New Labor Day Weekend mini Road Trip!

In about an hour we are heading out on the road again. Nothing so spectacular this time. We are going to Lake Tahoe over the long weekend. There are some other stops along the way, below you can find a map of our route. (The green letters have no importance)

Like before we will twitter from the road and post photos of Arthur Adipose each night. So keep checking in.

Road Trip Denouement/Epilogue

Well Arthur Adipose couldn't get the travel bug out of his system. So by popular demand we are going to take him on a new quickie road trip! This Labor Day Weekend, we will go to Lake Tahoe. Plus a few surprising spots on the way there and on the way back. So watch out for some new photos and tweets from the road this weekend. More details to come.

Filling in the Blanks

It became obvious to us by the second day of the trip that we weren't going to have tons of time to do much with this blog. About the only thing we had time for each night was to upload the day's photos of Arthur and give a super quick rundown of the days events.

We were generally so wiped out we couldn't even be bothered to label the photos, we have since gone back and done that, so you might want to revisit our Flickr Photostream. Our routine would generally be to wake up before 9am so we could get the "continental breakfast" before the Potels cut it off. Then try to get out on the road sometime before 11am. In the car it seemed like we were always busy planning out what we would do in the next spot, where we would eat next. It was hard even trying to squeeze a twitter in.

We would then go to all the spots we planned on, or at least as many as possible. We didn't really have time to spend much time at any one place or tour museums. It was like a vacation on speed. We then would generally try to find a Potel where we could stay by 11pm. We would then deal with the problematic wifi and post the pictures and crash.

So we only had two weeks and we wanted to get the most in, It was really only the half-way point, that middle Sunday in NYC that we felt like we weren't on speed. We had nearly a full-day to just explore Manhattan. We tried a few times to get off the interstates, but that just succeeded in us getting lost one time, and taking lots of time. So we were on many boring roads, but to be fair we got in plenty of interesting ones as well.

So in the next post we will try to come up with some awards like "most memorable meal" and so forth and shed a bit more detail on our race around the country.

Day 16 - Back Home

Our last day was not a sloucher. We enjoyed, Kingman and Oatman Arizona, and the Mojave Dessert in California. We are now back in LA and getting things back to normal. We have posted the photos from the last day, and we will do some more blogging about specific events in the days to come, now that we aren't so rushed to get from place to place.

Day Fifteen

Whatever day it is, it is the last night in a hotel before we are back home. It will be nice to rely on my own internet and not non-functioning ones at Potels all around the country. (Potel=Hotel owned by an Indian named Patel. That basically means 50% of US hotels, 95% of Motels)

Today we drove through Taos NM, 4 corners, Monument Valley, and down into Flagstaff before we called it a night. Lots of fun as usal. Photos to follow. Tomorrow we head back home. After we get back I should finally have time to share some of the interesting stories from the road.

Day Thirteen

Just the weekend left. Will try to go out with a bang. Today we started in Hays Kansas. We went to Goodland to look at a giant Sunflower painting. Went to the top of a tower in Colorado and saw five states at once supposedly. Say a few of the sites in Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods, Olympic Training Facility, that sort of thing.

Had some relatively forgettable meals in colorado today. Now we are in Taos New Mexico. Haven't seen it yet. Will do that tomorrow morning, then head to Monument Valley and hopefully get to Flagstaff on our penultimate night. Talk to you later.

Day Twelve

This trip has quite a bit more punch left in it before we wrap things up on Sunday night. Today we did a lot of driving through Missouri and Kansas. Stopped to get good food in a few spots. First in Columbia Missouri where they are overly friendly. Overstuffed ourselves with a chicken dinner in Kansas City.

Spent some time seeing the sights around KC plus various sights along the way including the Kansas Capitol in Topeka, Eisenhower's boyhood home. The Cathedral of the Plains. Probably a few other things we forgot, you can look at the photos to figure out where we went. Until tomorrow.

