Purchasing tons of rubber duckies at the last minute – harder than it sounds

Posted on September 29, 2014 by adminpbmo

IMG_9946

After clearing it with my Mongol Rally 2011 teammates, I’ve decided to bring back THE RUBBER DUCKIES!

During the Mongol Rally, we had everybody who donated to our charities name and “adopt” a rubber ducky. Then we gave those duckies away to children on our route. (You can see a map of where all those rubber duckies ended up here.)

Once again, I’m going to be putting rubber duckies up for adoption for charitable donations!

But the first challenge is, just two days before I leave the USA for a month in Peru, I need to FIND a bunch of duckies. Turns out that is no easy task…

I now consider myself the world’s leading expert on purchasing rubber duckies in Ithaca, NY. In case you were wondering…
-Alphabet Soup on the Commons has giant sized duckies for $12.99 (I bought one for the roof of my mototaxi) and a handful of regular sized duckies for $3-$5 each.
-Target has regular size rubber duckies $2.99 each and a inflatable ducky bath floaty for $12.
-Wal-Mart has regular size rubber duckies for $1 each in a variety of colors — most of them have annoying decorations on them, but there were about a half dozen classic yellow duckies for sale too.
-Party City has tiny party favor sized duckies for 60 cents each, or 18 for $9.99 but for some reason they have really distracting nostrils painted on them.
-Family Dollar (which I ended up going with) has rubber ducky three packs – one full size ducky and two small duckies for just $1! Best deal for decent rubber duckies. These ones will be going to Peru with me.
-Places that do not have duckies for sale: Ollie’s, Bed Bath and Beyond, Dollar Tree, Big Lots.

IMG_9909

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I have about 100 rubber duckies with me to give to the children of Peru, and they are all up for adoption. 🙂

Posted in Mototaxi Junket | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

I’m in! The most last minute Mototaxi Junket entry ever

Posted on September 28, 2014 by adminpbmo
I believe this is the map of Peru used by the Conquistatdors 500 years ago. Should be accurate enough for my purposes.

I believe this is the map of Peru used by the Conquistatdors 500 years ago. Should be accurate enough for my purposes.

This morning, I got this email:

Hey Pete,

Sorry for the massive delay getting back to this. A team has dropped out of the Junket and the guys in Peru have confirmed that we do indeed have a spare mototaxi….

Do you still want to jump in!?

Let me know if you still fancy it and we can press the buttons…

Cheers,
Dan
Mototaxi Junket Chief

Long story short, I pushed the buttons. (You know when The Adventurists set up a custom signup code “lastminutepete” that you’re getting in just under the wire.)

I have been wanting to do the Mototaxi Junket ever since I did the The Mongol Rally; in 2011… so when my work schedule shifted by a few weeks back in August and I realized that I had the time off to do this Fall’s Junket, I immediately started trying to round up a team.

The problem is, it’s pretty tough to convince people to join you on a big, crazy, dangerous adventure just a few weeks before the launch date… I first called up Chris Burt, my Mongol Rally teammate who also has had his eyes set on the Mototaxi Junket for a few years. We had already been talking about doing the Mototaxi Junket together at some point. Unfortunately, Burt couldn’t swing it this time (something about having a real job), so I started scrambling. I hit up everyone I met in person. I posted relentlessly on social networks. Hit up the Reddit travel subreddits. Posted a classified ad on Lonely Planet’s “Thorn Tree” travel forum. Even made a “classified ad” on the chalk board at our Burning Man camp. I got a bunch of interested parties, but none of them came through…whether it was the cost, the time off work, a bad back, or the unnecessary difficulty for a Zimbabwean citizen in Canada to get a Peruvian tourist visa.

My Burning Man Mototaxi Junket classified ad...got some good inquiries, but none of them came through.

My Burning Man Mototaxi Junket classified ad…got some good inquiries, but none of them came through.

So I signed up on my own. Of the twenty teams (49 other people), I am the only solo team registered in the junket. I’m also the dead last person to sign up – most people signed up months or even over a year ago. I’m on my own and woefully unprepared.

This should make things interesting!

Posted in Mototaxi Junket | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment