BANGOR, Maine — Tim Dennis and his Rambling Rat Project rolled into town Monday afternoon hoping to spread a message about empowering street children.
Dennis took a break from his travels around the globe to stop at the Bangor Daily News’ Main Street offices to share the idea behind the Rambling Rat Project.
The 35-year-old British citizen is on a mission to raise awareness about marginalized youth and environmental issues around the world. In fact, Dennis has been around the world — almost, anyway — in his modified 1993 Toyota Land Cruiser.
Dennis, who doesn’t stop in every town he comes to and usually doesn’t know where he’s going to pull over for the night, calls his trip the Rambling Rat Project. A rat mascot named Dylan is painted on the sides of his Land Cruiser.
“People have a stigma about rats,” Dennis said, standing near Buck Street in the late afternoon sun. “People don’t like rats. People don’t like street kids, either, so I made a funky rat. This is all about uniting kids from all over the world to promote individual freedom.”
Dennis is affiliated with Street Kids International, an organization founded in Canada to provide opportunities for street children. The issue has been in the cultural spotlight recently thanks to the Academy Award-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire.”
The organization claims to have helped more than 2 million children off the street.
Dennis said he is operating under the guiding principles of endurance, education and awareness.
“I do endurance, which is about me going to Alaska, Siberia, remote places, to conquer my fears,” he said. “Because I gained that information I can now do education, go into schools, and talk about the importance of food, shelter and water. So then I can talk to them about awareness of Street Kids International, the work that they do.”
Dennis said he came to the idea of a round-the-world trip after realizing that there was more to life than the successes he had in his classic car business. Also on his mind was the fact that both his brother and father had died before he was 23 years old. So Dennis sold what he had, bought the Land Cruiser, and left Dalbeattie, Scotland, in May 2008 to begin the Rambling Rat Project.
He drove last summer through Western and Eastern Europe, and Russia, then continued east, avoiding China, which Dennis said required too much paperwork for him to bother. He sailed last September to Japan where he began speaking to children.
Dennis left Japan, boarded a container ship for a 14-day voyage across the Pacific, landed in Canada, drove north to Alaska and back, crossed Canada all the way to Newfoundland, and then drove to New Brunswick. He stayed in St. Stephen on Sunday night, and crossed the border at Calais on Monday, driving Route 1 to Bangor.
The lack of people on the Bangor streets surprised Dennis, until it was explained to him that Monday was the Memorial Day holiday.
“I thought, this is a lovely town, awfully quiet,” he said with a shrug. “I thought, gosh, they don’t operate with many employees.”
The image of Dylan the rat painted on the outside of Dennis’ Land Cruiser is enough to get its human driver noticed, but the diesel-powered vehicle is equally as notable for what’s on the inside.
Dennis put solar panels on the hood of the car — next to a shovel he uses in case he needs to make his own toilet, or loo, as he put it — that provide power to a refrigeration system in the vehicle’s rear. The refrigerator, he said, is cold enough to hold medical supplies but as of Monday was stocked with cheese, yogurt and a bottle of champagne Dennis intends to open on his next sea crossing. He has other food-storage bins in the rear, a bed on top of the vehicle, and a file cabinet inside.
He camps when he can, and so far hasn’t had to pay for housing.
A fold-down door at the rear has a map showing Dennis’ route so far.
The Land Cruiser is covered in stickers from the places Dennis has been, and there are autographs of music groups he has met along the way who have allowed Dennis to make short videos he uploads to YouTube. The vehicle is still running on snow tires from his trip to Alaska.
From Bangor, Dennis planned to head south to New York. Early next month he’ll find a place to store the Land Cruiser while he travels back to Great Britain to do some work for Street Kids International, but he intends to return to the U.S. in a few months so he can continue his drive south.
Dennis wants to stop in Mississippi, where he has business connections with people who want to help him set up a skateboarding program for kids.
“Skateboarding is a good way to engage kids, especially street kids,” he said.
His eventual goal in the Western Hemisphere is Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, known as the end of the world. After Argentina, Dennis plans to take the Land Cruiser, which already has 275,000 miles on it, on a ship across the Atlantic Ocean to drive the African continent, and then the Middle East. The entire journey will take five years, he estimated.
Dennis’ dream project is to buy a yacht, rip out the diesel engine and put in a battery-powered engine.
“I’m trying to get off the grid. I’m trying to be as free as possible,” he said. “Less is more, know what I mean?”
For more information, go to www.ramblingrat.com