Day Eleven

Another interesting day on the road. Started things off in Chicago. Saw the sights around Millenium Park and Jackson Park. Had some good Polish Sausage and Breaded Steak on the Southside.

Drove down South. Saw an old Route 66 Gas Station. An interesting fellow who made metal sculptures and almost ended up in a tornado. Our next planned stop was in Williamsville to see another old crazy gas station. However on the way there we were slightly sidetracked by this big storm. We had to pull off the interstate into a McDonald's parking lot and wait for it to pass. When it finally blew through we headed south again only to find the police had barricaded off the exit to Williamsville. We then heard on the radio that a tornado leveled the town an hour or so prior to our visit. Hmm, glad I asked for seconds on lunch today.

Next was Springfield Illinois and the Lincoln Street. A recreation of his house and all his neighbors. Headed into St. Louis tonight and stopped at the Arch park and now we are staying just West of the city. More excitement to come tomorroow. New Photos are up.

Day Ten

So yesterday we finished up Ohip. Drove through Indiana's Amish country. Had some nice pie. Swung through Notre Dame University. Then headed up to Chicago where we stood in the new glass overhang in the former Sear's Tower high above the city streets.

More fun in Chicago today. Photos should be up for your perusal. Talk to you from the road.

Day Nine

Spent most of the day driving fast across Pennsylvania and Ohio. Stopped a few times. To go on a tour of a Nuclear Power plant. To see an old victorian town. To see a kingdom made of chocolate. To not eat the world's largest hamburger because of lousy service. We finally made it to Toledo Ohio quite late because of another wrong turn. But here we are, fresh-faced ready to take off for another adventure. New photos of Arthur Adipose are in our photostream. Will Twitter from the road as justified.

Day Eight

New York on Sunday
Big City taking a Nap . . .
Actually it was plenty busy. Spent almost the whole day in Manhattan today seeing the sights and eating the local cuisine. The photos of Arthur Adipose that I'm posting should tell you a pretty good story of what we did.

Now we are heading back West, back to LA. With a few stops in between I imagine. Take care until tomorrow . . .

Day Six

Not a lot of time, actually day seven now. New photos of Arthur are up. Currently in Jersey just outside NYC. Will go into the city tomorrow. Talk to you more from the road.

Day Six

Sorry these blog descriptions are so brief but by the time we check in each night we have no energy left other than to give a quick recap and post pictures. We will continue to twitter throughout the day from our phone as we can from the road.

Woke up this morning in Panama City Beach Florida. Popped over to the beach briefly ate Beignets and then headed to points North. Had a hard time crossing the Florida border because we went down the wrong road and headed South again for a bit. Eventually made it across to Georgia. Had lunch at Grannies Frying Pan Fried Chicken and Fried Okra. Stopped briefly in Valcosta to marvel at some of their classic buildings.

In an all too quick stop, we made it to Savannah to admire their architecture, cemetary, cathedral and squares. Then we zipped up to Walterboro South Carolina where we are now going to call it a night. Now time again to post the latest photos of Arthur Adipose enjoying the day. Not sure yet what we are up to tomorrow as we have changed plans a bit because of time pressure. Until then.

Day Five

Another jam-packed day on our roadtrip. Woke up in New Orleans, toured a bit of the Hurricane Katrina devastation. Went back to Cafe Du Monde for some more beignets and coffee. Went out to lunch for some red beans and rice then drove across the incredibly long Lake Ponchartain Causeway and headed to Mississippi.

We then hit the Stennis NASA rocket center and did the tour. We drove along the coast, met Hollywood the baby alligator and a few friends. Then I visited a co-worker from my former school in Mobile Alabama. Then drove along the coast until we hit Panama City. Up to date photos of Arthur Adipose are available for your perusal.

Day Four

Woke up in Lake Charles Louisiana. Had Boudin Sausage for breakfast in Jennings. We drove through the swamps and bayous to get to the Tabasco Sauce Factory. We saw some peacocks but no gators yet.

