Archive: Blog America Tour
I'm sorry I'm a bit delayed in posting about the Blog America Tour but in all honesty much of the travel was through areas that had no wireless reception. Yes, irritating. Obviously the same with cell receiption. So we fell a little behind on keeping-up with our trip. But as I mentioned in the last update of our tour, we drove--and survived--an all-nighter from Dallas, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I'll be honest in saying none of us were either looking or feeling our best when we finally arrived at our destination at 5am. And to make things worse we had to brush our teeth at a Super Wal-mart. We've been having a great time on our trip but last night was a little rough.
Needless to say we were eager to meet Postie Courtney (http://travelingthoughts.com)...and grab a LARGE cup of coffee. Our venue of choice: Flying Star. It's a great little place with a fun atmosphere and yummy food -- just what we needed. And, of course, it was awesome to finally meet Courtney face-to-face, and chat with her about her experience and growth as a blogger. She's really cool! So cool, in fact, that she gave each of us a "goody" bag for the road. AND on top of that she also brought 132 canned foods with her, which we immediately dropped off at the Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico; that's the most donations we've received yet.
A couple of other cool things happened to us while we were eating breakfast and chatting with Courtney:
- We met-up with our Director of Human Resources, Glennis, and her sister and niece and nephew. They live in the Albuquerque area and Glennis thought it'd be fun to fly out and meet-up with us on our Postie stop.
- While we were talking a reporter from one of the local television stations popped-in to the restaurant, and interviewed Ted about the Blog America Tour. Apparently his station had picked-up our story from a press release we sent out late last week. Very cool! Check-it-out here.
Morning
Oklahoma City. Bricktown. We met-up with one of the Blogger's Choice Awards finalists, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. It just happened to work out that author lives somewhat near our tour path, so we decided to contact her and find a place to meet-up.
Afternoon
The afternoon found us heading to the outskirts of Dallas, and a chance to hook-up with another one of the BCA finalists -- they happened to be located on our route, so we thought we'd pop in and say hi! Heroes for Children is a fantastic non-profit organization that helps families with children who are battling cancer in the state of Texas. We visited with one of the co-founders for quite some time and she had a very moving story to tell. If you have some time please drop by their website and learn more about them.
Late Afternoon
The last stop of the day was at the home of Sean Jackson, President of the Dallas Ad League. Along with being one of the panel moderators for PostieCon, Sean hosted a get together at his home when we passed through his city...complete with a custom-made banner for us!
What was even more great about this stop was Postie Laurie met-up with us, and since she brought us canned foods for donation, and was the only Postie who showed-up, she was given the iRobot Roomba! Congratulations, Laurie.
Evening/Late Evening
We hit the road around 7:30pm, with the mission of driving all night through to Albuquerque. Yup...10 hours of driving through nothingness. We made it but not without a visit to one of the most interesting bathrooms any of us have ever seen! This was inside a well-known fast food restaurant (location to remain nameless):
Technorati Tags: Blog America Tour, blog awards, Blogger's Choice Awards, bloggers, blogging, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, Dallas Ad League, Posties
I think all of the travel might be catching-up with me. We've been driving literally all day long. We left New Orleans around 9am Central Standard Time, and since we weren't able to meet-up with our Postie Rebecca (hope your mother-in-law feels better) in Jackson, Mississippi, we kept driving straight on through to Oklahoma City. Right now it's nearing 10pm CST, so you can do the math. Fortunately our car has satellite radio installed to keep us entertained.
While this photo was taken in Atlanta a couple of days ago, this is what I feel like at the moment:
I'm looking forward to a busy day tomorrow, filled with meeting more Posties and Advertisers...to build my energy back up!
One of our stops along the Blog America Tour was New Orleans; a last-minute change from Tuscaloosa. Since we only announced the change mid-last week I wasn't all that surprised when we went to Jackson Square in the French Quarter and nobody showed up (although I do know we have many active bloggers in the area). So we really had "the evening off."
We went to an authentic Louisiana dinner at--get this--the Gumbo Shop. It was darn good, and when all was said-and-done Ted, Travis and I were all stuffed. Of course you know us...we have photos as evidence:
After dinner Ted insisted we go walk down Bourbon Street, if for nothing more than the "experience." Particularly since neither Travis or I had ever been there. First we stopped and had some grenades, and then went popped into Pat O'Briens for a hurricane. Needless to say those two drinks combined with the ridiculous amount of food we each injested, we were just ready to call it a night. We were in the hotel room by 11:00. We're officially old. (P.S. We're not quite sure why Travis looks so crazy in the photo below.)
