Back in Fairbanks

Really horrid drive back from Coldfoot, terrible conditions blizzards, trucks were sliding off the road all over the place its taken me all day to do 200 miles and I'm tired now. It is such a Dangerous road and i have so much respect for the drivers who drive up and down every day.
I'm going to visit the Stampede trail head where the young man Chris McCandless lost his life in 1992 when he hiked out into the Alaskan wild and lived i a bus where he got trapped as the frozen river he crossed on the way out was flowing when he tried to come home. He died up their and he is a icon of youth finding their own identity in this crazy world and God bless him.
The bus is still there 25 miles into the trail and is a hunters shelter but too dangerous to walk out to at this time of year, i will stop at the start of the trail and pay my respects.

Prudhoe Bay

I left Toolik at 2pm and turned north onto the Dalton highway, the road conditions were much worse and i was having to concentrate a lot more, just a single track was in use in the center of the road and when oncoming trucks come along i had to pull over and come to a stop as it is so dangerous that if your tire touches the drifted snow it will pull your car off the side of the road. I kept plodding a long in the dark and arrived at Deadhorse and Prudhoe bay at around 7 pm i had a look at the Prudhoe bay hotel but didn’t stop for anything, the whole area is geared around the oil industry and all the buildings are tempory style units so it says hotel but looks like a shipping container.
I made my way over to the general store called Prudhoe Bay general Store and its run by Deborah and Joseph Bernard, they are so lovely, i was given a huge warm welcome and Deborah very kindly gave me some items including a thermal Prudhoe bay hat. Thank uou Deborah you were a light at the end of a very dark stretch of dangerous road, you provide such a good service to all the workers and i’m sure your happy face makes them feel a whole lot better being up their. You van contact Deborah at email deadhorsedeb@aol.com

I had a look at all the other pictures of adventures similar to mine but done in the summer months as they dont see people like me in the winter, i briefly spoke to another lady that run the post office downstairs called Luann and then i made the decision to drive back south to Coldfoot, o the drive back conditions were getting worse but i took it steady and things are going well, visibility through the Atigun pass was very bad and the climb to 4800 ft on the north side was ok, i met a group of trucker at the top who contacted me on the CB radio and asked if i could wait at the top as the south side was getting badly drifted with snow and only one track up was in operation, they sent me down first maybe as a guinepig or maybe they thought i would be faster, this mountain is much steeper than any european climb or decent like the mont blanc. i put the car into low range and with the auto box the car was making a good decent at a controlled speed of around 30 mph, a couple of time the cat lifted and slipped sideways over the snow drifts and all the trucks waiting for us to come down had fitted their snow chains for the climb up.
In coldfoot i stopped at the truck stop for a cup of tea with one of the truckers that i came down the way with and we chatted about what it was like to drive trucks in Europe and Scotland, i had a shower and moved the vehicle to a parking area and parked up for the night.
Tomorrow i will push on back to Fairbanks.