Walked through the Garden District in New Orleans to see the cemetary and classic architecture. Ate a nice meal. Headed to the French Quarter after that, had a big ass beer. Now posting pictures of Arthur Adipose. They should be up momentarily.

Day Three

OK today we started out in Junction Texas. First thing in the morning we went to visit Stonehenge II in Hunt. Then we had some great ice tea at a place in San Antonio. The place we had been planning to go was closed on Mondays. We fended off the evil forces at The Alamo and River Walk in downtown SA.

We then headed out to Seguin, home of the world's largest Pecan. We had some genuine Texas Hot Guts at a memorable spot in Luling. Arthur posed for pictures at the world's largest Igloo Cooler in Katy. In Houston we stopped by the water wall and world's largest Armadillo monument. Then we drove East to Lake Charles Louisiana where we are staying tonight. Pictures on our Flickr photostream. Tomorrow the Bayou Country and New Orleans.

Day Two

Today we woke up in Deming New Mexico. Had some stuffed sopapillas for breakfast in Las Cruces. Wandered around the classic Mesilla town square, Billy the Kid's old stomping grounds.

Headed down to El Paso Texas. Couldn't find one place we wanted to visit, another was close. Finally had lunch at Julio's Corona Cafe, it was dynamite. Then started the long trek across Texas. Went to a place we heard was the largest swimming pool in the world in Toyahvale. However it was only the world's largest spring-fed open-air man-made swimming pool. Stopped by a few road runner statues. Ate dinner at a forgettable place in Ozona, and here we are now. All the photos should be in our Flickr Stream.

Tomorrow it is on to points further East in Texas. San Antonio, Houston and wherever else Arthur Adipose insists we drag him.

Day One

Yesterday we were twittering away on our cellphone but as it turned out it didn't work. At any rate I think we have it working now. Above this post are 20 photos we quickly posted from yesterday. We visited the Center of the Earth in Felicity California. Went to lunch at a lousy Mexican restaurant in Yuma AZ. Stopped for a few photo ops in the desert. Had a decent dinner in Tucson. Stopped by The Thing, it was closed. And no time for much of anything but sleep here in Deming, NM.

So we are off again. Plan on sending you updates from the road today via twitter, if it works this time. Share and Enjoy.

T -12 and Counting

Had a few setbacks so far here on the last day. The business cards we won did not arrive in time. No thanks to the worthless Torrance Post Office. So I have just made my own cards. Well actually more like photos. We have tons of photo paper I can print on so we will hand out photos of Arthur driving the Xebra to eccentric (and maybe normal) people that we meet with on the trip.

OK time to pack up and get ready. We will let you know the second we hit the road. Most of our updates will be via twitter which doesn't seem to be working properly here on the page, so follow us if you haven't already.

Free porn in your hotel room!

Of course most people take the stationary, shampoo and other little goodies they haven't used up when they pack-up and leave their hotel room. However many may be neglecting to take the greatest freebie out there! It is a book full of hot sex and violence that you can find in every hotel room (well unless we've been there.) Up for grabs is that great work of fiction, The Gideon Bible! We take them because we wouldn't want any kids to be exposed to that filth and be scarred for life.

We have quite a collection of Bibles in our house. Of course after a while you can get them all mixed up, so we date and write down the location where we got each one on the inside cover. For those of you who don't want to lug them all the way back home, you can also print out these cool stickers to put on the cover which warn parents to keep the smut away from little ones. Or even better, you can pull a 'Shawshank Redemption' and cut holes in the middle of the book to hide keys, jewelry, or other small valuables.

The GPS Four Corners

The last time I took a road trip to the other side of the country and back was in 1993. On that trip one of the prime goals was to drive in all 48 continental states. Borders were a huge focus of the trip as well. I made sure to drive on the road separating Kansas City, Kansas from Kansas City, Missouri, the road separating Texas from Arkansas in Texarkana, the road separating Bristol Virginia from Bristol Tennessee, and the mother of them all the four corners monument where Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico all meet.

