David again, with a long post inbound. Evans seems to be drowning in work recently, and it's been over a month since the last update. Our Kickstarter was very successful, thanks to a lot of very generous donors. The Bear (otherwise known as Jeremy) and I helped to pledge enough to reach our goal, and since then, Evan has been buried in numbers, dates, and equipment, getting everything prepared.
Our Kickstarter page is a little out of date, and so is the blog, since we've had a few major developments in the last few weeks. Our dear friend Zoë discovered that in order to graduate on time, she will need to take classes this summer, one way or another. She is currently waiting to hear back from an application for a summer program in Costa Rica, which would be a fantastic opportunity. We were, and still are sad to find out she would probably not be joining us, although there is still an undetermined chance she could fly out for the last few weeks of the trip.
We spent some time trying to figure out how to replace her, and Evan has been talking to Erin Miles, who is very interested (although still not committed, I might add). Hopefully, she'll join us for the first half or so of the trip, before leaving us, as she gears up for a trip to India. After that, it looks like my girlfriend Sammie will be flying out to meet us after she returns from backpacking/work in Europe. Final logistics are still cloudy, but we're pretty excited to have new people on board. Of course, we still have a spot (although it would be a tight squeeze) for Zoë, in case she will be able to join us.
Lastly, as a result of the new crew, we've had to shift some dates around so that we can utilize particular cities for the airports. We've pushed back departure about 2 weeks, and should be leaving around June 4th. Plans are to be in San Francisco for July 9th, Portland on the 20th, and beyond that, we have an open return.
We've got about 2 months before we leave, and it looks like we will be wallowing in anticipation, especially once all the logistics are worked out, and our prep/research is mostly finished. Further updates will show up as they are warranted, and another big thank you to everyone who donated to the Kickstarter.
-David
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Thanks to everyone for the support!
http://canton-ct.patch.com/articles/canton-high-school-graduates-look-to-document-journey-landscapes
A very nice article done on us by John Fitts of the Canton Patch in CT! Couldn't be more appreciative of all the support we've been getting. 22 days to see if we can come up with the funding!
A very nice article done on us by John Fitts of the Canton Patch in CT! Couldn't be more appreciative of all the support we've been getting. 22 days to see if we can come up with the funding!
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Thoughts from the southern hemisphere.
Hey everyone. It's David, checking in. At the moment, Evan has been pretty busy, and I wanted to throw my voice in the mix here. Pay no attention to the fact that the post shows up as being posted by Evan Camporeale, we're still working the kinks out on that.
Our Kickstarter has launched! It's been up since sometime later in the day on Monday. Evan put it all together, and we spent some time deliberating the various details and rewards and whatnot. It was quite a few drafts before it was finalized. It is a little nerve wracking to check the page and see that there are backers pledging support, but also knowing that it is going to be a long way to our goal.
The truth is that while it's easy to like a Facebook page, it is also all too easy to not to support a particular cause, project, or person. I am, more frequently than I would care to admit, one of the people who has done this. I have come to realize, more recently, that any cause I find worthy of my attention, especially if promoted by a friend, is absolutely worthy of supporting financially, and even with a low bank account, I won't mind donating because I know how life saving it can be to get donations, especially from friends and peers.
Where I am going with this, in my generally meandering style of writing, is that I cannot possibly overstate how incredibly important pledges are to us right now. While the trip is set in stone, and funded individually, this project will never get off the ground without outside support. Even a few dollars is incredibly meaningful, and we are beyond grateful to have every bit of support there is. And the remarkable thing is, if everyone who thought this project was worthy of a like on facebook could pull $5 out of their pockets in support, not only would we make incredible strides toward our goal, but we would be much more than $5 in debt to every individual who helped. If we could, at some point in time, pay back every individual who pledged, we would still be in debt for the support that we received.