Toolik field station

Well I'm up in the arctic and last night was my second night up on the Dalton highway, the road was built back in the 80's by the Aleysken oil pipe line company and was the idea of James Dalton who its named after, the road is about 500 miles long and runs from Fairbanks up to Deadhorse and your horse would be dead if you rode up hear in these temperatures, not a lot lives up here
once you get above Coldfoot and to a lovely small hamlet called Wiseman which is about as far north as you can to find animals like Martin which are caught up here for their fur which can fetch between $40 and $100 these kinds of practice are a necessity for people who live all year round and i loved seeing the small huts which have generators to power battery packs for lighting and the manage to either melt snow for water or have bored under the house to unfrozen water tables below the surface.
I stopped to have coffee with two families that live in Wiseman one couple that runs summer tours like hiking and wildlife and his wife who writes for a fisheries magazine and another family who have a very small gold mining company a small family business many people have rights to gold mining areas of land going way back to the early settlers and that is before the oil company moved in and put the road in. For the first time i saw Dog mushing in real life and all the fantastic healthy looking dogs they use to pull the sleds, children are home taught and live very close to nature.
I left Wiseman a 2 pm yesterday and drove up to Toolik arctic field station which took me about four hours and i passed by the turning as it was hard to see and off set about 1 klm off the road.
living on the road now is very different and the temp is so cold that it does strange things the engine temperature is running much cooler and as it is a diesel and diesels cool when the idle and petrol engines heat up so this means when i sleep inside my cubby hole in my sleeping bag that the front blower runs very cool even though i have the engine running 24/7, i really on having the back up diesel heaters which is a Webastow airtop 2000 and a Thermo Top P under the bonnet without these heaters it would be a lot harder and all my food in the car would freeze up, when the temp dropped to minus 40 they water pipes for cooking and washing froze and that in the car, as soon as i stop get my gear on to make tea the pipes freeze within a couple of minutes of opening the tailgate, its incredible, I know have to cover my face when outside and your eyes can also get sticky and can stick open if you don't wear goggles, take your gloves off and touch metal and its painful, i would have no way of working on the car in this weather, i am living on a knife edge at times, at least i have my emergency tracker and can run a petrol stove with the window open a bit in an emergency.
Being above the Arctic circle in the winter means no sunlight at all however you do get some light coming over the horizon for a period of time on the flip side is that in summer they have Sun all day long too.
The Toolik camp is by appointment only and i am very privileged to be invited by a scientist called Lesa Hollen from the Neuroscience Visualization M.S.
Dept of Biochemistry & Neurochemistry
University of Alaska Fairbanks
their is only three people here this week managing the site at any point scientist from all over the world come to gather all sorts of data even Nasa use it, its not open to tourists and i am so excited to be on site, it is everything you see in the movies about the Arctic it has Skidoo's and dome style huts all covered in snow bearded men and puffy jackets walking through blizzards,
The accommodation barracks are remind me of being on a ship and everything is well organized and water is a luxury so plates and cutlery is paper an plastic and you have to use out side long drop style toilets and if the heater has not been put on you can freeze your bum to the seat. Its all good fun and i am hoping to be shown around the site more extensively today.
From here later i will drive up to Deadhorse and the oil terminal at Prudhoe bay you can see polar bears up their too and they are massive the biggest of all the bears. The scenery is incredible and when people say their is nothing to see for miles they are wrong they must mean you can't see Mc Donald's or houses, but you see huge mountains with very jagged shapes very aggressive looking glaciers too it makes you feel so peaceful and relaxed, the climb up the Antigan pass where i climbed to nearly 5000 feet was a really long haul and the new oil cooler coupled with the low external temperature means its no longer over heating too. I'm going to go now and have a flannel wash and make some tea.
I want to thank everyone for being so kind to me on this trip it just goes to show how everyone helps everyone out here in the wild.

On my own. Wednesday 3 December 2008 Temp -17

About a week ago Chris had arranged to get a copy of his birth certificate sent up to a youth hostel in Fairbanks and the hostel called Billies is a great place to meet like minded travelers we both made some new friends and Chris last night had decided to have a night with some of the people from the hostel and i decided to do my own thing.
I took myself off to Radio Shack to look at a 2 way radio to use up in the arctic and on leaving met a lady called Lesa who is a scientist and does many field studies, she was interested in what i was doing and where i was going so invited me out for dinner we ended up in a bar later called the Marlin and i met many great people who are very individual,
Lesa had a great contact for me and called a friend to ask if i could visit the Alaskan field study station up in Toolik which is only 2 hours away from the Arctic sea, we emailed to the field station and they are happy to meet me, i have also from being in this bar made a contact for visiting Wiseman a very small village of people about 16 who live with Huskies and sleds in wooded cabins so i want to go their too.
I got back to Patricks the guy who is kindly putting us up, at about 2 am and had a lye in in the morning as i am waking up at 6am every morning and with the cold its wearing me out also its not getting light till 10 am.
I drove down to town to collect Chris from the backpacker lodge and then we could start our drive again north to DeadHorse, on arriving he wanted to have a chat to me and looked a little concerned, i asked him what was wrong and he told me he didn’t want to go into the Arctic and i told him that was ok he didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to, i think the last few days have been very tough on Chris and the coolant problem and sub minus 40 temperatures had made him realize how dangerous things can get if something goes wrong. Chris took the rest of the things from the vehicle and we gave each other a hug, he told me he can find work in Fairbanks and would be ok.
He is doing the right thing and chris had been looking a bit ill the last couple of days he needs the rest.
I want to thank chris for the help and support that he has offered me over the last few weeks we have both learnt so much, Chris has been really effective at getting the expedition with local sponsorship and i am impressed by how he has gone about this.
The high point of his work has to be setting up the Smithers skateboard project with youth Kenny Thomas i look back at our time their and that was a job well done, so thank you Chris for all your hard work.
Chris burton has a blog too which is in my links column and he is hoping to continue promoting RamblingRat benefiting StreetKids on his own travels too.

