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.

Travels with Kelly

So, I’m throwing my hat in the ring to get all things annoying out in the open. Here are just a few things about me that may make me the not so ideal travel buddy.

1. I’m not a morning person. It doesn’t mean I can’t wake up early, but my not quite awake personality is that of a pissed off angry bear who hasn’t eaten in three weeks. My Dr. Jekyll, if you will. The problem is I don’t remember what that personality does, and when I wake up I’m perfectly fine, happy, in a darn good mood even. And, conveniently I’ve forgotten all those not nice things I may have said when half asleep. So, warning Peter and Pam, wake me up at your own risk.
2. I’ve been told I snore. I’m only sharing this because a reliable source has told me it’s a problem. I’m not convinced it’s actually true. And considering point 1, you’ll probably fall asleep before me and avoid it all together.
3. I’m a damn good navigator. I can read a map and I’m proud of it. I also do not like sharing said map with lesser skilled map readers. It annoys me. I’ll try to be nice about it, but an eye roll may occur.
4. I overthink things. Which leads to difficult decision making at times. Sometimes, I need an outside force to just say, OK forget what makes the most sense, we’re doing THIS. I’ll oblige and be grateful.
5. I can’t drive stick. I wish I could, but I never learned. I don’t know if you like your transmission or not, but I’m pretty sure if you let me drive your car I’ll destroy it.
6. I like the restaurant on the other side of the road. Blame my father, but a childhood of never stopping at restaurants that were “on the wrong side” has tainted me. God forbid you take a left turn or sit at a light. I’m an adult now and I like to indulge and see how the other half lives.

Alright guys it’s all out in the open (and shared with the world.) Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Why Traveling With Peter Can Be The Best Thing You’ve Ever Done In Your Life Or Pure Agony On A Stick

As Pam was gracious enough to let the world in on what it’s like to travel with her and some things we all should know, I thought it best to throw my hat into the ring.  Mind you, before we all decided to spend 8 days in a car and 4 more days in Chicago together, we didn’t know each other that well.  Really, I only knew both Pam and Kelly from some tweets and a quick meetup.  So take this as a nice air clearing session for all us road trippers and a chance to say, "I told you so!!"

1. I ALSO CALL SHOTGUN - This might be bad news for Kelly, who, evidently, has no problem reading in the back seat.  Unlike Pam and I who tend to get woozy without a clear view.  I’ve gotten better over time but I still get a bit icky in the back seat especially if I try to read.
2. I BREAK INTO SONG EASILY - It seems just about anything anyone says makes some kind of connection in my head with a song lyric.  Sometimes improvised, sometimes verbatim.  And I’ll be happy to share no matter where we are.
3. I GET UPSET IF YOU DON’T CATCH ON TO MY OBSCURE MOVIE QUOTES - There was a guy named Joel who I used to work with.  Joel knew every movie quote I ever rattled off.  If you’re not Joel, you best be good at guessing.
4. STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS - I’m not that old yet, but I often forget stories I’ve already told people.  Stop me, please, if you have actually heard it.  Don’t humor me by politely laughing, just say, "Dude, old story"
5. FRUIT AND DESSERT DON’T MIX - Please don’t ask me if I want any fruit whatsoever on my ice cream, cake, or other tasty dessert.  I don’t know why, but I just don’t like fruit on my dessert.
6. I’D RATHER BE TWO DAYS EARLY THAN FIVE MINUTES LATE - This is an old adage for me.  And it’s something that I often live by when there is an important appointment.  I really do prefer to get to where I’m going first, then find water, food, fuel or whatever.  I’d rather spend two hours on the other side of a security check point in the airport than time it ‘just right’.  It makes me feel calm to know where a new location is first, then find the grocery store and not the other way around.
7. THE COPILOT HANDLES EVERYTHING - From decades of road trip experience, those who travel with me know just how true this one is.  A great copilot takes care of the pilot as in, opens packages or water bottles, reads road signs (my vision sucks sometimes), finds new music and reloads assault weapons.  I handle my own seatbelt but beyond that, I nee help to keep us all alive.
8. TECHNOLOGY FIRST, LOGIC SECOND - I will often keep making attempts to use technology to solve a problem long beyond a practical end time.  Like finding an exit….I’ll fiddle with the GPS and force it to do my will, rather than get out the paper map sometimes.  I often here the phrase, "why don’t you just…." a lot because of this.
9. I DON’T WORRY MUCH - While generally a good thing, this can annoy some people.  Something that may seem catastrophic to you at the moment, to me it may just be another bump in the road.  This often leads to others believing I have no empathy.  But that’s not true, I’m just not as freaked out as you are that we’re 140 miles from the nearest town and running on fumes. "It’s not time to worry yet." - Atticus Finch
10. SPEED LIMIT + 10 IS MY LIMIT - Really, don’t ask for more.  It’s not going to happen.  Maybe I was traumatized by getting 3 speeding tickets in 9 months time as a kid.  Or maybe it’s just I’m a financial wimp who doesn’t want to pay for a ticket or the increased insurance premium.  I just don’t speed any more.  Do I know how to?  Yes.  Will I?  Only to save our lives.  Or if there’s a really hot chick in a Ferrari like in the movie Vacation.
11. STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS - I’m not that old yet, but I often forget stories I’ve already told people.  Stop me, please, if you have actually heard it.  Don’t humor me by politely laughing, just say, "Dude, old story"

