About a dozen people when I tell them about my trip have asked me, "So, are you taking the bug?"
I laugh until I realize they are asking this in all seriousness. To give you some background, I purchased a '73 Beetle at a great price in October. This is my dream car and I love this car more than anything.
Unfortunately, it doesn't love me back.
In the matter of two weeks, it tried to kill me three times: Once by trying to get me run over by a semi, another time breaking down on the i-90 bridge, and another time tried to gas me out while I was driving down a busy road (I was able to roll down the window and keep conscious).
And people honestly have asked me if I'm going to take this car on a 15,000 mile trip?! Do I have a death wish?! I don't want to be alone in the desert with this vehicle, where I'm miles from civilization and no one can hear my cries for help. No, I will not be at the bug's mercy.
The 1998 Toyota Corolla has loved me and been there for me even when I threatened to sell it. It's trudged through blazing deserts, mud in the prairies, and got me safely through several mountain blizzards. It tries its very best and has only gotten stuck twice: once in Saskatchewan miles and miles from any city (it's really my fault), and once when I was driving too fast during a snow storm.
She puts her very heart in soul in keeping me safe despite the crazy places I take her. I have passed out comfortably for 14 hours straight in her warm arms, carried a carload of hippy hitch hikers, and been across the US and Canada 5 times. She's got 240,000 miles on her and hasn't complained once. My baby Corolla, God willing, will get me through this last, longest trip yet, before she retires.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
IndieGoGo to the Rescue
There was a minor hiccup with Kickstarter, but I found a page to fund me and the project is in full swing! It's hard to believe that it's all coming together and that I leave in less than three weeks. I still have a lot of research to continue on before I go, so I am hoping this site can put some of my financial concerns aside for now and focus on how best to get the answers I want. Here's the link, ya'll!
Thanks for the support! Please, check out the link and share it with others! Like it on Facebook! Tweet! Blog! Do whatever you social media users do. I appreciate the help more than you know.
And now--to sleep!
Thanks for the support! Please, check out the link and share it with others! Like it on Facebook! Tweet! Blog! Do whatever you social media users do. I appreciate the help more than you know.
And now--to sleep!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
A Journey in Search of Happiness
It was probably another drizzly, 40 degree day. It's that kind of cold that doesn't sound impressive--I'm sure Minnesotans scoff at the idea of anyone called 40 degrees cold--but it seems to get under your skin. A typical January or February day. Have you ever heard of the "Seattle freeze"? It has nothing to do with subzero temperatures as Seattle infrequently gets in the 30s, but it has to do with the fact that Seattleites are just kind of cold as a community. We aren't friendly and there's probably a number of reasons to contribute to that, including the fact that when you're dealing with 4 months of 40 degree, drizzly, windy days, you don't really want to shout out a cheerful "What a wonderful day to be alive!!" to every stranger that passes by.
It's probably on one of those days that I started to really think about community here in the Northwest. My job working door-to-door has me thinking a lot of life, love, and the universe. Yes, it is true that people are pretty unfriendly here. But is this everywhere? Having just moved from a farm to live for the first time in the Seattle metro, I think a lot about rural communities and if they are happier than us city dwellers, fighting weekday traffic and busy mall parking lots. What started out as culture shock has developed into a bigger questions: Are we happy? Who are the happiest people here in America? What makes these groups more content than others? And finally, as social media becomes a part of the majority of people's day-to-day lives, are social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, even Blogspot contributing to more happiness or is it really making us more miserable?
These questions have been nagging at me for so many months now that I am going to do something about it. So, 29 locations throughout the US have been selected randomly (map of these locations is to come later) and I've developed a couple sets of questionnaires to ask as many people as possible in each location. I will go to people at their houses, at the grocery store, on the street corner. All this information gets put into an excel spreadsheet.
The time in which I interview people in seven weeks over the summer. For my trip I have a compact Toyota to live in, changes of clothes, a few loaves of bread, a jar of peanut butter and cans of tuna. Despite being super low maintenance, I will still need funding and support from family, friends and hopefully even strangers. For those of you who know me, I have traveled the country and the world and I've done it pretty much on my own. But this will require some financial and emotional support as this will be a lot of work. Writing, inputting data into formulas, extracting and writing out interviews, blogging daily, etc. To be perfectly honest, while the writing does sound pretty intimidating, being snubbed and yelled at by strangers--and I expect a lot of that--will probably be the most emotionally taxing.
Wish me luck on this! I'll be blogging from every city I visit that has some sort of available internet source. Having previously lived in my car for three months as a part of my mid-life crisis (at 22), I know what incredible experiences one can have and I'm thrilled to experience the eastern side of America and meet all the people that are bound to come across my path.
Rest assured, I will be armed with my laptop, a audio recorder, and a camera.
My kickstarter.com account and more information about that will be up soon! Thank you!
It's probably on one of those days that I started to really think about community here in the Northwest. My job working door-to-door has me thinking a lot of life, love, and the universe. Yes, it is true that people are pretty unfriendly here. But is this everywhere? Having just moved from a farm to live for the first time in the Seattle metro, I think a lot about rural communities and if they are happier than us city dwellers, fighting weekday traffic and busy mall parking lots. What started out as culture shock has developed into a bigger questions: Are we happy? Who are the happiest people here in America? What makes these groups more content than others? And finally, as social media becomes a part of the majority of people's day-to-day lives, are social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, even Blogspot contributing to more happiness or is it really making us more miserable?
These questions have been nagging at me for so many months now that I am going to do something about it. So, 29 locations throughout the US have been selected randomly (map of these locations is to come later) and I've developed a couple sets of questionnaires to ask as many people as possible in each location. I will go to people at their houses, at the grocery store, on the street corner. All this information gets put into an excel spreadsheet.
The time in which I interview people in seven weeks over the summer. For my trip I have a compact Toyota to live in, changes of clothes, a few loaves of bread, a jar of peanut butter and cans of tuna. Despite being super low maintenance, I will still need funding and support from family, friends and hopefully even strangers. For those of you who know me, I have traveled the country and the world and I've done it pretty much on my own. But this will require some financial and emotional support as this will be a lot of work. Writing, inputting data into formulas, extracting and writing out interviews, blogging daily, etc. To be perfectly honest, while the writing does sound pretty intimidating, being snubbed and yelled at by strangers--and I expect a lot of that--will probably be the most emotionally taxing.
Wish me luck on this! I'll be blogging from every city I visit that has some sort of available internet source. Having previously lived in my car for three months as a part of my mid-life crisis (at 22), I know what incredible experiences one can have and I'm thrilled to experience the eastern side of America and meet all the people that are bound to come across my path.
Rest assured, I will be armed with my laptop, a audio recorder, and a camera.
My kickstarter.com account and more information about that will be up soon! Thank you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)