Tim dennis

Arctic Blunder's December 2nd Minus 40oC

Last night we left the engine running all night and the outside temperature has plummeted down to -40 oC this is the coldest i have ever experienced in my life, Sweden was minus 28 but this really goes through you we are only 500 miles away from the most northernly point in America which is above latitude 70 and can go down to minus 70oC.
When we came to leave this morning at 3.00 am i noticed no heat in the car but the engine was running, ice had formed in the radiator cap and the car had lost coolant too, i guessed that since i had had the coolant changed yesterday that it had been air locked so Chris and i drove into Fairbanks and topped up the coolant level also o the drive the brake fluid light had come on too so i was worried that that had moisture in the system and had frozen, but it turned out to be a low level in the reservoir.
We then made our way out towards the Elliot highway and onto the dalton Highway after about three hill climbs it was evident that something was wrong with the cooling system and i could smell coolant in the car also the condensation had frozen to the inside of the car windscreen solidly and the heater lost its heat, i pulled up and got Chris to get the antifreeze bottle and we lifted the bonnet to see steam rising above the bonnet then falling back down like snow, very strange to see, i was worried that the car would overheat and if we filled the radiator with water after we had used all the antifreeze then it would freeze in the radiator when the thermostat closes, if we had no engine then we have no heat for us and this would be very dangerous.
We made a decision to turn back and used about 2 and a half gallons of water to get back to a garage about two hours drive back to Fairbanks. In Fairbanks we had new hose clips fitted and new coolant again, the garage Goldpanner and the Owner Vern would not let me pay again. We are now sat in the backpackers hostel having a cup of tea and sending this blog.
I will check the vehicle again in the morning and maybe we will be ok for another attempt at the James dalton Highway.

Fairbanks Alaska December 1st

Tomorrow we are going to start a 500 mile drive up the Dalton highway which is the furthest north that you can drive anywhere in the world, we will be 7 miles away from the arctic sea when we arrive in Prudhoe Bay the day after tomorrow.
The temperature here in Fairbanks is minus 25 and i am keeping the engine running all the time day and night also i have put fuel additive into the fuel tanks to stop the diesel clouding called bittering agent.
Chris had organized a TV interview today with local Tv and we did this at the local Toyota dealer in town Fairbanks but the dealer was no help to us and were not interested in what we were doing even though we had the news their and we said they supported our cause they were a very difficult bunch to deal with, nothing like the lovely Canadian dealer network especially Glacier who are at the tip of the iceberg in Quality and service.
We took our business to a small garage called Goldpanner Chevron Service and a lovely man Vern Stoner took care of us checking the 4x4 over for an inspection before tomorrows drive to the arctic the garage informed me that i could do with some more antifreeze and didn't charge me for any of the work that they did. Thank you Vern

