Capn's Blog

[CapnAwesome]

Tapons are sold all over the world. It's not like you leave the first world and there are no tampons. Plus they are lightweight and easy to pack.

Of course I'm not intimately familiar with all the ins and outs of tampon use, but I've never heard any ladies on the road ever say it's an issue.

If it's about affording it, again not really an issue. Not like tampons are breaking the bank or anything.

Lol yeah this is how we know you aren't intimately familiar with all the ins and outs of tampon use. The good ones Shellb requested can break the bank. $9-10 for like 12 are not uncommon. When you go through them as often as you should (TMI but some don't change them often enough and risk TSS) that box won't last long and after 7 days of that it gets expensive.

Although I doubt that someone not used to the good stuff couldn't get by just fine on the cheap ones.

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BUT alas we are derailing this wonderful story!

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Tapons are sold all over the world. It's not like you leave the first world and there are no tampons. Plus they are lightweight and easy to pack.

Of course I'm not intimately familiar with all the ins and outs of tampon use, but I've never heard any ladies on the road ever say it's an issue.

If it's about affording it, again not really an issue. Not like tampons are breaking the bank or anything.

Lol yeah this is how we know you aren't intimately familiar with all the ins and outs of tampon use. The good ones Shellb requested can break the bank. $9-10 for like 12 are not uncommon. When you go through them as often as you should (TMI but some don't change them often enough and risk TSS) that box won't last long and after 7 days of that it gets expensive.

Although I doubt that someone not used to the good stuff couldn't get by just fine on the cheap ones.

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BUT alas we are derailing this wonderful story!

So that's not a major expense... like 20 dollars a month? Sometimes 30. Google says average tampon use is 20 per cycle. I mean, that's a pretty small expense and certainly being on the road wouldn't make any difference in that at all. I'm not sure why you think you couldn't get those tampons or couldn't afford them? It really would make no difference at all.

In fact it's a whole mis-perception in general that being on the road means you can afford less when in fact the exact opposite in true. If you cut out your major expenses, for example rent, that leave so much more discretionary money. I know climbing bums who live out of vans that are realitively wealthy. This is becoming more and more common for people. I mean logic just follows that if you spend less money, you have more. Most Americans who live in houses barely make ends meet and don't have the savings to cover a 1000$ emergency spending. I always have that at a minimum and normally have way more savings. In case I decide to go on an impromptu trip around the world or something.

So most concerns or ideas that people have about travelers are just weird misconceptions. That they are either super wealthy and supported by a trust fund, or they are homeless bums who don't even have a dollar and can't afford 10$ tampons. (Still confused by the concern a little) The reality is that it's actually realitively easy to live as a continuous traveler just by reducing your need to consume crap. Okay, not back to the story.

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Capn's Blog, December 2012

These are real things that happened to me while hitchhiking from Las Vegas to South America in 2011/12




The epic of Cathy and Sterling, Part two

     Momentary panic set in. At this point into traveling with Cathy and Sterling, we knew that anything could have happened. We had seen them leave their RV unlocked and wander off, be gullible and often confused by Mexico. We immediately did the only thing we were capable of doing, which is search through the town. We ran up and down the streets, still buzzed from drinking in a slightly frantic search, luckily they had just driven to the other side of town.

    We asked about their change of location, “Uh, is everything okay?”

    “Uhhhhh, um, not really.” Cathy replied, “I was cooking pasta and suddenly the water caught on fire! Sterling was coming around the corner with the fire extinguisher and I threw the burning pasta out the door and hit him! He caught on fire, then this guy came out and beat on the flames and that’s why we moved over here. That’s his house, he’s helping Sterling.”

    Dan and I stared at Cathy for a moment and then at each other. I knew he was thinking the same thing as me. How the fuck does water light on fire? My immediate thought was that it had something to do with the propane in the RV, this thing was more than 40 years old. We were too drunk and tired to do a proper investigation at the moment. So we just looked at each other and then went to find a place to sleep. As we often did, we just climbed on top of an unoccupied building. Climbing is the instinct of rock climbers, and also nobody is going to find and bother you on top of a building. Indeed we were never bothered on our whole trip south.

     We were amused to find in the morning that the building we had slept on was the town jail. Once again Dan and I discussed potentially leaving Cathy and Sterling. We did not come to Mexico to be put in danger by a 60 year old antiques dealer from New Hampshire.

Despite our growing concerns, two days later we were still with Cathy and Sterling. Despite the occasional craziness (while driving we hit trees with the sides and top of the RV, hit a dog, were rear ended, Cathy bribed the police, Sterling drove without a drivers license) it was easy to stay with them. For one thing, they didn’t want us to leave. Perhaps the creeping realization that they were in over their heads was starting to dawn on them. So Cathy had taken to feeding us and we were also smoking out of her weed supply.

    We pulled into a gas station, and the two gas station attendants were cute young girls so Dan and I decided to go over and say hi. While we were talking to them, I perchance glanced behind me, only to have my eyes widened as I saw flames shooting out of the window of the RV.

“Holy shit!”

    We ran back towards it, just in time we stopped right before the door, avoiding Sterlings fate as on cue Cathy tossed flaming liquid out of the door. We stomped it out on the burning grass.

    Cathy bemoaned, “There must be something wrong with the water in Mexico.”

Now it’s true that you can’t drink most of the water in Mexico, but we knew it was not flammable. Sober and in the light of day we decided to get to the bottom of this, before we all went up in flames.

    “Oh well” Cathy declared, “I’ll just start over.”

    She grabbed a bottle.

    “Wait” Dan said, “That’s not water, that’s our white gas.”

    We stored our white gas for a whisperlite stove in a clear plastic container. It was however, marked with a large X and said ‘fuel’ on it. How Cathy could of started cooking with white gas, and not immediately smelled it is a mystery to me. Another thought immediately dawned on me, she hit her son with flaming white gas.

“Este, esta el dia ultimo.” Dan said to me in Spanish.

Despite that declaration, we stayed with them……..

(To be continued)

Sterling, post being LIT ON FIRE BY HIS MOTHER.


Typical Mexican roadside shanty.