My attention was brought to a very interesting post on BitcoinTalk, which is about two German brothers going on a 42-day road trip through the US. The fun part? This trip is powered by Bitcoin, and you can help them!
The plan is to cover over 8,000 miles over the span of 42 days, and all of it will be done by car. So what does this have to do with Bitcoin? Quite a lot actually, as there will be a “Powered by Bitcoin” sticker on the car they will be using.
However, the Bitcoin sticker is only part of the plan. There are plans to take awesome pictures with a Bitcoin context. For example, if they visit the town “Winner” , you might see a picture appear with a sign stating “Bitcoin is a … “ and then have the town sign next to it to complete the sentence.
Or, if you prefer a more “drastic” picture, you might see a sign with the text “Obama Loves Bitcoin” in front of the White House. There are a lot of possibilities, and all of these special pictures will be shared with the Bitcoin community, free of charge!
An interesting information is the fact they are offering promotional packages in exchange for BItcoin. You can have your site, business or coin promoted on the car itself, by using magnetic decals. If you want to send in your decals, you have until the 28th of July to get them to Germany! Alternatively, you can deposit them in one of the US cities along the route, and they will be retrieved from that location.
Other advertising options are available too. For example, you can have messages photographed at a prominent location. A great example was given in the BitcoinTalk thread : ‘Photo in front of an Apollo (Saturn) rocket with a sign that says “Bitcoin to da mooon!” ’
A wide variety of packages and services are available, so make sure to check them all out and see what would work best for you. The prices are very reasonable, and you will get exposure in the most prominent locations in the US.
You can, of course, just send in a Bitcoin donation if you like the idea of this road trip. Once the total amount of donations reaches 0.5 BItcoin or more, there will be a raffle! The winner of this raffle will win a ZeusMiner Blizzard Scrypt ASIC.
As the whole idea intrigued us, we decided to conduct a small interview with “Polarstorm“ , in order to get his perspective on a few things. Without further ado, here we go :
JP : First of all, I really love your idea of taking a road trip in the US. It’s one of the things on my “bucket list”. I can imagine this whole trip being very expensive though. How did you fund it, if I may ask?
Polarstorm : With Bitcoins. I made some profits in the “boom-time” a year ago or so, and “yes” it’s expensive.
JP : Have you ever been to the US before this trip, and if so, was it a road trip, a guided tour, or just a holiday in one city/state?
Polarstorm : No, it’s my/our first trip to the US. I think there’s much to discover it’s a great country.
JP : How did all of the planning come together? I mean, there are tons of places to visit in the US; but you had to narrow down the list. Was it a matter of random picks, or did you go with the “more popular” places in the end?
Polarstorm : Half half, so to say. We pick up some “normal” locations everyone visits like the Capitol, Vegas and so on, but we also want to visit some “special” places, like the “Nipton Trading Post” and try to buy something there with bottle caps. I did 90% of the planning and I pick up things that look interesting on Google Maps as an example. It’s hard work, because the idea for the trip is only 2 weeks old.
JP : Are you planning to meet up with any friends, family, or other Bitcoin enthusiasts along the way?
Polarstorm : There was a guy in the Bitcointalk forum who has invited us but he lives in Colorado and that is not on our route. Maybe we meet a friend of my brother in Chicago and stay there for a while. Beside this, we think that we will meet many people and talk to them about bitcoins because of the stickers on our car.
JP : As this trip is amongst two brothers, do you think there will be any friction after hanging out so much for 42 days in a row? Or how are you going to balance it out?
Polarstorm : Sure, we think that after 2 or 3 weeks the mood could change, but when you know that this could happen, you can remember it and calm down or at least try to. If it happens, the plan is to stay 2 days or so in a location with different motel rooms, so everything can cool down a bit.
JP : Will you be keeping a blog or diary of your trip somewhere so interested people can keep up with your road trip? We would love to post a daily update on CryptoArticles about your trip, if that is a possibility!
Polarstorm : Yes, the adress is: www.road trip.falltime.de we will see if it is possible to make daily updates, because when we are in “the middle of nowhere” theres no possibilite of it. But the plan is to do updates whenever it’s possible.
JP : Assuming this road trip proves to be a success, are you thinking of doing another Bitcoin-sponsored road trip in the future?
Polarstorm : Oh yes. We want to make a cruise around South America and a trip from South to North Africa and also from Europe to Wladiwostok. The South America thing is the next thing to happen, we think December-January this year. It depends on the time my brother has, as he’s a student.
JP : Is there anything else you would like to tell our readers, about the trip, about you or your brother, or anything you want to promote?
Polarstorm : Yes, it would be nice if your readers check out the blog and post ideas on what else we could do. In the “Route” section, there are some of the special things listed which we want to do, but any other good ideas are very welcome. They don’t have to be serious, funny things are very welcome.
Make sure to check out the USA Road Trip Website :
http://www.roadtrip.falltime.de/
As well as the BitcoinTalk thread :
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=697863.0
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