"Tok" Alaska November 30th

We had a very long and bleak drive up into Alaska but the scenery was stunning, the days are closing in us and not so much daylight is available, we crossed the border very easily as we were the only car at a very cold minus 16 border, but we were told this was warm as temperature can drop to minus 50.
I filled in a Visa waiver paid a $6 fee they took my finger prints and a photo and never checked my car or even asked anything about it they didn't even want to have my vehicle registration details.
We drove another two hours and stopped at a small village called Tok where we bought a new thermometer from a shop and we asked if they new a place we could sleep for the night and they suggested that we speak to the local Tok Christian church.
Within a few minutes we met the Pastor Joel Krise and his wife Anne who welcomed us into the church and turned on the very effective heating in the basement of the church were they have a couple of beds, Chris and i had a really good nights sleep and woke up on Sunday morning in a church the first time i have done that.
We had showers and talked to Joel and listened to his wife Anne play the guitar as she organizes a church band which looked quite cool, every one in this small but cold community has very warm hearts and i want to thank Joel and Anne for letting us stay at the Tok Church
What and expiernce.

White Horse 28th November Milage 262431

We had a good sleep at Dease Lake and at breakfast met kiel and his friend kiel, not sure if this is how to spell your names so please comment if its not correct, anyway one of the kiel's is Zora's son and the other kiel has been working at the cafe were we slept, he cooked us some breakfast, i had cheekily asked for a large breakfast to be halved onto 2 plates and he smiled and told me that would be no problem, I'm not sure if a cafe in UK would be this accommodating.
The kiel that cooked breakfast was very interested in the expedition and asked how he could travel with me so i gave him my email and he may get in touch after chris and my friend ben Brown from the Uk has been with me, that will take us up to New Year.
I am hoping that StreetKids International can link me up with a Christmas project somewhere around Calgary as that is what i would like to do over Christmas help other's in need.
We left Dease and headed north on the Casia highway loads more snow and a fantasic road dangerouse but like driving on a forest logging road in Scotland.
We arrived in a small town called Goodhope Lake and on about half an hour stopped to give a Native Indian called Irvine Chief a lift he was heading north towards Watson Lake and had been traveling around Canada logging trees, he told us that his dad had a house up in the forest and he hadn't seen him for over a year and it wasn't far of the forest road, we arrived at a heavy snow coverd side road and drove down a track to a Hut with some wooden out buildings, out side was lots of chopped wood and blood in the snow everywhere an axe and a saw had been used to cut up Moose and many skinned rabbits and bigger game, His dad was very happy to see his son after so long and Irvin pointed to the new tin roof comparing things that had changed around his family home, his mum had died a few years back and his dad now lives alone with his dogs.
His dad came out of the hut with a big metal put and filled it with snow with a shovel, he asked me to get one side of it to carry back to put on a huge hand welded stove where you can melt the snow to provide cooking or washing water, the home has no water or electric and everything he needs is around to live, this is totally amazing, It is so cold outside that the meat can be kept in an outside larder, this place my look daunting to a traveller not used to seeing real living existence in operation but this is pure survival with nature, any animal killed is for food and justified.
We left after a mug of coffee and Chris and i left Irvin with his dad and within a few ours we turned off the Casia highway and onto the Alakan highway which i thought would be buisier but not the case more snow again and driving is dangerouse also the temperature has gone down to minus 10 and we are feeling the change, the scenery is incredible and makes you feel small against the power of nature and you realise that you could soon be in danger is things go wrong, local people use satalite phones out here as the mobile companies provide little coverage.
We arrived into White Horse tired and stopped at the library to see what youth services thier was in town, we were late arriving into White Horse as we were going to meet the local news at 2pm and Toyota, but as logistics go this didn't work to plan so with Chris having to sleep in the front seat in such cold even though i can run the engine he wanted to see if a local serivices couldn't find uses a place to stay, i had emailed a couple of people off www.coachsufing.com and hospitality club but had not had any replies yet.
We called at the local Salvation army who had helped us in the south, they called the local youth people called Youth Emergency Shelter and within 20 minuted we met with Johnny Brass good name and Tanya Silverfox also a good name up here,
they understood my mission after i showed them how we had started a youth project in smithers and helped us find a place to stay in town. Johnny and Tanya are lovely people who work late into the night helping young people up to 20 years old find shelter, they operate from a drop in center that can help with other associated problems and has four beds 2 for girls and two for boys, it is a much needed project in White Horse and we are honored that they could help us too as fellow volunteers.
I tried to contact Andrew Finton a contact given to me from johnny Brass, he runs a wood carving program for youth and i wanted to chat to him tommorw maybe he might email us in the morning.
My mobile phone doesn't work up here either but if anyone wants to contact me they can call my skype phone and leave a message on Tel: +441312081920 UK number.

