Life Is A Road Trip

The Amazing Adventures of a Zoobroker and a Sentiographer

on the road

The Future Is Here: Killer Robots.

on the road, south dakotazoobroker1 Comment

Yep, you heard it here first. At the Rapid City based School of Mining and Technology, there are a group of people who are build miniature flying vehicles with "AI" that are basically designed for tasks like killing Osama Bin Laden. Okay, so they haven't mounted any weapons on these babies yet (a la Terminator), but the days where the robots we invent come to kill us are just a little bit closer.

That's Mason on the far right in the future-unabomber hoodie.  Mason, if you're out there and you want to put your mad scientist skills to good, let us know!

Day 2 Musings: Advertising Across America

on the road, south dakotaMatt HillComment

Today's drive across South Dakota was flat, then not flat, then amazingly gorgeous (Badlands!). One thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was the constant (and sometimes hilarious) billboards for "Wall Drug". Wall is a small town at the end of the Badlands small loop that apparently sells EVERYTHING under the sun. And Wall, the town, is the home of Wall Drug.

We did not stop, but we were exposed to a Wall Drug billboard from the east side of South Dakota all the way to the west side. And even after leaving Wall, there one more billboard reminding you you had one more chance to visit Wall Drug!

Anyhoo, it got me to thinking. Thinking about how they had small, carefully crafted billboards with one topic on them. Kinda like Google AdWords. No joke. They were the visual equivalent of spam. Constant interruption from the flowing flatlands of South Dakota. But, like much interruptive advertising, there was one or two billboards that spoke to me. Not enough to make me want to stop after ALL THAT WAITING to see what Wall Drug was about. DInner and beer won. No tchotchkes could stop the mouth-watering I wanna beer feeling. Too bad.

But it did raise the question. Actually, Zoo asked me how many people stop because of it. I said that was the wrong question. The right question is how many more people stop than if there was no advertising? Zoo said that's what he meant. I said that's not what you said, though... He acquiesced, so I win. The point being that we guess that they get 10x more visitors simply by awareness of their business. But 1-5 impressions is not enough. I am guessing, but there are probably over 80 billboards in the state for Wall Drug. Wuh... Hurts me, left me laughing and thinking. They win. Except I did not buy anything - I am just telling other people about it ;)

Gotta go make the time-lapse movie of our trip today. See you in a bar, or the comments section here on the site posts.

-- SpamZalot

Gods of the Road Trip: Thank You

girls, nebraska, on the road, SpamZalotMatt Hill2 Comments

Well, Omaha was kind to us... first we blogged (in the space of an hour) ...

And then headed out to the bar after dinner ...

And Zoo and I met Lauren, Amy and Lauren at Billy Frog's ...

... the coolest bar open in Omaha on this Saturday night.

 

Where minors are not allowed...

A typical response to the Zoo Broker's pickup lines...

Then shots were had..

... and good times followed ...

The big guns were brought out...

And the age was verified...

Things could be worse...

"I swear her ID said 21..."

Gods of the Road Trip: Let Omaha Be Kind To Us!

colorado, nebraska, on the roadzoobrokerComment

Okay, my flight landed without a hitch, Spammer picked me up and we're GONE. Vancouver got killed as the rental car couldn't enter Canadia [sic] and the train schedule would have eaten up 36 hours. Ugh. So Spammer left it to chance and played pin the tail on the map. We headed west.

I've been to Omaha a few times in my life, for work (the Henry Doorly Zoo is a big customer), and I've had some incredible fun here, between seeing Bright Eyes at the Sokol Underground and the seemingly endless stream of Creighton lasses ...

But I'm skipping ahead (you can too and just watch the timelapse below). We headed out of Denver, and Spammer realizes that he hasn't added me as a driver to the rental car. Oops. Next rental location? Lincoln, Nebraska, 500 miles away. Oops. We're not turning back. This is a road trip. There's no crying in road trips. There's just Spammer driving almost 600 miles by his lonesome.

I did try my hand at riding the local fauna but before you know it, we've crossed the border into the plains ...

There's so much more to say, but we're under the gun and there's a bachelorette with my name written all over her.

Things to cover:

Here's the driving vid:

Denver to Omaha in Four Minutes from Sir Arthur SpamZalot on Vimeo.

Day 1: Music

on the roadzoobrokerComment

I hate to say it, but Spammer and I pretty much have the best taste in music that exists. This is what we listened to today:

  • the Pillows
  • TV on the Radio
  • Two Gallants
  • Tilly and the Wall
  • Nine Inch Nails
  • Peter and the Wolf
  • the Privates
  • the Punch Brothers
  • Okkervil River
  • Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
  • Johnathan Rice
  • Sunset Rubdown
  • Wolf Parade
  • Billy Bragg
  • Blitzen Trapper
  • Man Man
  • Mates of State
  • Pink Nasty
  • Mirah
  • the White Stripes
  • 2Pac & Biggie
  • Rod Stewart
  • the Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • Neutral Milk Hotel
  • Flipsyde
  • Falco (Rock Me Amadeus) [seriously]
  • Bon Jovi  [less seriously]
  • the Eels
  • Old Crow Medicine Show
  • Rilo Kiley
  • Social Distortion
  • the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
  • Radiohead
  • Tom Waits
  • Zero7
  • the Kinks
  • the Flaming Lips
  • Sufjan Stevens
  • Grizzly Bear
  • Led Zeppelin
  • Phish [ugh]
  • Marco Mahler
  • Norah Jones
  • Citizen Cope
  • Air
  • Peter Gabriel
  • Alexi Murdoch

Spammer's RT1 wrapup

on the roadMatt HillComment

I was in a state on this trip - very emotionally riled up. I had just "survived" a rough passage in life and this was my reward - not twelve hours after moving someone out of my life on a trial basis, I was on a plane to Los Angeles. It was necessary, relaxing, somewhat hard to settle into with everything I had on my mind, but I did my best to explore all that stuff floating around in my immediate conscious as the miles rolled under our wheels. Zoo was a great tour guide, both spiritually and geographically. I went to Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, all of which I had never visited before. The trip was important to me - as an act of asserting my independence, plus it was the beginning of a long road to discover who I was and what I wanted without the source of the confusion "in the room". 

I've always loved getting lost. Seriously. I always have had the feeling that I can find my way out of anything, no matter how unfamiliar the territory. The road trip was a symbol of this, and an act in addition. My life had become unfamiliar territory and it terrified me. I had to make a decision - was I worth believing in what I wanted? Could I find my way to someplace I liked from this weird surrounding? The end of this journey led back to an empty home and an uncertain future divided by a marital separation. It was on a trial basis in more than one way... and I nearly went berserk getting to that point. But part of my enjoyment of being lost is once again finding my way. It's the reward. I can't say that I found my way on this trip, but it was the beginning of establishing an internal compass that pointed the way to a better place.

Fortunately, Zoo, out of the kindness of his heart, asked if I would be his traveling companion on a road trip and thus RT1 was born. Who knew if there would be another? 

My favorite moments:

The original greatest road on earth, parts I & II 

Vegas - being there for fun instead of business and doing it up right. Intelligent strippers turn me on so much more than bubbleheads.

Santa Fe - will always have a place in my heart.

My first real road trip - I mean how can you beat your first?