The World's Largest Truck Stop

I just drove from Las Vegas (Sunday 1pm PST) to Detroit, Michigan (8pm EST Tuesday). It’s about 2110 miles.  I want to tell you how crazy Blog World was in Vegas.  I’ll try to do a short version, though being short-winded is not my strength.

Vegas: Fun! Tons of friends from all over the world.  Met new ones.  I love memorable meetings- When I met Deb, it was at a club, and Kate said “Give her a foot massage” “Ok” – so.. I’m on the floor at this club, this woman is writhing in pleasure, and that’s when we made introductions.  We’re great friends now.  I even danced!  A lot!  Like, pick the girl up, swing her around, Salsa, Cha-Cha, swing, hip-hop… who knew?!  I wasn’t even drunk.  Good mood can make a huge difference.

1st night- didn’t have a couch lined up.  Ended up getting the largest suite at the Luxor, and it was technically with someone whom I met at the 140conf (though, at the mixer). This happened spontaneously, as I went to Vegas intentionally without a couch.  I then had Shane agree to let me crash his couch at the Luxor, and while on my way to Shane’s room, Kendall invited me to instead crash at her suite:

I ended up being the official photographer for TechKaraoke at BlogWorld.  Rad event.  Next year, I will sing in it!  This will require me getting over some internal issues, and possibly seeking some pro vocal coaching.

I was VERY goofy during this event.  I was very me.

Why? Because I was constantly surrounded by great friends who like me for me, and thus bring out the best in me. While there’s many people, I’m going to give the big shout out to Kate Buck Jr.

I met Amber (@MissDestructo) – she’s bff material, meaning, rad, funny, has attitude, knows who she is, speaks her mind, laughs at my jokes, is smart.  She too gets frustrated at people not living their lives.  My business manager told me that she’s envious that I’m going to BWE, ’cause I’ll get to meet Amber, whom she’s a huge fan of.  So, I message Amber, saying that we have to make a video for her.  So, I’m at this giant party at Liquid, talking to one of my fans who was excited to meet me, when I see Amber’s blue hair.  I cut out mid-sentence, “Excuse me!” jump on some furniture to get around people, tap her on the shoulder, and she ditched her conversation without finishing her sentence either!  How cool.  We walked off to a private cabana, and filmed the video.

I also shot a bunch of pics of her. The cool thing I want to point out is birds of a feather.  She quickly introduced me to many other cool people… Generally, I bring up Birds of a Feather when I talk about the 2 couches (yes, in all this time, I’ve only had 2 couches that I didn’t really think were great people… I didn’t like how they treated their kids/significant others, and some of their other values) that I didn’t vibe with… they were friends, despite being across the country.  Then I held a workshop at a studio that was provided by a friend of one of them… whom one of my students later informed me got convicted for 57 counts of child molestation.  Yuck. So… it’s great to be able to say Birds of a Feather in a good context. We hung out a bunch, and that’s not the last we’ll see each other or interact.

To avoid eating crap food all the time, especially on the road, I spent $200 at Whole Foods on Raw Foods that are Dehydrated.  So, I did stop at about 10 McDonald’s on the route to Detroit, but it was only to steal their internet signal from the parking lot. I haven’t weighed myself, but generally when I eat a mostly raw diet, I lose a lot of weight… quickly.  I was thirsty as all heck though- dehydrated food rehydrates with your bodily fluids – but had also brought a bunch of spring water with me.

So, I spent $200 on raw food, and I still have a bunch of it.  I didn’t eat crap food, which is generally so easy to get on the road (You never see Organic / Raw Food restaurants at service stations), and it helped me stay healthy despite my very little sleep (I didn’t get out of the car except to fill up gas, or go to the restroom.  I would sleep- and usually for 15-60 minutes on the side of the road, or rest stops when I was exhausted).

The journey was tough- I had to get here (Detroit) in time, so I didn’t have time to get couches, despite wanting to, and having people invite me.  I thought I had time, then I kept realizing I didn’t.  So, the journey didn’t work out as I had anticipated, but it was incredible!

People retweeted, and got their friends involved, and people were connecting with each other, and me.  It was a blast!  I got to meet new people that I didn’t know, that are like minded and incredible.

