mini laptop. It weighs about 2

pounds, it is about the size of a tablet, and most importantly it uses regular rather than mobile software so I can update this blog! It was $130.00 from Amazon and seems to have solved my little issue.

5. I got into a conversation about the importance or lack thereof of having an International Drivers License with a motorcycle certificate with some fellow (past and future) Rickshaw Runners. The verdict is still out, and this topic will get a blog post of its own as soon as we figure out what to do. In short, I have no desire to obtain or pay for a U.S. motorcycle license. I also don't want to have any issues in India if we were to have an accident. My health insurance will cover me in the event of an emergency, but I would still potentially have liability issues. I haven't seen all details from The Adventurists insurance rider to see what the details of it are. More to come on tshi...

So there it is, a week of thinking about Rickshawing. I probably won't get to post next weekend - we have adventuring in our plans! If you are missing us, please consider donating to our charities whom we are supporting!