TJ Motorsports Racing for a Cause

28/01/2026

If you were thinking, "I want to do an Adventurists Rickshaw Run, but it's probably too expensive", 1st off, you're wrong because you can't put a price on fun and adventure but 2nd - you're in luck! You can apply for this $5k towards it! Do it! What's the worst that can happen? 😉

09/01/2026

A huge Thank you to all who have donated. We appreciate it so much as do the charities. 🙏🙏🙏
Our recent donors - THANK YOU
-Paul & Val
-Kristen, The Sassy Secretary
-Suz

And Thanks to our earlier donors:
-Jena & Adelyn
-Roberta
-Mark
-Julia and family (for the many donations)
-Carolyn and Eric
-Warren & Linda
-Basher & your couch
And all the donors to the WaitWhat? Donation page too (we don't have their names list but thank you!!!)

Also - the biggest THANK YOU to everyone at home holding things down and wrangling the circus so we can be here. Sara, Lace, Cindy, Warren & Linda, we couldn't get away to do this craziness without you so THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

09/01/2026

Elephants at the river enjoying bath time

09/01/2026

Day 11 - Finish Line Day : Kegalle to Negombo - ‼️‼️Spoiler Alert ‼️‼️ We made it!

There was a wedding at our hotel that kicked off at 8am with some traditional dancing. We considered trying to get a picture with the wedding party but their ceremony was already underway so we got to checking the tuks over and hit the road.

We started at the Elephant Orphanage and got to see the elephants go down to the river for their morning play time. The males are chained (but don't seem to mind it) when the females come to the river so the females can enjoy river time without being bothered.

Then we were off and headed to the finish line. All the teams made it to the finish. To celebrate, it was drinks all around and an impressive buffet with crab, giant prawns, cuttlefish, prok, chicken, egg hoppers and many other traditional Sri Lankan foods. It didn't disappoint.

08/01/2026

Day 10- Sigiriya to Kegalle
Today was the day of steps. Probably over 2000 actual steps. The hotel was walking distance to our 1st site so thats where we started the day. 1st we checked out water gardens and the moat then climbed 1200+ stairs to Lion Rock, part of an old 5th century fortress. We had to climb to Lion's Gate which has giant lion paws carved into the rock; the original entrance passed through the lion's mouth but the lion head is long gone due to damage and erosion of the rock. Lions claws still remain and monkeys are the stairs gate keepers now, deciding who can pass. The views after we made it up the steps were incredible. At the top there were still pools left from when the fortress was in operation.

Our two steeds fired up nicely this AM with no issues so we topped up with petrol and we were off again.

Dambulla Cave Temple was next on our stops. We missed it on the way into Sigiriya so we hit it on the way out. Little did we realize, it had almost as many tlstepsnto get to as Lion Rock. It was LEG DAY for sure. In 85 degree heat, it gave us a run for our money. 520 feet above the surrounding landscape, this is the nicest of 8 similar rock temples in the area. There are a total of 153 Buddha statues and three statues of Sri Lankan kings carved directly into the rock inside the caves. They date back to 1st century BCE. So they're old.

We excitedly thought since they're caves, we'd get a reprieve from the heat. Wrong! It was even hotter in the caves. It's also required to have all of your body covered to visit the temple so that nears no shorts for men or t-shirts for women. Pants, or floor length coverings and long sleeve shirts. A sign also told us Buddha doesn't like selfies so we skipped those.

Then we were off again for another 2 hour ride to our destination for the night, Kegalle. A few heavy traffic cities but mostly just beautiful winding country driving again today.

And NO BREAKDOWNS! We were really happy to have some trusty rides finally.

06/01/2026

Day 9 - to Sigirya

It wouldn't be a Sri Lankan tuk tuk adventure without starting the day with some repairs. Just a tire change and WautWhat? Was almost off, until the hotel security guard pointed out the new tire was low. TJ was ready with his handheld tire inflator and the team was off again.

Out of tea country and headed towards Sigirya to meet up with teams as a mid-run way point. Once we were on the road, the temperamental tuks behaved and got us through 3.5 hours of driving in the road through rain storms today.

We walked around the town catching a few pictures of Lion Rock, tomorrow's destination.

06/01/2026

Chris won picture of the day with the two tuks looking off into the tea fields. Congrats Chris!

