Ask and you shall receive

4/13/12


We headed right back to the same area where we stopped yesterday. We'd reached our carrying capacity and had to retreat home before covering the entire neighborhood so we went back to continue our tour. But today was a bit different... we found a few cans the usual way, along the side of the roads however it is recycling day in our area on fridays. So instead of hunting for the cans, today they were neatly placed in blue bins at the ends of most of the driveways.


Now I have to admit raiding recycling bins did not, and still does not, appeal to me. I can remember growing up when people would stop to rummage through our trash pile that had been placed by the road for pickup the following day. Despite my reservations, when we came across the first bin that had a large stash, Savannah was more than willing to go up to the door to ask if they'd mind us scavenging their cans. I was less than enthused about now asking for permission to rummage. A few more houses down we hit a few more, each person more than willing to allow us to scoop up their cans. After about four or five trips to the door and I was feeling a little more at ease... probably from the excitement of all the cans we were getting with so little effort.


We reached our capacity after finding one house that had the entire bin filled to capacity with cans... and they had already been crushed! It was all we could do to get them all on the bikes. I think we both had bags hanging from each handlebar as well as Savannah's basket filled to capacity. On our way home we saw a few more that were heaped with cans so we were headed home to make a quick drop off.


At our first stop back out we met Vicky when we knocked on her door. She was eager to hear about what we were collecting the cans for and quickly offered to reserve her cans each week for us to pick up instead of placing them out on the curb. We are so thankful for her help! (Savannah returned the following week and got an entire trash bag full of cans!)

After taking a midday break, we went out for one more round just before dark. In the three different trips today we went about 16 miles and got a lot of cans.

Right before dark, just about ready to call it a day, we stumbled on this little surprise. Our second sealed can, still full of it's original contents--  puzzling why these get tossed out! And a little North Port Canning fact: Despite having no official numbers to report, Natural Ice is by far the most common can we find on our outings. Needless to say I learned my lesson the first time and did not hit this one with a shovel!