Dease Lake

We left Smithers at 10 am and drove up the Cassia Highway towards Stewart a small Canadian village on the border of Southern Alaska and we crossed the border into Hyder Alaska a very small village in America completely cut off from Alaska with only 40 people their, had a border crossing and they were about the most exciting thing in the place as they gave me a really nice stamp in my Passport of a Canadian Bear.
We decided to push on to a place called Dease lake about another 400 klm north from there and the road was full of snow and ice, but beautiful as we got to see a couple of glacier's on the way. We were getting really tired when we pulled into a small rest area Heli ski company that let me use a Satellite phone to call ahead to Dease lake to make contact with a lady called Zora that would be able to let us stay with her. Their is no mobile phone or land lines in many of the outlying area's.
We arrived in Dease lake at around 11 pm and crashed into bed, Zora not being in town we met her son Kiel and never meeting him before just pointed at a room and said he was going out with his girlfriend to watch a Dvd at a friends, strange how people can be so friendly to open their houses to complete strangers.
Tomorrow morning we will push on up to White Horse where a news paper is wanting to inter view us.

Oh one thing i forgot we saw a huge Moose in the road in the dark just standing their in front of the car then he went into the trees went around the back of us and Chris told me to drive as he started charging at the car.
We heard from a truck driver that one moose just kept ramming into his grill with his antlers.
They are fantastic to see though.

StreetKids News letter

letter from our chairman

Richard Street

I am delighted to contribute to this our first newsletter. Since incorporating Street Kids International UK earlier this year we have been faced with a dauntingly high level of demand for our help. We can only meet this if we are able to build a strong base of supporters and partners here in the UK. I hope the stories outlined in this newsletter will give you some idea of why your support and donations are needed and convince you, as we are convinced, that giving young people the skills, confidence and knowledge to take control of their own lives is one of he most precious gifts we can give.

around the world for Street Kids
Tim Dennis shows his support

Tim Dennis from Scotland was the first person to pledge his support to the work of Street Kids International, UK. Tim was already planning a round the world expedition when he bought a Tilley had and found a label inside describing Tilley's support for the work of Street Kids. He felt the charity was perfectly matched with his personal goals for his expedition and immediately got in touch.

Tim departed from Dalbeatie, Scotland in June 2008 in a customised Toyota Landcruiser and embarked on his expedition to promote and raise funds for Street Kids International UK. His expedition has so far taken him across the breadth of Europe and Russia to Japan and by sea to Vancouver Canada. Along the way he has engaged with local people in the countries he’s travelled through, been interviewed for Russian TV and newspapers, appeared in 4x4 magazine in the UK and made presentations to students in Japan, inspiring them to do some fundraising of their own for Street Kids.

Tim plans to visit Alaska and the Arctic Ocean before heading east to Street Kids International's offices in Toronto in early 2009. From there he will head down the length of the Americas and on with his epic journey. We are hugely grateful for Tim’s enthusiasm for our work and wish him all the best with the momentous journey he is undertaking in the name of Street Kids International. To see photos of his expedition so far and keep up to date with his progress via his blog visit his website at www.ramblingrat.com.

