PR Chat: Angela Berardino

Angela Berardino works for Turner PR; she’s the rep who helped us get our REI loaner gear lined up. She’s also on the “Bloggers and PR” panel at TBEX — our destination in Chicago. Angela tackled the same questions Lisa answered in the last PR Chat post. The road trip crew is really grateful for the insight these PR people are giving us in to the process of working with bloggers. We hope you’ll leave your questions in the comments. Now, introducing Angela.
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TBEX Rolls! Day One on the Road

We tossed most of our gear into the Routan last night – this morning, mostly because we discovered we had a shocking amount of extra space, we tossed in a few extra items – okay, I did. A pillow for camping nights, Original Sock Monkey because every trip needs a mascot, and, wow, you should see the technical gear we have. Kelly packed an extra computer, no kidding, so she could have a bigger screen for editing photos, Peter has two Canon cameras, one that got a lens on it that weighs about as much as the car. We have stuff stuck in wells under the floor, in the seat pockets, in the upper glove box – my binoculars are there, okay, they might be extra too – and oh, we’re going to have to really go through this thing when we give it back because there are so many places to hide stuff.

We watched the landscape change from suburban Seattle to sagebrush desert, and then there were lodgepole pines and crops, labeled with signs swinging on the fences – corn, wheat, potatoes, alfalfa. Dust devils spun up high and gray, farmhouses sat down in bright green patches in the dry gold fields.

We made two stops, the first at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest. Stumps of trees, now turned to stone, sit below protective grates – probably to keep people from taking pieces of them. It was hot, the air smelled strongly of sage. On the road below us, trailer trucks carried windmill blades to the windfarm a few miles to the west. Then we stopped in Moses Lake to pick up snacks and drinks and a big bag of ice. At the offramp, an unhappy looking man in his sixties sat on a crate holding a sign that said “Free Poetry” and maybe, “Jesus Loves You.” I reached into the ice chest and pulled out an apple and asked Kelly to roll down the window and give it to him. “Is that a Macintosh?” he asked. “You know, it’s not an apple unless it’s a Macintosh!” We all laughed and he did too. “Thank you for your kindness,” he said, and handed over two sheets of photocopied rhymes, full of religion and country and military endeavors past.

When we arrived at our stop for the night, our hostess, Tawni, was out front watering the lawn. “I’ve been tracking you!” she said, making us feel extremely pleased about our interactive map. She told us a bit about the history of the property – Grandma used to live in the biggest house, one of the cabins was a logging cabin that was moved, piece by numbered piece to this property on the edge of Lake Pend d’Oreille. We met Brent down on the dock told me about the music festival and the rail bridge and the boat he’s restoring. He pointed across the water to Sandpoint. “It’s 19 miles across the water to town, we used to boat across before we could drive. Town is trouble, my dad used to say, everything we need is right here. Now I tell my son that. He doesn’t believe me, of course.”

We ignored Brett and went into town anyway. I wanted coffee, because I knew there was a long evening ahead. Sandpoint has changed this the last time I was here, more than 20 years ago. It’s got twee little shops and a few high end gear stores, I remember fishing and hunting and hardware stores being more prominent and certainly there was no yoga studio, no restaurants proclaiming that they serve gluten free meals. There were Native Americans and guys in plaid, I don’t recall seeing quite so many tattooed 20 somethings in board shorts. There’s a marina and a lovely beach park, there’s a cupcake store and a few cafes, there’s winetasting – all this on the strip that I’m sure was bait and tackle and pizza joints and diners. Now Sandpoint feels like a beach town without a beach – you can rent a bike, buy a bikini, eat sushi and tapas, and pick up a second home on a few piney acres for 500k.

When I try to think about our evening, there’s too much going on for me to tease the stories out in any kind of manageable way. There was a boat ride, there was wine and cheese, there was a lovely dinner at 41 South, a lodge on the edge of the lake. There was an osprey nest on the rail bridge, there was an amazing story of our waiter’s death defying bicycle accident. Everyone told stories – of baking bread and earthquakes and old dogs and travel in France and pet rats and technology and localism … it was one of those evenings that’s a blur of scenery and laughing and the hospitality of strangers. I know that I should write you a review of the restaurant (lovely appetizers, didn’t love the entrees, slow service but what’s the hurry, stellar location) or the wine (I loved the both wines we drank on the boat, but the Chardonnay we had with dinner was too sweet for my taste and the red just wasn’t right with my food), but to do that is to focus on the details and not so much on the fact that Sandpoint right now is lovely, the people we met almost aggressively fit and attractive, and it was an awesome first day out.

More About The Wonder Map

Now that the TBEX Road Trip crew has made it through their first full day of traveling, I figured it’d be a good time to write a little bit about the super cool trip map page that so many of you have been using to keep track of their progress.  

