The TBEX Road Trip Wonder Map

Questions: What road trip is complete without a map?  And what’s better than some bland, old, static map showing where we thought we were going to go but hasn’t been updated in days?

Answer: The TBEX Road Trip Wonder Map!

As stated previously, we want to make this trip interactive for you, the dude or dudette sitting in your cubicle lusting after the open road.  To that end, the TBEX Road Trip Wonder Map was crafted with many interactive features in mind. (because it’s interactive, if I didn’t mention that)

First, it lays out our intended route.  By no means is this route set in stone, but if you’re located along our path, please drop us a line (in the comments section) and let us pay you a visit.  Show us around town, meet up for a drink.  Even better, if you have a spot we can couchsurf or camp, please oh please drop us a line!

Second, once the road trip gets started on Thursday, July 16th, you will be able to e-stalk us with ease!   Thanks to the wonderful SPOT Personal Satellite Messenger, our location will be broadcast every 10 minutes.  It’s not perfect technology and does miss spots once in a while, but for the most part this device will help you keep up with us.

Photos!!  Everyone loves photos.  We’ll be geo-tagging our pictures and sharing them through our individual Flickr accounts.  The Wonder Map will then glob all of these photos together and present them on the map.  Check it out now as we’ve put some test data into the map already.  Like a virtual bread crump, the photos will present the road trip in a way words cannot.

Taking the geo-tagging one step further, our blog posts will be tagged as well.  You’ll be able to see where we are posting from as the trip unfolds.

Lastly, it’s your turn!  On the map page there is a tab for “Suggest A Place”.  Clicking on this tab will enable a simple search for a location.  Upon locating a great stop in any state we are visiting, click on Suggest.  You will have space on the next screen to fill in your name, website, Twitter name and email address.  There is also a box where you can tell us more about the location and why we should stop by to see it.  This is one of the more exciting aspects of the trip I can’t stress enough; we want to hear from YOU about what to see and do along the way!!  Even if it’s not right on our path, please suggest any wonderful, wacky or wild stops we shouldn’t miss!

Oh wait, that wasn’t lastly….lastly is the other side bar on the map page.  It contains tweets from the road from all three fearless travel bloggers.

In a nutshell the TBEX Road Trip Wonder Map is like a one stop shopping experience for everything going on during this road trip.  Tweets, photos, blog posts and it’s oh so adorable I just want to hug it every morning I wake up.