What do you get when you mix a birthday party and wanderlust, a sense of adventure and a love for chai with a healthy appreciation for chaos the unexpected? A half-baked plan to take on a very silly drive across India in a glorified lawnmower!

The Rickshaw Run in India has been on Jenn's bucketlist for a decade. David is just crazy enough to think that could be fun. For both of us it's a first date (and pretty much a blind date) with India.

What's the Rickshaw Run? A madcap, self-drive, cautionary tale of an old school adventure that traverses the length of India (south to north) with no rules, no route, and no back up. In a tuk-tuk. Did we mention that?

We're under planned, over excited, and generally throwing caution to the wind. We aren't packing any clothes (Vishak and Phulie will outfit us in Bangalore) but we are packing zip ties, duct tape, and an engineer (David. The engineer is David). We haven't planned a route. We've made no reservations. We've never driven a tuk-tuk (although we've ridden in many). We've never been to India. We have no idea what to expect. Oh yes, and Jenn's starting her fourth semester at Harvard whilst underway.

What could possibly go wrong?

We start at Fort Kochi at the southern tip of India and drive north-west to Jaisalmer, about 1,500 miles with what amounts to a lawn mower engine powering our mighty 3-wheeled vehicle. Along the way we are keeping our eyes peeled for earthen buildings, tasty snacks, and of course, lots of cups of tea!

In addition to celebrating general chaos as well as Jenn's 50th birthday, we are using this adventure to raise money and awareness for the Cob Research Institute and the newly minted building code for cob construction (coming soon to construction policy near you!) which supports sustainable earthen construction, and Cool Earth Foundation, which supports those protecting rainforests.

Want to legally build your own hobbit house and live out the apocalypse in an eco-friendly shire? Want to hug the trees and keep breathing? Want to give Jenn a birthday present or contribute to David's life's work? Drop a coin in the bucket and we'll make sure it gets put to good use.

And of course follow our instagrams: @jenn.lately and @wright4thejob to sigh with relief from your comfortable armchair while we sweat and slog the length of the subcontinent.

What's an old-school adventure without patrons? (That's you! Pony up!)