Disappointment and Sadness are a part of this, too.

This afternoon I told Tommy that I would probably have to take my iPad with me when I went on my trip.  He replied, "Where are you going?"  I thought he was kidding since we've been talking about it now for three weeks, so I said, "Ummm.... go look at the map on the Seminary room wall!"

He still wasn't getting it, so I told him that each of those little tags was someplace that I was stopping and that I would be leaving June 10th, right about when school got out and getting back on Oct 10th.  Then I heard a horrible sound: an 8 year old sobbing his heart out when he realized that Grandma was going to be gone ALL SUMMER!!

Oh dear.  I called him to me and held him on my lap for about 10 minutes while he cried about me being gone for so long.  I kept trying to explain: "I'll be leaving a while after Papa's birthday, then I'll miss my birthday, Mommy's birthday, Nick's birthday, then Daddy's and Maddison's birthdays, then I'll be back."  That just made it worse.  Then I tried, "Well, I'll leave when you get done with 2nd grade and I'll be back right after you start 3rd grade."  Nope, that was a dumb choice, too.  I even tried to joke with him that he was just going to miss my iPad and not me, but he wasn't having it.  It just brought a fresh wave of anguish.

I explained that I would send postcards home and that I would be able to Skype with him while I was gone and that appeased him a bit, but oh my goodness.... I broke his heart.  Finally we just sat with him on my lap in silence, enjoying the sweet time we have together now.  My sweet, tender-hearted grandson.

In other news, I received a reply from Cracker Barrel and they regretfully cannot support me for my trip.  I guess I'll just need to work a little harder and do without Lemon Pepper Trout for awhile.  No replies yet from Ford; Enterprise Rent-a-Car; Pepsi; McDonalds or PooPourri yet.  I'll let you know!

Time to Start Asking for Stuff.

Today is the big test.  I just sent letters to Ford and to Enterprise Rent A Car to see if they'll loan me a car.  I'm sending the letter to other companies also, but thought I'd start with those.

I sent a letter to a company that makes personal safety jewelry called Cuff.  It's a little devise that fits into a bracelet or necklace that will call 911 when pressed.  Their product is in pre-sales right now and won't be available for a few months yet, but they suggested I contact them later in the Spring, so we'll see.

After hearing the Pepsi half-time ads, I decided that it would be fun to see if Pepsi will give me some sodas for a half-time on the trip.  That should be somewhere around Glacier National Park in Montana and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  Wouldn't that be funny to just pull over and offer people a Pepsi for half-time?

I'm getting more excited about this trip all the time!  LOL

Here's the letter I sent:

It All Started With An Accidental Dare From My Husband…

Hi,  I’m Judi Stull.  I’m a Realtor (among other things) in Mount Airy, Maryland.  For a long time, I’ve harbored a dream of traveling around the U.S. but it was just cost prohibitive to stay in hotels every night and pay for gas while traveling that long.  I wanted to visit other Realtors, friends and family members who are flung all over the country.

One day, my husband said, “You can do it, if you can do it for free.” 

I just laughed at the time, but then a few weeks ago I decided to ask my 1500+ friends on Facebook if anyone would let me sleep on their couch for the night if I stopped by.  Within a few hours I had more than enough offers to get almost all the way around the U.S.  I was missing 5 states.  I even had friends in 26 other countries offering to let me stay with them!  I’m now getting offers from friends of friends in the states I was missing.

My first thought was to use an electric car so I didn’t have to pay for gas, but I soon realized that my route would not allow for that.  There just aren’t enough charging stations in the places I’m going.  However, I could use a hybrid!  I’m only scheduling about 250-300 miles a day so I will have time to visit and to see some sights, which will allow me the time needed to stop and charge up an electric hybrid.   During the times when there aren’t any charging stations, I can use gas power.

I’ve already had people offering me money to cover the costs for tolls and gasoline.

What I need now is a car.  Will you loan me a car to do this crazy social media fueled trip?  I will be gone a little more than four months and will probably drive a little more than 20,000 miles.  It’s just under 19,000 with only having cities, not exact addresses, on my route.   I am hoping to leave on this trip June 10^th and to return on October 15^th.  That’s 129 days if I stick to my schedule.  I will be staying with 120 different people and will be visiting nearly 300 people, all of whom will know that you have loaned me a car.  Plus it will be mentioned several times in my blog and on social media. 

I am very active on Facebook (Judi Bland Stull) and have been for many years.  After cleaning out my friends list of people who were no longer active, I ended up with 1522 friends. I am followed by 1133 people on Twitter (@JudiStull) and use Twitter, Yelp, Instagram and Swarm fairly regularly, I have a blog just for this trip at ThisCrazyTrip.Blogspot.com .  I am a good driver with no accidents that were my fault.  I don’t have any speeding tickets or other driving issues, even though I will admit to exceeding the speed limit occasionally. 

Will you help me make ThisCrazyTrip a reality?

Thanks!!

Judi Stull

ThisCrazyTrip@gmail.com  410-599-5955