Dan from Mile High Buzz

Since THIS roadtrip was intended to promote the 140Conf, I kept using the HashTag #140Conf Roadtrip (it means in twitter you can click on the 140conf and see all the updates that mention it), and I was seeking characters, as that’s what the 140Confis about. Characters, and usage of the real-time web.  I found one!

Well, I gotta give Brandie (previously mentioned business manager) credit for the discovery.  Because I was looking for spots to have Tweetups at, we thought a coffee house would be great.  Apparently,  most of the coffee shops in Denver do not have websites or social-media presence. This was shocking.  Yet, one guy whom Google was listing at first place for most shops’ names was Dan, with his Mile High Buzz blog.

Dan uses social media and his blog to get the word out about mom and pops coffee shops.  That’s exactly who I was looking for!  Brandie contacted him for me, as I was driving some crazy ravines at this time, and in the morning I got to meet him for an interview.

I am going to donate some of my time, and upgrade his blog for him, to empower him to help more coffee shops, and let others post their own shop reviews.

I lost my iPod charger!  That sucks, ’cause now I have 3 iPods, and none of them work   So, no audio books this time around.  I did refresh my mind about some new marketing techniques I recently studied about Cell Phone advertising, by playing that course on my laptop which sat in the passenger seat.

There was a cool piece of serendipity!  You know I love talking about Serendipity!

A few weeks ago, I messaged my friend June “*hugs*” out of the blue, just for the heck of it.  She replied that it must have been divine intervention.  I didn’t think much of it. But lately, as I was heading to Colorado, I texted her to see if she was around.  She was in Chicago.  So, since I was planning on being in Chicago today, I texted her to see if she was in Chicago.  She said that no, she’s on her way to Iowa!  I was in Iowa, and heading to Chicago!  So, we met 1/2 way, which was at the world’s largest truck stop.  Since I’m on the 140Conf Roadtrip, I want you to notice the serendipity, and the use of real-time technologies.

Turns out though that the reason she said a few weeks ago that I must be a divine messenger is that when I sent the *hug* out of the blue, she had just found out that her mother is ill, and may pass… which is why she went to Chicago.  Cool, eh?

So, I started tweeting with one of the speakers at this 140Conf today.  Turns out that Je-Nae Duane wanted a ride from the airport to the cocktail party .  I said I’d be happy to, but then when I got to some god-forsaken town in Illinois that has a shipping yard, I not only had to go through massive amounts of streets that are ripped up from construction, but I also got stuck waiting behind the tracks for a train.  This train was the longest train I had ever seen (that’s not sarcasm, it really was), and also the slowest moving.  In fact, numerous times it came to a complete stop, then would start again, at a snail’s pace.

I was getting angry, and THAT is when Ja-Nae called me for the first time.  I was watching impotently as the train crawled along, and my GPS showed me that arrival time would be later and later.  I didn’t know who this girl was that well, and I didn’t want to keep her waiting, so I told her to Cab it.  She insisted I just call her as I know what’s up.

The train finally ran out of cars, and was no longer blocking the tracks… however, there were other tracks, and something else was blocking traffic.  I just felt as if I’d never leave town!  I felt as if my entire push to get to Detroit on Tuesday was a waste of time.  It was not a good feeling, as I generally try to focus on the positive.

The second I got back on the freeway, I started hauling ass.  The interesting thing is that in Michigan, people drive awesomely!  Many of them speed heavily, but they do so in the left lane.  They are aware of other drivers, and move out of the way to the right lane.  Being tired, having a full car, and driving an SUV all led me to feel as if I’m speeding, despite only doing the speed limit -70.  Once in a while I’d move to 80 or 85.  I tried to speed it up and see far I can get the estimated arrival time to reverse.

When I did arrive, I picked Ja-Nae up, and we started chatting.  I was so blown away!  This woman sings opera all over the wold, has authored a book on how to start your business for $100, and has founded the largest entrepreneurial network on the planet or women. She is working on her 2nd book, and is teaching people to make social change.

We arrived at the 140Conf mixer, had a drink, a tiny bit of food, met some characters, and then she had to leave to go to her hotel.  I was lightly crushed, because I wanted to hear all of her stories!  She is just fascinating, and is my age, and has quite the story(stories).  I hope that I’m not too distracted from paying attention to all of tomorrow’s speakers!