What is the map? 

Even if you’ve seen the map, you still may be wondering what it is, why it’s here, and why you ought to care?  First, what this map is, is a representation of everything these three bloggers do, see, and say.  You can track where the roadtrippers ARE, where they are going, see the photos they have taken, the blog posts they’ve written, and even their tweets - all on one convenient page.  You can even make suggestions!  How easy is that?  Very, I hope, because accessing that huge mass of information simply and easily is precisely why I made the map.  I couldn’t even imagine how many photos, posts, and other stuff three active bloggers would make…much less how you could keep track of them via their respective sites and services.  Checking 3 different Flickr accounts, Twitter, AND a blog didn’t sound like fun.  So I set out to make something do all that for me, and be fun to use.   

How do you know where they are?

Peter owns a neat little gadget called a SPOT (a satellite-talkin’, GPS tracking, position reporter) which can report where it is to its parent service (usually used by hikers.)  The folks who make the SPOT have a website where you can track your friends’ SPOTs no matter where they are in the world.  Luckily for us, I’m able to harvest this data and put it on the map.  So, wherever you see the little Routan is the last place that Peter’s SPOT reported.   

Technical Ramblings

I won’t go too much into the technical details (unless someone is really interested) but I’ll give everyone a sense of where I’m getting my data.  All of the photos are on Flickr (accessed with the handy, dandy phpFlickr library.)  Their tweets are available on the side thanks to the easy-to-use Twitter API CodeIgniter Library.  I’m using the Google Maps API along with the Local Search API to provide the suggestion data that my little “Suggest A Place” tool uses.  Almost everything else was done by hand in PHP, Javascript, CSS and HTML.  

Got any questions, suggestions, or even bugs? Let me know in the comments or contact me directly via email: austin (at) travellious (dot) com.

The Day Before The Big Trip

Packing and more packing.  As you can see from the picture at left, I’m lost without a list and it’s what kept me sane at midnight last night.  I hope I have it all, at this point it’s kind of late as I’ve left the house, nary to return for weeks on end. 

The TBEX Road Trip officially gets under way tomorrow and today we are getting together to test pack the vehicle.  At this point, we’re actually not sure just which vehicle we are taking!  But that’s a minor thing, really.  The technology is all in place, our route is plotted (and we’re still looking for diversions! ), all that is left is to make sure it all fits and then hit the road.

While we had grand dreams to hit the North Cascades highway, we have instead opted to take the direct Interstate 5 path to Sandpoint, Idaho.  This way we have more time to hang out and enjoy the hospitality of Lisa Gerber has lined up for us.  After about, oh, let’s say 9am tomorrow, check out the Wonder Map to follow along!  And look for a post coming soon from Austin on how he built the Wonder Map in case you’re curious.

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.

PR Chat: The Idaho PR Chick

If you look just over there, on the sidebar, you’ll see that we’ve got a few sponsors for the TBEX Road Trip. This is the time where I tell you that yes, we’re taking some comps during our adventure and we hope you’ll trust that we’ll review the products and services honestly.

We’re also taking advantage of access to the PR folks to unravel the sticky relationships between bloggers and PR. We’ve got a series of questions for them — they’ll all get the same ones — and we’ll post their answers here.

First up, Lisa Gerber from Idaho. Lisa has set up our first night on the road — we’re staying at Sleeps Cabins and having dinner at 41 South. She also helped us find our second night stay at Big Sky Resort.

First, an introduction to Lisa Gerber:

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Camping for Dummies

I have a confession, I haven’t been in a tent since I was ten. And I hated it. But, I was young and in an uninspiring park in an uninspiring part of the country (Maryland.) But the great outdoors, it’s really one of the most beautiful parts of the United States and I haven’t seen nearly enough of it. I’ve spent my adult life as a city girl, immersed in art museums, cafes and architecture. I hadn’t given it much thought until I picked myself up and moved to the Pacific Northwest. And now, smack in my face, is really, beautiful stuff. Mt. Rainier, Olympic Peninsula, San Juan Islands to just name a few. So, this roadtrip is an educational trip of sorts, to beef up on my outdoorsy skills and hopefully not drive Pam and Peter crazy with my inane questions.

So, in attempt to not drive them crazy before we leave, I’m asking you, internets, what does one pack when they go camping? I’m not talking about basic gear like tents, sleeping bags, etc (REI has got us covered) but what about those personal items that keep you sane on a trip? And what the heck should I be leaving at home? (*Disclaimer* I’m a light packer, I just spent three weeks in Italy with only a backpack that I carried on the plane. So, no worries, I won’t be packing high heels, multiple changes of clothes or obscene amounts of makeup.)