I should admit I'm not a fan of how this post comes off. It's hard to tread lightly when you're asking for money. I'll end with a story, something that happened today. An old friend, who hasn't been in touch in...at least half a dozen years, if not more, suddenly popped up on my personal facebook wall. He started by saying that I might not remember who he was, it had been that long. He went on to say that he saw our page show up somewhere on facebook. He said he thinks this trip is an amazing idea, offered financial support, and also made plans to meet us as we pass by him in Arizona, bring us along to a west coast party, if we were so inclined, and potentially have a place to crash with a roof over our heads, which will be relatively rare while we are on the road. It boggles my mind that this trip brought about this unlikely turn of events, makes me grateful for his generosity, and makes me wonder what power this journey might have in bringing people together, whether they be old friends or new, or even strangers on the road.
-David
Our Kickstarter has launched! It's been up since sometime later in the day on Monday. Evan put it all together, and we spent some time deliberating the various details and rewards and whatnot. It was quite a few drafts before it was finalized. It is a little nerve wracking to check the page and see that there are backers pledging support, but also knowing that it is going to be a long way to our goal.
The truth is that while it's easy to like a Facebook page, it is also all too easy to not to support a particular cause, project, or person. I am, more frequently than I would care to admit, one of the people who has done this. I have come to realize, more recently, that any cause I find worthy of my attention, especially if promoted by a friend, is absolutely worthy of supporting financially, and even with a low bank account, I won't mind donating because I know how life saving it can be to get donations, especially from friends and peers.
Where I am going with this, in my generally meandering style of writing, is that I cannot possibly overstate how incredibly important pledges are to us right now. While the trip is set in stone, and funded individually, this project will never get off the ground without outside support. Even a few dollars is incredibly meaningful, and we are beyond grateful to have every bit of support there is. And the remarkable thing is, if everyone who thought this project was worthy of a like on facebook could pull $5 out of their pockets in support, not only would we make incredible strides toward our goal, but we would be much more than $5 in debt to every individual who helped. If we could, at some point in time, pay back every individual who pledged, we would still be in debt for the support that we received.
I should admit I'm not a fan of how this post comes off. It's hard to tread lightly when you're asking for money. I'll end with a story, something that happened today. An old friend, who hasn't been in touch in...at least half a dozen years, if not more, suddenly popped up on my personal facebook wall. He started by saying that I might not remember who he was, it had been that long. He went on to say that he saw our page show up somewhere on facebook. He said he thinks this trip is an amazing idea, offered financial support, and also made plans to meet us as we pass by him in Arizona, bring us along to a west coast party, if we were so inclined, and potentially have a place to crash with a roof over our heads, which will be relatively rare while we are on the road. It boggles my mind that this trip brought about this unlikely turn of events, makes me grateful for his generosity, and makes me wonder what power this journey might have in bringing people together, whether they be old friends or new, or even strangers on the road.
-David
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
2013
Things are really picking up steam! Our kick-starter campaign is about to launch and hopefully we can get some really epic camera equipment to bring along with us! It looks like we have our finally crew of four people after some initial trials and tribulations. Gear is being accumulated as I just got back from Belize and Dave is currently in Chile for the semester. We seem to have a solid itinerary set and the only remaining obstacle seems to be our bank accounts. It's certainly a big obstacle but we all have faith that we can all pull through by 5/20. Will be posting more as that date gets closer. Exhilarated to get this going to say the least!
-Evan
-Evan
Monday, April 30, 2012
The First Plan
Exciting things happening this past Saturday. The first planning session for this trip finally occurred. Zoe and I sat down at our friend Bill's house (one of the surefire candidates for the trip) and just broke out some maps, laptops and documents and dove in. Neither of us knew exactly where to start, and after a lot of writing, deleting and editing, not all that much was accomplished. However it was a start nonetheless, and we think one of the true benefits to this planning session was that we realized how much planning we are going to need to pull this off. At first glance, we knew it would be a very challenging task, but at second and third glance, we have realized just how challenging. The goal is to finish all planning by the end of this year. We remain very optimistic on this. The enthusiasm for this trip is inspiring and I know that we will not procrastinate on something we all want to do so badly. Looking at some pictures and maps hurt though, it just reminds us of how bad we want to be on the road, or in the woods, or on the beaches, or in the mountains, hiking, exploring, living, being. Stay tuned.