Technorati Tags: Blog America Tour, Bourbon Street, New Orleans, Pat O'Brien's
It's hard to believe the first-ever Blog America Tour is already half-way over -- three days down and three more to go! We've already hit-up three major US cities, met with several devoted Posties, and collected over 300 canned foods for donations to local charities. All while calling a Dodge Durango home! So now we're about to hit the road and head towards Jackson, Mississppi, to connect with Postie Rebecca (I hope she remembered to turn her clocks back).
We've had a great time Twittering our trip. And if you're keeping up with us on the road we still have the following cities left to visit:
- Jackson, MS
- Oklahoma City, OK
- Dallas, TX
- Albuquerque, NM
- Phoenix, AZ
- Las Vegas, NV
Of course, our journey leads up to PostieCon next Saturday, and we definitely can't wait for that.
It's not easy uploading large files from the road. The wireless card works fine for email and web browsing while you are in motion but anything that requires a persistent connection doesn't work as well. Last night we stopped at a hotel in New Orleans, I started the upload before I went to bed and it was done in the morning.
This video has some tidbits about Argus. Enjoy.
In addition to meeting Postie Alli in Atlanta yesterday, the BAT team went to the Downtown Varsity last night, where we connected with Posties Richard and Jason -- Jason was a little late but it didn't matter because he brought his daughter Skylar along...and she was a hoot-and-a-half!
As he did with Colleen and Alli, Ted gave Richard and Jason a sneak-peek of Argus. They both seemed really excited about the new application, and all the benefits it will offer not only bloggers but Advertisers as well.
On a side note, Skylar--who is only four-and-a-half--maintains a blog. I thought I'd check-it-out and was thrilled at the "treat" she decided to share with her readers. She's going to be a star (you'll understand what I mean in a minute).
Blog America Tour, day three. Ted, Travis and I still look at each other when driving down the road, and say "I can't believe we're actually doing this!" But we are, and we've had a blast meeting-up with all our Posties.
Yesterday we spent the entire day in the city of Atlanta, and had a chance to meet some fantastic bloggers. First off, we got to the CNN Center downtown at noon, and saw Postie Alli (who you may recall brought 104 cans of food with her) and her son. We walked a couple of blocks to a great restaurant called Ted's Montana Grill, where we talked about blogging, PostieCon, and the new application. Here's a photo of Ted sharing a few "secrets" about Argus with Alli:
If you've been keeping us with us on the Blog America Tour then you know we've challenged all the Posties meeting-up with us along the way to bring canned food donations, which we'll be taking to local charities along our route. Well, our first two stops produced some pheonomenal results: Postie Colleen brought 100 cans with her to our Tampa meet-up last night, and Postie Alli brought 104 cans to Atlanta earlier today! (I think Alli secretly wanted to beat her friend Colleen!) This is awesome, and we couldn't wait to take the donations to the Atlanta Community Food Bank today.
The folks at the food bank were very grateful for the donations we dropped-off, and prior to leaving we took some photos of the location:
For those Bloggers planning to join-up with us along the rest of the tour, keep on bringing the donations! We'll provide updates here on the blog.
Technorati Tags: Atlanta Community Food Bank, Blog America Tour, bloggers, blogging, Posties
Attention Posties attending PostieCon and BlogWorld. The "PostieCon Final Update" email communication has gone out to all confirmed attendees. Please check your email for this important notice. Anyone receiving this email is a confirmed PostieCon attendee, and should have already received their BlogWorld registration code.
If you feel you confirmed your registration but did not receive the Final Update email or did not get your BlogWorld code, please contact Britt at britt [at] izea [dot] com to check on your registration status.
As it relates to BlogWorld, it's important to note that only those individuals with confirmed PostieCon registrations have or will receive the access code necessary to register for a complimentary BlogWorld pass. If you would like to confirm your registration for PostieCon and receive a complimentary pass to BlogWorld, you must contact Britt immediately at britt [at] izea [dot] com.
There are only a limited number of BlogWorld passes left, so it's first-come-first-serve. Only one complimentary BlogWorld pass per confirmed PostieCon attendee will be issued.
It's getting close. Everyone at IZEA is excited to meet our users and celebrate the past year's accomplishments.
