Cross-Country Trip: Finalized Travel Schedule

The final travel schedule for our Virginia-to-Phoenix trip is set.  On most of these stops, we have several options as to what we're going to do, and in most cases we're getting together with more than a few contacts I've put on a master "call list."  I'll probably have Internet access on most of these stops, so if you're in any of these locations and want to join the party -- or if you'd like to suggest a venue/location/event -- drop me an e-mail.

Previously: The 2005 Gorilla Mask Cross-Country Tour

NOTE: Thanks to everyone who has e-mailed me about the trip so far - the response has been even greater than I expected.  I'm still sifting through messages and trying to plot this thing out.  It's almost to the point where I wish we'd planned this earlier, because from the numbers it seems like we could have "GorillaMask Events" at several locations.  The list below depicts the spots we are DEFINITELY hitting (as of Thursday night), but by no means is it the final list of stops we'll be making.

On August 16, all Gorilla Mask operations will grind to a halt for a while as I do my best to terrorize the entire southern half of the United States.  Next week, I'm flying to Virginia to pick up my buddy Smitty, who's moving to Phoenix to join me in the pursuit of some entrepreneurial opportunities.  We're packing his entire life into the back of his Rodeo and driving across the country back to Arizona.  We plan on making it a voyage of epic proportions.  In fact, I'll be documenting every aspect of the trip, and publishing it here.

If it takes us a few extra days (or even weeks), that's fine, but we want to see as many people and places as possible.  We have a few stops planned along the way, but we have plenty of holes to fill.  (Ladies, if you help us fill our holes, we'll be glad to return the favor.)

But seriously, I'm always down to meet new people.  So whether you're male or female, if you're in the rough vicinity of our route and you'd like to entertain us, or even just grab a beer, let me know.  I'm keeping an updated draft of our itinerary below, which should be set in stone by Tuesday-ish.  (Please read the Points of Emphasis below before e-mailing me!)
 

Some Points of Emphasis:

At the end of the trip I'll be writing a recap.  It will be posted on this site, available to my roughly 90,000-100,000 daily unique visitors.  I don't plan on censoring it at all.  If you don't want to be included in the stories I tell, don't be included in the stories I live.

Some spots we'd like to hit:  Of the current dead spots, we'd really like to establish a contact in/near New Orleans, for obvious reasons.  And pretty much anywhere between Dallas and Phoenix.  That's a big hole, and we'd really like to cut that last leg down a bit.

Know your geography.  For the most part, we're trying not to backtrack.  Sidetracking, on the other hand, is fine.  As a general rule, we probably won't be traveling above the line made if you were to draw one connecting Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arizona.

What the hell is going on?  As much as we'd love to drive hundreds of miles to grab a beer (seriously, I live for that), we'd like to make each stop more exciting than our every day lives.  So please let us know if there's anything worth noting going on in your area (parties, concerts, games, landmarks, even drink specials), and provide accurate dates/times when possible.  It will help us put together a final draft for our itinerary.

If it's free, it's me.  Any venues you can get into for free, any sleeping arrangements you can provide, any free alcohol offers you can make... that's the kind of stuff that's going to draw us.  I dropped a grand in a Las Vegas strip club in a little more than an hour last weekend... my goal is to complete this entire trip spending less than that.

Creepiness will not be tolerated.  Putting together a trip like this requires Smitty and I to put more trust in complete strangers than most people would be willing to do.  We're friendly guys who love meeting new people, shooting the shit, and throwing down some brews.  Those are the kind of people we'll be looking to chill with on this trip, and we're not about to commit to engaging with anyone we have even the slightest reservations about.

Who the hell is RP?  I don't know why you'd want to hang out if you don't know anything about me, but just in case you want some extra info here's my Webmaster Profile page.

Chicks before Dicks.  Let's be honest, we'll be a lot more interested in hanging out with hot chicks than we will dudes.  (Legality is a prerequisite.)

Seriously, creepiness will not be tolerated.  I'm pointing this out again just for emphasis.  I'm a very trusting person, which has resulted in me meeting plenty of people from the Internet over the years.  But I'm not a moron, and I'm not putting myself in any situations that may result in my body being buried in the desert with every orifice filled to the brim with man juice.  So don't take it personal if we take precautions like meeting up in public places, having you give us your phone number rather than give you ours, etc.