The Expedition
Mid October 2011-
"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile. Climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." -- John Muir
I have awesome friends. I also have some stupid friends. Stupid enough that when the topic of traveling across the country for a month during the summer months comes up, we are not only determined to make it happen, we make a pact on it. The overwhelming desire for true adventure and discovery was too powerful to deny and remains that way in the present day. What was most inspiring about the conversations I was having with my good friend Zoe at the time was that, we didn't want to simply take a road trip with friends. The difference is that both of us as individuals had such a strong desire to create our own paths through the journey of life, but our paths were so similar and intertwining that a journey of such epic proportions was inevitable. We discussed who else would be appropriate to bring along with us, and I use the term appropriate because a lot of our mutual friends would be fun. A lot of our mutual friends would make this trip a blast, but that isn't what this is about. This is about discovery. This is about youth. This is about freedom. This is about individualism. This is about commitment. Our good friend Deanna has hopped on the bandwagon because she shares so many of our values, it'd be wrong if she didn't come along for the ride. Depending on the logistics of transportation, we are still determining who will fill the 4th and 5th (if we can fit that many) slots on our journey. The plan was originally to depart on this during this summer, however due to minimal funding and not enough time to plan, the goal is for the summer of 2013. The plan is that we will spend approximately a month traveling the better half of the United States. Most of our time will be spent out west, camping, exploring, and simply traveling and seeing all that is beautiful in our motherland. This blog is dedicated to recording anything and everything having to do with the expedition, from planning to exploring to contemplating. It will be epic, it will be exciting, it will be dangerous, it will be exhilarating, it will be long, it will be inspiring. None of us know exactly what we will get out of it, but that is why we are doing it in the first place. To discover what is out there, and to discover what is inside of us. Welcome to the Motherland Expedition.
"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile. Climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." -- John Muir
I have awesome friends. I also have some stupid friends. Stupid enough that when the topic of traveling across the country for a month during the summer months comes up, we are not only determined to make it happen, we make a pact on it. The overwhelming desire for true adventure and discovery was too powerful to deny and remains that way in the present day. What was most inspiring about the conversations I was having with my good friend Zoe at the time was that, we didn't want to simply take a road trip with friends. The difference is that both of us as individuals had such a strong desire to create our own paths through the journey of life, but our paths were so similar and intertwining that a journey of such epic proportions was inevitable. We discussed who else would be appropriate to bring along with us, and I use the term appropriate because a lot of our mutual friends would be fun. A lot of our mutual friends would make this trip a blast, but that isn't what this is about. This is about discovery. This is about youth. This is about freedom. This is about individualism. This is about commitment. Our good friend Deanna has hopped on the bandwagon because she shares so many of our values, it'd be wrong if she didn't come along for the ride. Depending on the logistics of transportation, we are still determining who will fill the 4th and 5th (if we can fit that many) slots on our journey. The plan was originally to depart on this during this summer, however due to minimal funding and not enough time to plan, the goal is for the summer of 2013. The plan is that we will spend approximately a month traveling the better half of the United States. Most of our time will be spent out west, camping, exploring, and simply traveling and seeing all that is beautiful in our motherland. This blog is dedicated to recording anything and everything having to do with the expedition, from planning to exploring to contemplating. It will be epic, it will be exciting, it will be dangerous, it will be exhilarating, it will be long, it will be inspiring. None of us know exactly what we will get out of it, but that is why we are doing it in the first place. To discover what is out there, and to discover what is inside of us. Welcome to the Motherland Expedition.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)