I have had a National Geographic book since I was about five years old that has an illustration in it of a rabbit sitting on the four corners spot. Ever since I first saw the picture I had to go and stand there. When I went there in the summer of 1993 they had just built up the fancy monument which is still there today. I remember it only costing $1. It really wasn't busy at all, I remember I had to wait quite a while before somebody else came along to take my picture standing on the spot. From what I hear that despite it's remote location, it is quite a madhouse these days. The fee is now $3.

Recently however, people have asked, "Is it in the right spot?" The answer seems to be - Yes and No. Modern GPS reveals that it is at least a few hundred meters off. The point was legally defined 100 years prior to GPS however and they aren't going to start moving borders around now. Even if it isn't in the exact 'intended spot' it is the spot where the four states meet legally and that is all that really matters. In fact, it seems GPS has been finding issues with all sorts of borders all around the world and it would tie up the courts for years if we were to start changing everything.

We're not sure yet if Arthur Adipose will get to see the Four Corners monument on this trip or not, but I'm just posting this to insure everybody who thinks we are too serious, that we are indeed fine with visiting stupid and pointless roadside attractions. We intend to have fun posing with the world's largest shuttlecock and we will have our reliable GPS to take us there. We just won't be supporting any businesses that promote supernatural nonsense (a redundancy).

The only mystery is why people go there.

We know a lot of people don't understand what the word 'theory' means in a scientific context, but it seems that scientific 'laws' are also confusing to road travelers. Scientific Laws are things that ALWAYS apply! No exceptions damnit. If somehow you were able to demonstrate something that contravened Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation it would no longer be a law and you would earn the Nobel Prize. Einstein managed to add to it with his general theory of relativity but the law still holds up. Somebody could disprove the law any day but I strongly doubt that it's going to be some carny at a tourist attraction called "The Mystery Vortex"conveniently located just a few miles off the Interstate.

There are at least a dozen of these tourist traps around the country. They feature a building that is built on a slope or tilted, preferable in an area where a land shift has also tilted the trees to help out the effect. James Randi explains the whole thing quite well here. Yes, it is a really cool optical illusion. We love optical illusions! If these places marketed themselves as cool optical illusions we would be the first in line. Instead they claim they are "Gravitational Anomalies" that teams of scientists and surveyors were stunned by when they first stumbled upon them a century ago, or maybe they throw in "former UFO landing site" for extra fun! Obviously honesty doesn't pay when you are trying to separate tourists from their money. How does knowing the truth that it is an optical illusion spoil things?

It is also interesting that there aren't as many as there were in the past. The Haunted Shack at Knott's Berry Farm closed down in 2000. I suppose the vortex powers cease working when the dollars stop flowing. Weren't the folks at Knott's worried when they built a new thrill ride on a location that defied physics? No thought for the safety of the guests!

To those of you who say it is all a bit of harmless fun, well in this case you are probably right. My guess is that more than half of their business comes from rabble-rousers who want to 'disprove the place' to show off how smart they are. If you do want to visit one of these spots and give these hucksters your hard-earned money, and you own an iPhone or iPod touch, download one of those free cool Level apps that use the motion sensor and test out the angle of things yourself.

If I ran the place I would bark out a spiel that focuses on how important the scientific method is because humans can't trust their own senses. I know I could come up with just as captivating a presentation without having to resort to any woowoo. On our road trip we don't have time to stop for any BS. It would be nice if we had more time to stop at science museums and observatories but if we can we will try to get a few in. The real world is so much more fascinating than any nonsense that us humans can dream up.

Escape from California

Following a week of gas prices that haven't been dropping we again have a whole new slew of articles with an "Oh the Humanity!" slant from the lazy news media. Funny editorial on the topic from the fair and balanced FOX news.