RamblingRat benefiting Streetkids Board project

Today we had launched a project that was initiated by Kenny Thomas 14 from Smithers town, he came up with the idea that a skateboard could be made available to the local youth in Smithers that did not have the resources to buy their own.
www.rayzboardshop.com Jason Krauskopf sponsored the RamblingRat benefiting Streetkids expedition with a Skate board and all the equipment. We got the board sign written with all parties involved and at 3.30 pm we had TV and the newspapers attended the Board shop.

Thankyou to Jason Krauskopf owner rayz@telus.net

The Interior News, Ryan Jensen ryan.jensen@interior-news.com

CFTKtv Karin Koppitz kkoppitz@radio.astral.com

and Kenny Thomas

I really like being in Smither's town British Columbia it is so friendly.

Rayz Board Shop

This morning myself Kenny and Chris went down to visit Rayz Board Shop the hub for all youth into skate boarding and snowboarding. Kenny talked about how he wanted to provide local youth with a skateboard so that other kids without the resources to buy a board and equipment could come into the shop and be loaned for free a skateboard that the shop could sponsor in conjunction with the Ramblingrat benefiting StreetKids International Expedition, Kenny put up a great presentation and the shop agreed to be part of the project, they will provide a board and all the safety gear needed and oversee the day to day running of a fair system where kids can come in and book out the board.
I took the sponsored board down to a sign writer to have all involved put onto the board and Chris contacted the local press and now we have a 3.30 pm press launch for this project tomorrow.
This is a great idea from kenny and he has been very resourceful making all the necessary connection between the local community and RamblingRat.

Kenny Thomas "Smithers" Canada

I am so proud of kenny, i am emotional that a 14 year old boy son of Mike and kristina in "Smithers town" this evening has prepared a presentation for his local snowboard and skateboard shop "Rayz" to sponsor the Ramblingrat benefiting Streetkids expedition with either a snowboard or a skate board that will be used in the local community for disadvantaged kids.

he has worked on a four page presentation to present tomorrow morning to the shop owner, to donate a board and sign write with StreetKids graphics to promote the RamblingRat mission.

I am touched that i have had such an impact on people and it is times like these that i know i am doing the right thing. 

I am so grateful for you Kenny to take time to support RamblingRat, you are part of it now too.

Your heart is in the right place and you have such wonderful parents.

Stud tires

Slid off the road on snow into a ditch today in Canada.
I had only studded the back tires because the toyota garage didn't think their was enough tread on the front, this made the vehicle grip more on the back and i wasn't use to driving on the icy roads with studs and when i turns right on a bend i flew off into a deep ditch. I was amazed that i manages to drive out of the ditch on the other side as it wasn't fenced so i drove over some fields at the back of a local church.
I have since been to a local tyre company called kaltire and they have re drilled new holes and have managed to stud up the front tires so now i have excellent grip all round.

Hudson Mountains

Beautiful Hudson bay mountains in the Smithers area of rural Canada. Snow every where and -9 really chilly now.

Glacier Toyota

We arrived in Smithers a small town in the north of British Columbia Saturday lunch time, Chris had called ahead from Prince George to a local newspaper and had arranged for them to meet us at Glacier Toyota dealership at 2pm.
Glacier Toyota is really impressive its main emphasis is on customer service and it has a huge indoor service area for after care, fantastic heavy duty vehicle inspection ramps indoor valeting bays and has a Skidoo.
They made us really at home and they stood out from the last dealership that we had visited, Chris spoke with the General manager Scott Olesiuk and Scott agreed to sponsor us with diesel, wiper blades and studding the rear tires Ken the mechanic has also fixed a problem with a faulty speed sensor on the transfer case., also he spoke to one of his sales staff Mike who wanted to let us stay at his house in the country with his family, we agreed to all of this kindness. The dealership called a local radio station down and we did two interviews before heading off to meet Mike Willings wife Kristina.
Mike and Kristina live in a wonderful Canadian house with son kenny Kristina works at the local school as the vice Head mistress and is the most wonderful host and they have made us so very welcome.

I am visiting a www.katimavik.org house. Volunteering for Canadian youth throughout Canada.