Beyond that, I’m fairly easy going.  I trust my gut a lot and it’s almost always right.  I can’t sleep just about anywhere like some people, but I’m perfectly fine muddling through.  Discomfort is just a part of life and nothing, include discomfort, lasts forever.

And I absolutely love being on the open road.  Even with a road (I-5) I’ve been down scores of times before, there is something about that wide open space coming at me at 60MPH.  Passing semis, sleeping on rest stop picnic tables, laughing at odd town names.  I can wait two more weeks before we launch for Chicago, but just barely.

What The TBEX Road Trip Is All About

I guess it’s time to explain a bit about what this whole TBEX Roadtrip site is about.  Wait, no.  Let me take a step back and explain why we even need a website in the first place!

Travel Blog Exchange 2009.  Masterminds Kim Mance of GoGalavanting.com and Debbie Dubrow of DeliciousBaby.com created this conference to bring together travel bloggers from near and far for a day of discussion.  Following the ever popular BlogHer conference, this year TBEX’09 will be held on July 26th in Chicago.  And that got me thinking, which led to one little post and some tweets on Twitter about taking a road trip from Seattle out to Chicago.  Soon after that original thought, Kelly took the idea one step further.  What if we threw a few travel bloggers from Seattle into a car and made it a ‘live media event’?

And so, what started out as my simple quest to be cheap and have others share the cost of fuel, has blossomed into The Travel Blog Exchange 2009 Road Trip, or TBEXRT for super short.

Our main goal is to have fun and see a slice of country most of us usually fly over.  Our lack of knowledge of some parts of the USA became evident at one planning meeting (held in a coffee shop, Seattle-style) when none of us had a clue what goes on in places like Iowa.  Or South Dakota.  Actually, anything past the Rockies was a mystery, I’m sorry to say.

All the better reason to get out and see it!  And if we’re going to head out into the Great Unknown, we might as well take the opportunity to let others come along virtually if they so desire.  That is what you are now checking out thanks to the wonders of the Internet.

We have some simple plans for this site before and during the trip.  First, we want to make the trip interactive through this site and our individual Twitter accounts (tied together with the hashtag #tbexrt).  We want to hear from you about what to see and do along the way.  You can do that by responding directly to tweets from any of us or by posting comments on this blog.  We already have posts up covering such important topics as: What To Do In Iowa, Places To Get Beer and What’s In Your Road Trip Kit?

Second, we REALLY want to make this interactive.  If you live along our path and would like to show us around your neck of the woods, drop us a line!  The Internet is so much better when you step back from it for a moment to meet people in real life.  And if you wouldn’t mind lending three weary travelers a small plot of Earth in your front yard where we can pitch a tent for the night, we’d love to hear from you as well!  Think of it as a short term CouchSurfing meets Twitchhiker but with tents.  TentSurfTweeting just didn’t have a good ring to it, though.

As with any good travel bloggers, we’ll be posting photos and video along the way and we’ll have a map with all kinds of up to minute details.  We’ll be tweeting, of course (@kag2u, @nerdseyeview, @pwcarey and #tbexrt) and presenting daily updates as we prepare for and embark on the eight day trek to Chicago.

In a nutshell, that’s it!  If you would like to follow along with the blog, it’s easy to subscribe with this link.  And check out the itinerary page to see if we’ll be passing by your place.  If so, drop us a line!