I for one am quite excited about getting out of California and seeing what the rest of the country pays for gasoline. You can see from this current map who the true red state is. We have the highest taxes on gas and everything else, yet the deepest in debt. LA currently has a 10% sales tax, that's why I try to do all my shopping online.

This map should really help us on the trip. For example if we're running low on gas in New Mexico, we will know to try and hold out until Texas, or at least buy just enough to get to the next tax haven.

For those who say that at least by living in LA we get the benefit of living in a hip forward-thinking progressive town, I have included this map below as well. As you can see LA County is the same color as most of Texas and the deep South. Happy Traveling!

Let's come up with a standardized plug please

It's never going to happen of course, but it would be nice if all cellphones and other small electronic devices had the same size and shape input plug. Or at least limit it to two or three varieties tops. We just found this groovy crank dynamo radio at Radio Shack for $20 with a coupon. It has AM/FM and weather stations, a light (steady white or flashing red) and an output for cell phone charging. It claims to get TV audio as well, but that didn't work, I suspect it is out of date now since analog broadcasts were terminated.

It is so much fun to generate your own energy, cranking the handle to the music and so forth. However, despite the fact that it came with a dozen little cellphone charging tips, we have no idea if that function works since none of those dozen happen to fit either of our cell phones! I have this big box full of cables, chargers, adapters and so forth yet they never seem to fit anything. So it looks like I will have to cut and splice my own cable together so we can hook up our cell phones to this unit. While I'm at it I will make one for the iPod as well, since in an emergency I won't be able to live without the latest Ricky Gervais and Adam Carolla podcasts.

Great prize for those who run into us on the road!

Over on Twitter I somehow won some free business cards from Zazzle. Well considering we need business cards as much as Seattle needs a plastic bag tax, we figured we would give this prize to our mascot Arthur Adipose.

He chose to make this simple business card which he will give to anybody friendly we run into on the road. (The back features the photo of Arthur driving from our previous post) You don't even have to be friendly, just ask for one. We only have 100, so first come, first serve. I imagine we might run out by Texas.

Our Mascot arrived in the mail today!

Our Adipose trip mascot has arrived and is ready for the trip. We still don't have a name for him/her. There haven't been many entries in the Name Our Mascot Contest. I suppose we need to toss in a reward. Whoever can come up with the best name for our mascot will win a bottle of Jones Soda!

As you can see, the Adipose has already taken the Xebra out for a spin.

Box of Books

We dropped by AAA today to get all the freebies they had to offer. We basically cleaned out the shop and caused a long line behind us to form. We took them for all the books and maps pictured here. Quite a nice haul.

A few weeks ago I also sent away for some free tourist info from the various state and city authorities who use your tax dollars to publish info for travelers. The glossy magazines and maps have been trickling in through the mail each day. We have now compiled everything together into a big box for the back seat and have organized them by when we will visit them. Deming New Mexico is the first spot!

Considering how heavy the box is I imagine it will cost us some mileage. We will drop off the books at rest areas or restaurants on the road as we finish with them so they don't weigh us down too much.

Our Route

One week from now we will be out on the road. Here is the general route we will be taking. Just did this quickly on google maps, so it doesn't account for any backroads, and the letters really have no significance. Share and Enjoy!

Road Trip Rules

We are starting to tweet our road trip rules as we come up with them. So be sure to follow us here http://twitter.com/AugustRoadTrip for the latest. We welcome any rules you would like to throw in the mix. So far they are just eating and drinking rules.

For the duration of the trip -

1. We won't eat at any chain restaurants.

2. We won't drink anything with corn syrup in it.

3. We won't stop at any so-called: haunted hotels, ufo sites, mystery vortexes, or any other BS supernatural spots. Focus only on the natural, it is fascinating enough.