06/01/2026

‼️Why we're really doing the Rickshaw Run‼️

While our adventures are for fun and exploring, there is a little.more method to our madness than meets the eye. The group, The Adventurists, we're doing our "race" with give us the opportunity to see different countries but the idea behind it is, get out, see the country and interact with the people. Get to learn about the country and culture. Travel is a privilege but also an amazing experience to broaden horizons and get different perspectives - step outside your comfort zone. Try the local cuisine, talk to locals, learn about the customs and religion. Find out that different isn't bad, it's just different. It also gives us cause to realize despite all the craziness in our own country, we could be far worse off.

In our India Adventure we raised money for CoolEarth, a reforestation organization because trees are important dang it! Who doesn't love a good tree (unless it's in the middle.of that perfect 100 acre field and you have to go around it all the time). We're raising money for them again this year because we feel.its a very good cause.

Just before we came, Sri Lanka was hit with a cyclone, dumping water in the hilliest regions, much of it tea country. The fast, heavy water caused landslides and washed out roads, fields and homes. We've been witnessing the damage 1st hand on our drive that last two days, the worst of it being day 8. Many single lane roads and homes and businesses just gone, either under dirt and rock or they slide down the hill. The efficiency these tiny communities have come together and started clean up is incredible but they have a long way to go. So that's why we added a second charity to our list this year, the Rebuilding Sri Lanka fund that goes directly towards the clean up and rebuilding efforts. We've seen the fuel trucks brought in to supply towns whose access was cut off, the heavy machinery moving the tons and tons of rocks and dirt and the cement facilities hastily put up to mix for building and infrastructure rebuilding.

So a huge Thank you to all those who've donated to either charity. We greatly appreciate it and know your donations are going to amazing causes. 🙏🙏🙏
Thanks to:
-Jena & Adelyn
-Roberta
-Mark
-Julia and family (for the many donations)
-Carolyn and Eric
-Warren & Linda
-Basher & your couch

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! And thanks to everyone following along on our crazy adventures. We had no idea how many of you were interested in our wild adventure last time until we got home. Cheers to all of you! 🛺🍻

Cool Earth:
“WaitWhat?” donation page: https://www.justgiving.com/page/ricksawrunwaitwhat26?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL
“Pushing our Tuk” donation page: https://www.justgiving.com/team/pushingourtuk1?utm_medium=TE&utm_source=CL

Rebuilding Sri Lanka: (If you donate to this one, please shoot us a DM so we know and can thank you, we don't get donation updates from this page)
https://donate.gov.lk/

06/01/2026

Day 8 - More Mountain Driving Peppered with Repairs

It wouldn't be a start to the day without one of the tuks being temperamental. Team WaitWhat?s tuk wasn't starting. One of the hotel staff popped out of no where, towel & toiletries in hand, threw them aside, and quickly told us there was air in the fuel line. He worked his magic and in 2 minutes, both ruks rolled away. Pushing Our Tuk was still do***ng despite TJs carburetor adjustments with the air screw and idle. We were off in search of an air filter.

1st parts store stop was a bust. The shop had moved, so TJ attempted a few more adjustments on the side of the road. A few guys wandered over because a white guy elbows deep in a tuk engine bay catches attention here. We were in luck! There was a mechanic shop next door. The guy test drove the tuk with TJ and knew exactly what it needed. A carburetor rebuild! The mechanic tore it apart & TJ went on a parts run across the city with 2 other guys. 3 parts stores later they were back with air filters for both tuks and a rebuild kit. Total rebuild - $10. Time spent taking to the locals during the rebuild- priceless. WaitWhat? got a tiny tune up as well and we were off again through the hills. This time at faster than a snails pace. Success!!!

An afternoon tea plantation stop and it was back on the windy mountain roads to our evening destination near Kandy, a bigger town. WaitWhat? had a minor tire issue but thanks to the unnamed deity luck from Jaxs donation, we'd pulled off on the road not 100 feet from a ture shop around the corner. You can't even make that kind of luck up in the tiny, 10-house mountain towns. Air added to the tire and we were off again.

We made it through some windy roads to our hotel and the view was worth it. Tonight was a splurge night on the hotel. It didn't disappoint!

05/01/2026

The speed struggle in the mountains is real

05/01/2026

05/01/2026

The winding roads into the mountains to find tea plantations