Independent America

T minus 7.5 hours

We're nowhere near packed.  Some fabulous local press coverage today.  An interview with Heather's former station, CHBC.  And some last minute tech advice from our local guru, Chris Iregui, who also too this photo of the three of us and our road trip vehicle.   A mention on our preferred future-of-the-news-industry blog: Lost Remote.  A nice little plug from Nissan Xterra owners (that's what we're driving).  Many errands.  Dinner at our favorite independent restaurant as we met with a potential client for another project.  Dropped off some tomato plants at Sunshine Farms for safekeeping while we're gone.  And alarm set.  For 2:30 a.m.  It's worse than a reality show!  Call it "The Amazing Trudge."

A Good Start

Hanson: Our level of exhaustion is the same at the beginning of the day as it is at the end.  There is just so much to do before we leave on Saturday.  So I could barely chuckle when I realized that I had lathered hair gel on my face this morning -- my first attempt to shave in a few days.

We pulled the trigger and decided to shake up the universe a bit.  We announced our intentions to the world through a press release and a mass e-mailing.  I was more than a little surprised by the immediate and enthusiastic response.  We did our first radio interview with Joe Teehan in Bellingham.

And we have our first passenger -- a former colleague from the big network and a very close friend of mine, who's going to join us on the first leg of the trip next week.  For some reason, he thought that he would spend his precious few days-off sitting sandwiched between Miles and the tripods, and lugging some of our equipment around.  Actually, I recall my years at the network as usually slightly uncomfortable and a bit dreary too.  So he should feel right at home!  We expect a number of other people to join as at various points along the way too.

I picked up the two magnetic signs that will adorn the side of the vehicle when we're driving to attract more people to the cause.  Magnet Signs is a true Mom & Pop, operating out of the owners' home.  Funnily enough, they do most of their business with American clients.

Heather got some more lessons in picture taking from local photography expert Kevin Trowbridge.  We want to capture as much as we can on this trip -- moving pictures and stills.  Meanwhile I started rehearsing for tomorrow's Great Packing of the Vehicle.  It's already clear to me that we won't have enough room for everything.  If only Miles were a Terrier instead of this massive black Labrador...if only I were an author instead of this TV guy.

I've posted the map again, not because it has changed, but because I want to keep it at the top of the blog until we leave.

Hometown Influences

Here are some images and words from some of our favorite Moms and Pops, right here in Kelowna B.C..  It's just a taste of what we expect to find once we hit the road. Just press ">" on the player below. (Click here if you want to watch a higher resolution version -- Quicktime required)

The Easy Way out

Hanson: I did it in the name of science. Or as a last minute indulgence. But killing time while I waited for some car maintenance me hungry. Twice. And since we were going to be on a chain store diet for two months, I thought I had better remind myself of what's being forsaken in the name of filmmaking.

Actually, since I got married, I don't go to these places much more anyway – for some reason Heather is trying to keep me alive by swearing me off processed foods.  And I've got flu-like symptoms right now, so I don't have the energy to try and look for a Mom & Pop in this small town an hour away from home (you see how easy it is?). Consequentially, for the first time in two years, I went to KFC for an early lunch.  And then Dairy Queen for a late afternoon snack.  I'm Morgan Spurlock's Mini-Me.

I always regret mass-produced, fast-food chicken seconds after I'm done, and this occasion was not any different.  Greasy, uninteresting, and my home-made version is better.  Although the Colonel's fries have certainly improved.  Bottom line: I won't be missing anything on this trip.

I also took the time to get outfitted a bit more for the trip, with a carphone mount and bungee cords (you can never have too many of those, they're like paperclips for the traveling man). 

Since we'll be blogging everyday from the road, and hopefully uploading audio and video files, I grew a bit concerned about online access.  Especially in rural areas where digital cell service is non-existent.  But lo and behold, the latest issue of MacWorld arrived at my doorstep and showed me the way in an article about wi-fi hotspots.  So I subscribed to Boingo.  Suddenly, I was sitting in a motel parking lot (an independent) e-mailing away with a perfectly decent high speed connection.  And I've subscribed to JiWire's free hotspot locator so we can find online access wherever we may be.  But what happens if it's at a McDonald's?  Morgan?

Coming Very Soon

Daily reports, video and podcasts during our expedition across Independent America...starting from British Columbia, Canada

Inspiration

"Once a journey is designed, equipped and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over.  A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys.  It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness.  A journey is a person in itself, no two are alike.  And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless.  We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip, a trip takes us."

--John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

"On the old highway maps of America, the main routes were red and the back roads blue.  Now even the colors are changing.  But in those brevities just before dawn and a little after dusk -- times neither day nor night -- the old roads return to the sky some of its color.  Then, in truth, they carry a mysterious cast of blue, and it's that time when the pull of the blue highway is strongest, when the open road is a beckoning, a strangeness, a place where a man can lose himself."

-- William Least Heat Moon, "Blue Highways: A Journey Into America"

We purchased both of these road trip classics, second-hand, at Ophelia's Books in Seattle.

And watch our "pilot" trip/feature from 2003 down Pacific Highway 101, which set the stage for all of this...(see also our MSNBC article, "Doing Business with Mom & Pop")

Pacific 101 Movie (Quicktime file: duration 14:09)