Seeking Drivers/City connections for Glitchen Reunion Train (TM) brought to you by Faranae

Hi everyone! Sorry I have not been active here in the Eleven forums before now. Meanwhile, time to pester you about an epic good idea (TM). Basically, I currently am in Tampa-ish. and I want to get to Vancouver-ish. By March 12, 2015. Normally, one would say "uh, plane?", but I want to bring my guitar and easel. So then you say "drive?" and I say: I don't actually know how. Also, boring.

So! What I want to do is ask all of You, my fabulous Glitch family, to help me make the journey. We've started a channel in the Glitchen slack team (#slackbot-na-tour). The idea is sort of a continent-wide relay race with me as the baton, with as many glitchen as I can muster getting to meet up and do preposterous things together. It's sort of a mobile Glitch convention, spurred by my need/desire to move (again). Glitchen are scattered all over, and right now I have a ride from Florida to... somewhere, folks in Texas who can drive me for a leg of road, someone in California who can road trip a bit northwards, and then lots of gaps! The route is super flexible, and I expect this to be an epic road trip with ridiculous detours and taking way longer than driving between these two cities would normally.

It is not my intention to mooch. Cost sharing will be worked out before the journey begins. There will hopefully be liveblogging. There will definitely be lots of social media-ing. For those who don't live anywhere near a reasonable route, I would like to find a way to involve you, if you want to be involved. Postcards, stickers, whatever...

So, if you want to help, reply here, or talk about it in the slack team! Also, if you just have good ideas, or things you would want from me in exchange for throwing some money at the problem, tell me about it! A bunch of us in Glitchen global only thought of this yesterday afternoon, so it's not very organized yet.

Comments

  • Are you having a send off party in Tampa-ish? There are a few folks in the area that might want to help launch you on your trek...depending on day/time.
  • I will add this to the good ideas to implement! <3
  • I'm on the other side of Florida from you! If you were going in August, I could totally help you out with part of the journey :< Best of luck, though!
  • Oh, Vancouver, huh? But which Vancouver? Vancouver, WA (USA), or Vancouver, BC (Canada)? Or a different Vancouver altogether?
  • Because I am north of Vancouver, WA, USA, in Olympia, WA, but south of Vancouver, BC, Canada...
  • Vancouver BC, the Vancouver that matters. ;)

    The question isn't whether you live where I need to finally arrive, but whether you are willing to drive some portion of the way to where I need to finally arrive. It's a relay "race"! Which involves meeting as many Glitchen as possible!
  • Going to cross-post this here: I have built a color-coded map of our drivers and glitchen locations so far, as well as random points of interest to glitchen: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zwlL6JvYJzLw.k3spb6mZSA_k

    Note that our biggest gaps are from W. Texas to So. Cal., and N. Florida to Texas. Lelu is sort of willing to go all the way to Texas, but it would really be better to have an in-between person! (if nothing else, someone who will let us couch surf!).
  • The group in slack #global has thought of tons of crazy ideas! We are still seeking drivers so we can make this happen. Once we have our main pilot commitments (more drivers will always be welcomed and shuffled into the plan!) to ensure a successful tour completion, then we can really start running with our many ideas (we have so many things: putting Ur street signs up at various places, a lawn gnome along for the ride, humorous photos of anything but me (including my hats at landmarks), stickers, postcards...)
  • I am totally immobile these days but a few years ago I would have taken you to TX from GA. It sounds like a great trip and I look forward to "following" you along the way.
  • edited February 2015
    I live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, willing to help however I can give travel to Florida, Georgia. Need advance notice. I tried to follow the map but haven't figured it out yet. Keep us posted!!
  • Well, BribAnnie, we probably will need couches to surf along the way, and otherwise, yes this is all going on the web so all glitchen can follow it! It's going to be like a Feat, or a game of crowns, or a glitch train or or... well, you get the idea.

    Miss Zoey: are you on slack? If not, you should definitely email hawkwellglitch at gmail to get an invite. On the map, red pins mean the home town of someone who has offered to drive, or the end point they are willing to drive to. A car icon means someone who has been confirmed as being able to drive with another glitchen at their end point (Lelu is the only one so far). Blue pins mean any glitch who has expressed some kind of interest. Green pins are for random sites (or people) that might be of interest to the glitchen population. And then there are blue-colored route lines for google directions between places (there are two so far, but not lelu because we don't yet know *which* Dallas glitch will be the pick up!). I'm trying to get the "absolutely fundamental to this" drivers figured out this week, and at latest next week. We can always add more drivers later (and thus let long-haulers like Lelu have a shorter trip back home!), but we need to make sure there's an actual trip of committed people first. The deadline to get to Vancouver is not set in stone, it would just be nice (and puts a fire under our seats to get us to do the thing!).