4. Stop somewhere each day that we weren't planning on.

5. Splurge on eating out at unique spots, make up for it by being tight on lodging.

6. No camping out. Because it will take too much time to set up and take down camp, we have limited time plus they don't have wifi!

. . . watch this space for more.

We Don't Drive for Jones

Our trip is about more than corporate sponsorship damnit, we are doing this for the love of the road! Well actually no, the reason we aren't going to get involved with the Jones Soda Road Trip promotion is nothing as magnanimous as that, it is because 'the prizes' are pathetic. We've never drank the hip trendy top-shelf Jones soda before, I'm sure it's good stuff. I doubt it is any better than Hansen's however which is another sugar water (not corn-syrup water) at half the price.

Jones Soda are big sponsors of several World Top 16 Snooker players as a matter of fact, and I'm a big Snooker fan. Though Allie Carter, who is my favorite cueist, doesn't wear their logo on his vest. Maybe they didn't offer him another Sterling to advertise for them, it wouldn't surprise me considering what the Seattle company is offering photographers whose photos they use on their pop bottles.

So if they select your photo for their label which is distributed around the country what do you get for it? Apparently just the kudos of being associated with their hip trendy pop. They are also giving away some overpriced iPod car accessory which apparently broadcasts your ipod over your car's FM radio. Sounds a bit complicated when you can just get one of those cassette deck adapter deals on ebay for $1.75. I guess the latest cars don't have cassette decks, but what is some liberal White college kid (Jones Soda's #1 market I assume) doing with a brand new car anyway? Besides most new car stereos have one of those mini type input plugs, you can get a mini-to-mini cord at any dollar store.

I suppose having them use your photo would give you some publicity and you could put it on your resume, but personally I like cold hard cash for my work(or hot soft cash). I hear twitter is the new hot marketing tool to get your propaganda out to the younger set who aren't set in their ways. Maybe the kids get all worked up when you throw a few beads into the crowd but I suppose I'm over 30 and old now and won't bend over backwards to give somebody free advertising. The humble ads on this page will help provide a few pennies towards our gas, which is more than Jones is willing to do.

Welcome to ZAP Xebra Road Trip 2009, sponsored by . . . whoever gives us the best price.

Will 2 iPods and an iBook be enough?

Just a quick rundown on the tech we will be bringing along on the trip. 1 iPod Touch (15gb), 1 GPS, 1 dual usb iBook (600mhz), 1 3rd generation iPod (15gb), 2 cell phones, 1 Canon Powershot still/video digital camera, 1 'Power to Go' portable AC/USB power supply,

The most important item will probably be the iPod Touch. Aside from being able to store important documents, photos, video and music for the trip, we have loaded it with some trip related apps and it will allow us to connect with the web anywhere there is wifi. With a video cable we can hook it up to TVs in hotels. It has a quazi-gps but it only works in cities.

The proper portable GPS is there basically to help us get lost and go the wrong way. The old iBook is something we can use at hotels at night to hook up to wifi and upload any photos. We won't have to stress about leaving it in the car or anywhere, since you would be lucky to sell it on ebay for $100 these days. We just put in a new battery into the old iPod (non-touch) and it works perfectly fine for music. It will be jam-packed with Doctor Who audio books, Jazz, Samba, and Reggae.

With the cellphones we can send and receive twitters from anywhere. Plus last time I checked you can also make and receive phone calls on them. So the only real lag might be in the time until you get the photos, as we will only be able to upload them after they have been put on the iBook and after that has located an open Wifi. The tradeoff is that they will be good proper pictures, not low-resolution cellphone camera shots and will hopefully be worth waiting for.

With all that, it doesn't look like we will have any space to pack socks and underwear, but you have to set your priorities don't you?

Gas Prices and Canceling Road Trips

Something to file under "Same stupid local news story you see again and again" is the one where they interview a bunch of folks at a gas station who say they are canceling their summer vacation this year because of the price of gas. A few examples here and here, but you know what I'm talking about.