Katimavik

last night Pat and Keith our hosts had taken us to an art exhibition at the Two Rivers Gallery
and a lady called Nathalie Daoust and a gentleman called Ted Hiebert were displaying art work, part of the exhibition was the chance to paint yourself if you so wish with glow in the dark paint and Chris jumped at the chance to be painted up, we also met an interesting group of young people from a Youth volunteer group called Katimavik.
This organization www.katimavik.org is for Canadian youth between 17 and 21 and programs last for 9 months, all of the young people live in a shared house and learn about sustainable living no television is in the house and they cook natural organic food and bread, they work in the community and get to spend a week with a family too, it is a fantastic alternative learning program that is also funded and if you are excepted to join is free. Chris and myself were invited by the team leader Alison Parker to visit the house were they lived for supper and we had a great time seeing how french and english speaking canadians inter react in the one house, they had home baked bread for us when we arrived and pork chops we stayed until the group had to prepare to be collected by their donor families for their week with a local family. Thank you for supper “Katimavik”

Today a company called Interior Crop Steel fabricated a bracket on the vehicle so i can use my high lift jack on the front of the car so now i can fit snow chains easily and change wheels too. The company was recommended to me from Parkhill transmission and have sponsored me by only charging me for the materials.
Thank you “Rick” and “Rene” for good welding and fabricating. Tel: 2505637865

Prince George Free Press

John McKENZIE/Free Press Tim Dennis brought his worldwide campagn to help street kids to Prince George this week. And yes, his vehicle is quite a conversation-starter.
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PRINCE GEORGE FREE PRESS
Going around the world for the street kids

By Teresa Mallam - Prince George Free Press

Published: November 20, 2008 4:00 PM
Updated: November 20, 2008 5:24 PM

In 2007, Tim Dennis, then 33, of southwest Scotland sold his house and business business – lock, stock and barrel – and took the money to finance a trip around the world. No record was set. People have done that before. However, Dennis had a different reason for leaving his comfortable life and contorting his body so it would fit the close confines of a vehicle turned mobile home.

He cares about street kids. Last year he embarked on his overland expedition to raise funds for the Canadian organization, Street Kids International, and in doing so, is making sure kids have a fair chance at life. He dubbed his trip Rambling Rat Expedition because 2008 is the year of the Rat – and his trip is themed around a cartoon rat named Dylan. Dylan is a lovable, caring, cheeky rogue very much at home on the road meeting new friends and visiting new places.

On Tuesday afternoon, Dennis and his cohort and travelling companion Chris Burton came through Prince George. They met with media at the local Toyota Dealership that is assisting with vehicle support.

Using his unusual vehicle as a conversation piece – it has also become Dennis’ home away from home – and his cartoon friend Dylan, the connection with youth has enabled him to talk to and about street youth around the world. He has set up all his camping equipment to create a hands-on campsite which communicates the importance of the basic needs of water, shelter, food and safety.

“Dennis is so dedicated,” said Burton. “He’s doing this entirely on his own hook. He sold his house and business to pay his way. That’s how much he believes in what he is doing.” Dennis has crossed eastern Europe and Siberia. While in Russia preparing to ship to Japan, he was interviewed at two Russian television stations. In Japan, he was invited to speak at Japanese schools.

The more he travelled, the more opportunities he’s had to talk about kids who need help. He arrived in Vancouver this month aboard a freight ship with his car and he plans to visit Alaska and the Arctic Ocean before heading east to Street Kids International’s offices in Toronto in early December.

Street Kids International is a non-profit agency founded in Canada that is a global leader in developing and disseminating the strategies and tools needed to give street kids around the world the choices, skills and opportunities to make a better life for themselves. The organization’s street health programs focus on working with local organizations and youth workers to engage street kids in making informed choices about sexual health and drug use. The street work program seeks to empower street kids to develop safe and more productive ways to earn a living working in the street. The programs include the distribution of award winning animations and workshops.

For more information visit www.streetkids.org. To follow Dennis on his journey visit www.ramblingrat.com.