Good news: Team Bicycle Touring now has one additional spot open for Gishwhes 2017! One of our teammates got some good news of her own recently, which means she unfortunately won’t be joining us for the hunt this year. That means that YOU can come join our hard-working, talented gishfamily that has competed its way to a runner up spot for FOUR consecutive years! We are looking for people of all skills and abilities and who bring all different things to the table. We are also looking to build a team that complements each other and is more than the sum of its parts. You (yes you!!) could be the one we’re looking for. 

If you’re interested in joining, please fill out this brief-ish application. Thanks for considering TBT for all your GISHWHES-related participation needs.

We came, we saw, we left non-damaging and non-permanent marks on famous black beaches. After four years of loving and many months of planning, our first most-of-TBT trip was an enormous success with lots of crying (the good kind), hugging, and then more crying and hugging, and we are even more excited than ever before to create things together in this year’s hunt! 

Ride or Die, all the way around the world <3.

Hi! I have seen on Facebook a couple other runner up teams that are recruiting already and I was just wondering if you guys were going to be recruiting this year? Thanks!

Hello! Although TBT members don’t 100% commit to the hunt each year until we actually have dates, at this point we have a pretty solid group and feel that it is unlikely we will need to recruit for Gishwhes 2017. It’s always possible that we may end up with an opening, however, and any updates will be posted about that here. Thanks for the message!

*rolls in on a bicycle and does one of those cool back tire spin out things* Once again, all of TBT didn't get to be around for the winners announcement this year (because Fridays are hard!), but now that we've all had the chance to celebrate together, we are here to say: congratulations!! Congrats to this year's winning team, this year's runner ups, and all of this year's gishticipants for making or doing even one thing they wouldn't have done otherwise. You are bad ass people, did you know that? And congrats to this beautiful team, for all its hard work and dedication paying off with our four-peat runner up status ❤. *sets an alarm for August 2017*

that’s all Misha wrote

Thanks to everyone who has joined us on this journey of sharing some of our submissions from the 2016 hunt! We are so proud of what the 15 people on this team managed to build and accomplish this year, and grateful to those who have offered us kind comments on this year’s submissions. 

The only rule of GishwhEs is that it cannot be accomplished alone, and we are forever indebted to the friends and family who step up to help us through the hunt year after year. We appreciate every moment they share with us during this crazy week, and hope we bring the same kind of warmth and brightness to their lives that their generosity always brings to ours!

We now return to waiting, with terrible patience, for GishwHes 2017.

23. IMAGE. The versatility of corn is amazing— it has so many uses! However, there's no better use for corn than this year's must-have fashion statement: the Corn Husk Bikini or Corn Husk Evening Wear! Feel free to color the husks, as well as to accent and accessorize with kernels.

40. VIDEO. We all know about "Transformers" - the cars and trucks that turn into super-robots. But what the movies and toy manufacturers have overlooked are all of the other less-celebrated, more mundane Transformers. For example, what about Burgertron? He transforms from a burger into a robot. Or Desktopatron? She is a desktop computer who transforms into a robot. Or Fiddletron? He’s a violin one minute, a robot the next. Show us a human in a Transformer costume that goes from household object to a bad-ass robot.

57. IMAGE. A Hell's Angel (or other bona fide member of a known motorcycle club) in a fruit leather jacket sitting astride their bike.

110. VIDEO.This submission may be 25 seconds or less. Employ a modern dance company to explain what really happened to the dinosaurs. - Sheri Smyth

2. IMAGE. A freight train engine pulling a tiny flatcar (a utility flatcar, not a big cargo flatcar) with a woman dressed in Victorian attire, sitting at a writing desk with a vase of flowers on it, writing a letter to her beloved.

63. IMAGE. Wallpaper an entire wall of your bedroom with photos of your nose. You must cover every inch of the wall and must have AT LEAST 100 pictures of your nose. Pose in front of it with your finger up your nose.

87. IMAGE. Dress up as a prospector and pan for gold in a public fountain. - Trish Burdick

77. IMAGE. Oil and water don’t mix, but in this case we’ll make an exception. Paint a portrait of a live model while both you and the model are scuba diving. Your subject(s) must be wearing formal attire and you must be wearing a beret while at your easel.

76. IMAGE. Nobody ever talks about the fact that 250 years ago, stormtroopers who had been abandoned on planet Earth were forced to assimilate into pre-Industrial culture. Dramatically re-enact this difficult time. Show a stormtrooper getting back to basics using a spinning wheel, butter churn, or other old-fashioned tool or machine in a rural setting. Feel free to add accessories to the stormtrooper’s outfit to make their assimilation more complete—a Shaker-style hat, a musket slung over the shoulder, etc.

4. IMAGE OR VIDEO. Dentist's offices are notorious for playing dreary elevator music. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Get dental work done while a string quartet plays live music in the room.

89. IMAGE. Submit two images, side by side: The first photo is a close up of just your face and head with a garland of fresh flowers on your head. The second photo takes advantage of your talents as a highly skilled hair and makeup artist: it is the same person, wardrobe, framing, and lighting as the first photo, but this time you have aged. You are 95 years old and the garland of flowers have long-since wilted and died.

79. IMAGE. Cross something off your bucket-list while wearing a vintage zoot suit.