    And Tuscaloosa could work out well to let Lelu not go all the way to Texas (well, unless she really wants to meet the Dallas crowd~). We expect there to be some meandering and ridiculous detours one would never ever do on a normal, efficient road trip. So we could take 75 all the way up to 20, and you would take me off Lelu's hands and head to Texas (well, that's the idea, anyway). So its just a matter of how long/far all the different people want to drive.
  • if you start a go fund me ill buy a few gallons of gas for the trip. sadly im on the Oregon coast and i cant drive you
  • Ooo, depending on date/time I'd come to a send-off party in Tampa-ish. Would be fun to meet up with fellow Glitchen & celebrate the start of this epic journey :)
  • Omegaa6977: Wow! An offer of cash money is pretty awesome, actually. And thank you for reminding me about GoFundMe. I had forgotten about that one, and it is probably more appropriate for letting people pitch in if they want to (as opposed to IndieGoGo or Kickstarter).

    Vera: At the moment, it is looking like maybe early March? There's a bunch of us in Tampa-ish, so there will definitely be a "launch" party!
  • I've shared your post from the Book of Faces to the glitches_of_ur community on Dreamwidth (currently a locked post, or I would link); good luck finding more drivers along your planned route of march!
  • Thanks K'shandra! Every signal boost helps~! <3
  • Hiya, Faranae! Do you need a route that goes from Orange County (California) to Los Angeles County (California)? The area has a really big freeway (the 405) that goes directly between the two counties (and then some). I'm on the coast, and will gladly drive you about 60 miles. And you are welcome to stay the night if you don't mind sleeping in the living room. :)
  • Awesome, thank you Ann! I've added you to the map. Yay couches! <3
  • I am going crazy over here because all we need-need (as opposed to always welcoming) is someone in the Southwestern US to get the train through New Mexico and Arizona. C'mon Glitchen! Someone's gotta be out that way!
  • Okay, Glitchen, There's now a GoFundMe, which kind of centralizes information a bit (especially for those not on Slack or Facebook). Go forth, see information, ask me questions, etc!
    http://www.gofundme.com/GlitchTrain
  • Why yes, yes I am bumping this topic, because I want to make sure everyone knows that this is totally happening! I booked an Amtrak ticket for El Paso to LA, Katyroo has booked us a motel room near an observatory in Texas that does star parties at night... Lelu has declared that we will "launch" the train on March 4, when she and I will head northward and westward to Texas (passing through Pensacola and Baton Rouge, both of which contain Glitchen we hope to meet up with). I'm starting some crafting projects for glitchy things along the way, and I'm looking into printing postcards for backer rewards. See all of you soon!
  • edited February 2015
    Sounds like a fun way to travel! Wishing you a safe trip, Faranae. I'll be following along on twitter. *:)
  • Congrats @Faranae ! Sorry I won't be able to send you off from central FL...unfortunately I'll be in the great white north of DC that day...brrrr.... Safe travels!
  • edited February 2015
    Gah, I live in Sweetwater, TX, and you are so close yet so far... :( I wish I'd seen this sooner! I have an extra bed/couch if you need to swing up for a night. FYI, Texas weather is supposed to be really nice the first week of March, so if you drive through then, there should be no problem.

    (This week is terrible, because we had a bunch of snow storms Monday and are set to have more snow Friday.)

    Be careful of truckers on the highways, they are random in a bad way!
  • So I just saw on your GoFundMe that you're from Spring Hill? I go there a few times a year to visit family! (I'm down in Miami). Throw your launch party at Cigar City Brewing and have a few drinks on my behalf :-D Have fun, sounds like quite an adventure... I've CouchSurfed across the country myself before and it's such a thrill!
  • @Berylcrest I'm not too worried about the truckers. I grew up with a cb in my dad's pickup. They aren't actually random, most of the time, if you know what they are thinking and how the trucks work. Besides, my Texas drivers are very experienced, so the train should get through to El Paso safely~~~ It may be too late to have the train head your way, but now you know you've got fellow Glitchen all over Texas!

    @Kweeky Thanks for the tip! It's sounding like none of the bay area Glitchen can make it to a launch party, so not sure Cigar City is in my future. But I will tell the Glitchen to go there for a meet-up sometime, since there's 4+ down thataway!
  • edited February 2015
    yo I would totally drive you some of the way free of charge!
    Except I don't live in America...
    ...I live overseas
    ...In Australia
    Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand my car is not working xD
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