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.

Travels with Pam

Oh, Peter and Kelly don’t know what they’re in for, road tripping with me. Sure, Kelly thinks she has some insight after that field trip we made to Alpacapalooza, but that’s only a tiny slice of this annoying, glacially slow, talks with strangers one-third of the TBEX crew. In the interest of full disclosure, here’s a partial list of the reasons it sucks to travel with me.

1. SHOTGUN! No, really. I get car sick driving around the block. I’m fine on the long straights — plains states here we come! — but for those winding mountain routes, you’ll find me firmly anchored in the middle of the back seat so I can see, pleading for the front passenger seat, or begging to drive. No, I can’t read the map while we’re driving. And don’t get me started on boats. God, I hate boats.
2. STOP THE CAR! Luckily, that rarely has anything to do with the first item on the list, because after all, I poached the front seat.  Nope, it’s my camera happy eyeballs, seeing the perfect light on a falling down shed at a bend in the road. Or, well, who knows what it is, sometimes I have to get out and walk along the shoulder of the highway to take some snaps of something I thought I saw. Sometimes it’s nothing. It’s a real time eater.
3. COFFEE. NOW! Just this week, my doc told me that I had to give up the evil bean. I’ve made the switch to black tea, and so far, utter misery, but there you go. Caffeine, along with sunshine, is what makes me go. I’m trying to manage that, but if past history is any evidence of future performance, there’s a ten and a two in there somewhere, and I’m not talking hands on the steering wheel.
4. ARE YOU READY YET? I’m an obscenely early riser. Always have been. True story. My husband and I were camping in Australia. We were somewhere up north of Brisbane, maybe it was Rainbow Beach. The sun was up, we rolled up our gear and headed into town to get coffee. (See item 3 above.) The coffee shop was open, they were getting ready for the day, but they wouldn’t serve us. Why not? It was 5:30 in the morning. They didn’t open for another hour and a half. No kidding. We had NO idea. We were ready to go, why wasn’t everyone else?
5. CAN I GO TO BED NOW? When you’re up at 5, the day is half over before most people have tucked into their lunch. This means that by the time 8pm rolls around, you’re eying your bedroll and your jammies, thinking there’s nothing you’d like better than to pretend you’re reading your book while drifting off. This means I miss out on a lot of night life. I’m okay with that, plus, hey, it means I can secure the camp while Peter and Kelly head in to town to check out that country bar. Well, as secure as it can be when “watched” by someone who’s sleeping.
6. I’M NOT A REAL VEGITARIAN, BUT… I’m not a meat eater. Four legged critters, you go ahead and enjoy them, I won’t badger you with politics because for me, it’s a matter of taste. I just don’t like the stuff. When we crash your BBq, I’ll be the one with the plate piled with mac salad. In camp, however, I’m just not signing up for spaghetti bolognese. Bleh.
7. ARE YOU DONE TALKING TO THAT GUY YET? When I crested 35, I became a magnet for gentlemen of a certain age, the talky kind. I figure some old guy gets chatty with you, you ought to listen. This can take an awfully long time to get away from gracefully.
8. LET’S DRIVE THE EXTRA X MILES INTO TOWN: I have no equation for what makes this the right choice, but I always think it’s a better idea to find the maybe abandoned downtown than it is to stop at the GASFOODLODGING junction. I’m wrong, a lot of the time. It costs more, it’s often disappointing — though not always — and it takes longer. It’s my personal crusade to save downtown and I am failing miserably. Last time I did this, we discovered that the turn of the century soda fountain was boarded up and there was nothing to eat for miles and miles.
9. I HATE THE FOLLOWING THINGS that are associated with road trips: Pitching a wet tent, paying  for parking, loud music from the next campsite, damp, cold, mildewy shower stalls with decaying plastic curtains that you can not keep off your skin, conservative talk radio, Danish bakeries that are twee and cute but have mediocre baking and worse coffee, powdered creamer, internet service that’s slower than dial-up, tent sites that back up onto the highway, generators, people who do not observe bear saftely rules, iceberg lettuce and cherry tomato salad with thousand island dressing, fancy mountain towns that are more like the mall than anything else (Banff, Jackson Hole) uh, I’m sure there’s more, but that will do for now.
10. I PLAY THE UKULELE. It’s no joke, I really do play the uke. But tragically, I have stage fright so when you ask me to play something, I’ll get all jittery. You gotta sing with me, then it’s okay. I don’t sing well, not really, and I’m not much more than a strummer. Most likely I’ll be plinking along on some campground bench, just loud enough to be annoying, not really loud enough for you to click in on what I’m playing. It’s going to drive you crazy. Enjoy.

It’s going to be an awesome trip. Too late, guys, I’m in!