Mission Mississippi: A step too far?

"Are you guys homeless too?" asked a camouflage clad hobo with a split lip. I began to wonder if our frugal wanderings had gone a step too far.

Eating a packed lunch on a bench in our new cold weather thrift store clothes with Tom's burgeoning beard, perhaps we did have more in common with the bums on the benches around us than we realised.

I immediately scoffed "No," in response to the hobo's question, but then thought about it and, technically, yes we are homeless. We live out of a bag, we eat a free lunch where we can get it (a hotdog from a free music show in Nashville on this particular day), we use free internet at the library (incidentally Nashville must have the most intellectual hobos in the world given the numbers in the city library), we buy our clothes in the second hand (thrift) store, we don't have a car and instead ride the Greyhound and we surf couches. It's a fine line.

I don't want to look like a bum, so on that day I swore to smarten myself up, or at least choose a different bench on which to eat lunch.

My promise to self didn't take long to break when we met our Couchsurfing host for the evening who took us home for a dumpster dinner. Josh hasn't bought food from a supermarket since February 14th 2007 (a fussy girlfriend apparently). Instead he dumpster dives. In the middle of the night he pops round the back of the neighbourhood grocery store (the larger the better) and goes 'shopping' in the skips.

I've heard of freegans before and thoroughly applaud their cause. There is far too much waste in the world. People in the UK and the US throw away about one quarter of their food each year. However, when presented with a cooked from frozen burger on an out-of-date bun with green beans, all of which you know have been rolling around the bottom of a filthy skip, it does make swallowing a little hard. Gulp. We ate it though and we were fine. Josh reports no illness whatsoever from his three years of dumpster diving.

So yes, we're on a really tight budget, but no, I don't want to be a hobo. Perhaps it's time to dip into the overdraft, instead of the dumpster, after all.

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Mission Mississippi: From mouth to source on a shoestring

Back in the U.S. of A, this time without a fistful of dollars. After eight months of glorious global travel our coffers are running on empty. With two months of travel ahead of us in one of the most expensive countries on our trip it’s time for a new tack: Mission Mississippi. We are going to travel from the mouth to the source of the Mississippi, with a few detours either side, spending as little money as possible.

Our first visit ten weeks ago showed us how kind and generous people can be in the States. Couch surfing and Craig’s List rideshare are our new best friends. As are all-you-can-eat buffets and thrift stores. Travelling on the cheap will not only help to spread our few remaining dollars, but will also spread the love, taking us to people and places we wouldn’t otherwise experience. We are going to milk this land of bread and honey and seize all the opportunities it affords, cheaply.

Couchsurfing is a global community of travellers and hosts connected by an almighty website and a desire to meet new people. You can search in most towns and cities and find from a handful to an army of people who are offering a couch (or bed if you‘re lucky) for free. That’s right - free accommodation! It’s a reciprocal deal and we will host travellers on our couch when back in Blighty.

Many Couchsurfing hosts are more than just a crash-pad. Like Hollywood resident and comedian Austin Blank (watch this space) who took us to hamburger joints, pizza parlours, sports and titty bars and gave us a real insight into the Los Angeles film and television industry.

Craig’s List is a list of online classified adverts where you can do pretty much anything frompurchasing a parrot to hiring a handyman. They also have a rideshare section. Not knowing what would happen we posted an ad on the Los Angeles Craig’s List asking for a lift to Phoenix. Within hours strangers were replying offering their services. We ended up in a car driven by a mouldy microbiologist (or at least the socks on the dashboard and peanuts on the car floor were moulding) squeezed in with a college student who hadn’t been to sleep that night and a retired chap called Dick.

This merry carload knew how to work the system and do it cheap. We had lunch at Costco, wandering the aisles and filling up on the plentiful tasters. We learnt how that you can just wander in to a Holiday Inn and help yourself to breakfast, whilst making the most of their power sockets and wireless internet. We were also offered a bed by kind Dick. He lived in a retirement neighbourhood surrounded by six golf clubs - a part of America we simply wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

Based on these experiences I believe that Mission Mississippi will succeed. We have a few friends to stay with along the way and I look forward to meeting more through Couchsurfing and Craig’s List. Travelling on the kindness of others will be a little more challenging, a bit more Internet dependent and whole lot more fun. USA on a shoestring here we come!

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