Tag: Juan Way

Alright, this is the current plan of the Juan Way Tour.

It will happen in the summer of 2009, with a few festivals in the spring (just festivals, no other stops on the way there or back).
The vessel which will bring us about the country will be a modified school bus, which I will have completed by the summer of 2008 (at which point we will test it out with a mini-trip). The bus will not sleep any more than 4 people.
The plan is to hit as many music festivals, cities, landmarks, etc as possible in the summer. All of this will be published to its own website in video, picture, and text form.
Now, most festivals charge for admission, but hopefully I will be able to convince them that the massive exposure from the website will justify free entry for whoever is on the bus, and maybe a few others.
Gas is not a problem, because the bus will be running on veggie oil, which restaurants give away for free.
Food is going to be one of the few consistant costs through the whole tour, but it won’t total too high (its not like we’re going to be dining like kings during this).
Certain festivals accept volunteers, who get free admission and food, in exchange for a few hours of work each day. This may be another option.
This is going to be a massive trip, and people are welcome to tag along / take off whenever they please.

This trip has changed from a massive road trip to something far bigger, which I don’t expect many people to stay on for the whole thing.
Maybe we’ll pull a huge road trip in 08, sans festivals, which more people could join. We’ll see.

So, yes, this shall be massive. Post any questions you have, because I’m sure I have the answer to them.

Since dates for festivals change each year, I don’t have a list of which we will be attending yet, but visit jambase.com to see a list of many, many potentials. Three that I will hit no matter what are Bonnaroo, Wakarosa, and Greyfox.

Thats right, I’ve got a pair of Juan Way street signs. One will be installed over the door, and the other over the driver’s side window on the bus.

I’m pretty happy it made it here, since the confirmation email I got only listed a billing address (no shipping addy) and I had no idea where it would be delivered. Thankfully, it showed up today in Storrs, addressed to Joe Groeneweghn Paganette. I have no idea how they came up with that.

For the time being, one will hang from the end of my bed, and the other will find a home soon enough (perhaps in The Truck).

This is pretty awesome, and probably made it worth waking up today.

I’m a big fan of From The Shadows, a downloadable tech show that just rocks. Box 6.0 (the latest episode) should be coming out soon, so I’ve been checking the site pretty often. I randomly notice a topic called Big Idea 2, and check it out.

Someone has an idea that is extremely similar to the Juan Way Tour, and he’s done much more research into it than I have (which is a good thing).
However, he’s looking to pull this off in the summer of 06. He has some pretty ambitious plans, considering he’s stationed in Afghanistan right now, and won’t be back until sometime next year. We’ve talked a little on IM, and will be talking more as time goes on. It’d be great to see this launch.

Sometime soon there will be a site for it (something like tour.somjuan.com or whatever). It’ll have more info, and be a general center of operations.

I’ll probably be posting more frequent updates about this, since things are happening again. I’ve got kind of mixed emotions about this. On one hand, I’m thrilled that this will be happening, and that there are people who I don’t even know that are interested in it. On the other, I’m kinda disappointed that someone is gonna pull it off before me. Stupid pride. Stop messin shit up for me.

It would be pretty excellent if he could pull it off, and we’re sharing some ideas. If he goes through with it next summer (or even the summer after that) I’ll totally be there.

Would any of you be interested / able to?

I figured I’d post a more detailed description of this event.

The idea is we get as many people as possible to voyage across the country in a convoy. Obviously something like this will require money.

One way we’ve considered funding it is corporate sponsorship (free stuff). We can probably pull this off because of a number of reasons. We’ll be using a mobile internet connection service (Verison offers one right now, but in 4 years, who knows) that gets a decent connection via satellite. They’d love someone to do something awesome with it that could give them some good press. (so internet connection: free)

Since we’ll have internet connection, we’ll have webcams strapped to random parts of the Flagship, and probably some of the people with us to film it, since it is such an epic event.

They’ll be a centralized website for all this stuff, and, being the poor college kids we are, I’ll put out an offer for product placement. Basically, if anyone wants to send us something (someone like Lays wants us to only eat their chips or whatever, they send us some free). Basically they give us stuff, they get airtime. Simple as that. (snackage, maybe some other nifty stuff: free)

It also turns out buses are pretty cheap. Who knew. I took a quick glance on eBay, and they’re decently priced.

[Most of that deals with how we’ll be actually pulling this off. Don’t forget the awesomeness that will take place once we’re underway]

I’ll be setting up a small wireless network around the bus so other cars can go online as well. Maybe we’ll even get some LANing in.

We hit whatever destinations we want to between here and San Francisco (our final destination). It’d be cool if we could time the trip so we could hit a couple conventions or even Burning Man on the way.

This is all, of course, best case scenario. The final trip will probably be much different from the one described here. We’ll see how it turns out.

Totally open to any suggestions, too. Peter suggested applying for a grant, which would be cool, because although buses are cheap, its still a good grand or so.

Thoughts?

Alright, check this – I’m actually going to blog something about me. Not about the weather(still too hot), not about the site – about me.

Wow, I know, its crazy.

Anywise. for a while now, my long term plans for after college have been to travel across the country living out of my truck/van. Its totally internet capable, and made of pure awesome (seeing as how it doesn’t exist yet, you’ll have to take my word for it).

But there is obviously the issue of how to fund such a mission. So, SomJuan.com, you need to make me a millionaire. I know, I know, you’re only a year old, but you have time. And potential. Yes, AdSense hasn’t even made us $10, but I’m confident that you can see a way to win.

If any of you want a ride in my golden van of awesome, you should book your seats now.

Maybe thats how I’ll fund it. I’ll sell tickets. I’ll give people “rides”, and once I’m far enough out in the middle of nowhere, I’ll ditch em. They go for a bathroom break, and I’ll peel outta there.

Man, I don’t even need to go to college for this.

Roadtripology? I don’t think so.

EDIT: Joe has called shotgun, and come up with the name for this tour de farce.

The JuanWay TourYou dig?