If the polls are right, a full 1/3 of the country just says, "Screw the Grand Canyon!" if the price of gas jumps just a little bit. I suppose that means that a 1/3 of the country can't do math, which come to think of it actually seems like a low number to me.

To keep the math easy, lets say your road trip is 2000 miles, even if you get lousy mileage of 20mpg and even if gas prices have gone up $1 over the norm(whatever that is), the total extra cost of your fun family road trip which is now causing you to cancel it is a mere $100! Just skip buying those cheesy t-shirts at the Alamo and stay in a Motel 6 one night and you've broke even.

So that's the worst case scenario. Do the math yourself for your vehicle and your distance and then hopefully you will reconsider postponing your life because of a few bucks. Hope to see you out on the road!

Pop versus Soda

One of the road rules posted earlier is that we won't be drinking anything with corn syrup on the trip. That is not because of some woo-woo belief that it is inherently worse for you than cane sugar, it is just because we think it tastes like garbage. Back in the day POP tasted pretty good, with corn syrup now it just tastes industrial. It is hard to get away from, it is in all the iced tea, even juice now.

I do refer to soft drinks as Pop and that is actually my main focus of the post. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people in this country who speak English, yet don't call soft drinks by their proper nickname, "Pop." We currently live in a backwards state when it comes to using English, you might be shocked to hear the preferred term in California is "Soda." Well it's certainly not the only thing this state has gotten wrong recently.

As you can see from the map, by the end of the first day of our trip when we plan to be in New Mexico, we will already be in a Coke state! Who knew this, that a whole hunk of the country, which coincidentally (or not) is red in this map, would call a Pepsi a Coke? So they would call a Sprite a Coke? A root beer a Coke? It truly sounds insane I know.

So we might have to suspend the 'no corn syrup rule' for the sake of science once or twice just to see how this works. I currently can't even fathom this. So I'm trying to imagine the conversation with the waitress in the Texas diner.

Me, "I'll Have a Coke."
Waitress, "What kind of Coke would you like hon?"
Me, "I'll take a Hire's Root Beer."

Actually I have no intention of adapting to their odd ways and I will refuse to call soft drinks anything but Pop when I'm on this trip. If these foreigners don't know what I'm talking about then I'm afraid they will just lose a sale. More on the topic at popvssoda.com.

Name our Mascot contest

So we have ordered an overpriced plush Adipose doll to be our trip's mascot. S/he will accompany us and pose for pictures around the country. Of course the Adipose were featured in the Doctor Who episode Partners in Crime.

We don't have a name for the Adipose yet, so here is your chance to get involved. Send suggestions for our little traveling buddy in the comments below. I can tell you right now we aren't going to call him/her "Addie the Adipose" which is the best we could come up with, so creativity is welcome.

We need a mascot

We are looking for a mascot to bring along with us on the trip who can pose in the various locations around the country. Sort of like our version of the gnome. We were thinking of this guy named Plunko pictured here. Do you have any better ideas? Or maybe the whole cute plush at the famous landmark routine has just become too cliche now.

We're driving a ZAP Xebra to NYC and back

They all think we're crazy to do it but we're driving the all-electric ZAP Xebra around the country. With a top speed of 33mph, a 15-mile range, no A/C or a working radio it might pose us a few problems but we love a challenge!

The fact that our "car" can't legally be driven in Maine, Massachusetts and Ohio shouldn't cause us any trouble we will just skip those states. Us Californians know how to do things better than anybody of course! As a matter of fact that's the theme of our trip. We have a bumper sticker that reads, "If you're $26,000 in debt then that's your problem . . . if you're $26 Billion in debt then it's the countries problem!"

Today we are going out to shop for an extra long extension chord in case we run out of juice in the desert.

Only a Fortnight to go!

Our road trip to the East Coast begins on August 8th. This will be the spot for photos and updates. More to come! We bought the domain name roadtrip2009.info for only $.89 and we are going to make the most of it!