RoadsideOnline

Welcome to this weeks Bruce on the Backroads. Last weeks blog seemed to leave everyone in stunned silence both here and on Facebook, so this weeks “Roadworthy Resource” will be a bit more conventional. Although as a note, all the JetBlue tickets sold out, so this go round I will not be able to report to you from the field. But remember potential sponsors, feel free to contact me next go round at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and it might be the [your name here] Bruce on the Backroads whirlwind US Trip blog. We can work on the name. Call me.

This is my first attempt to bring resources that I think could be useful to fellows travelers and adventurers.  I feel like in the future I will use this section to talk about books and websites, maybe the occasional gadget.  However, if you are a regular reader then you noticed a message in my replies last week talking about the new Jet Blue offer of a one month all you can fly for $599.  I know personally if I had a sponsor I could turn this little marketing ploy into one of the better adventures had in the modern era. However I think to really do this right I would need about $10,000.00. I am sure you are thinking "WHY? Its a $600.00 ticket, what's the rest of the money for?" Well my friends I see it like this, if you lay out the Jet Blue map you will notice that whole sections of the country are not touched (like almost ALL the red states), so to fill in this gap, you need the Amtrak 15 day/8 Segment Pass.  This would cost an additional $389.00. So far lets call it an even $1,000.00 and I still need to buy a video camera and a laptop so I can record this adventure, and I have not rented any cars, which will also be important in filling out parts of this trip.

Over the past week I have developed something of a small obsession with the Scavenger Hunt concept, and the idea of hunting down the coolest, most interesting souvenirs from around this fine country. This is why for a third week I am going to bring you yet another item (or in this case 2 items) to hunt down. In the case of this weeks item I found myself on the horns of a delimma : Is jerky a thing, or a food?

I felt when I started writing this blog that my ideas were very clear. I felt my categories gave me a lot of room to work, and would each create an interesting read within themselves and were so different that it was almost like having a few different blogs. After last weeks blog I have been obsessed with finding things to add to the Scavenger Hunt, and I feel for the next while it may be all I write until I am exhausted of ideas for a while. So even though the idea of covering tourist traps as a separate section seemed like a great idea. I now realize, what is a tourist trap but a place to buy a souvenir? It is with this concept that I present you with this weeks Scavenger Hunt item: The South of the Border Bumper Sticker.

Since this is my first blog about the great U.S. Scavenger Hunt, I would like to explain myself. I feel one of the ways you can tell a seasoned traveler is by the souvenirs they buy and collect. I feel all travelers have the phase where they collect items from the Hard Rock Cafes (myself included, I still get guitar pins in any locations I have yet to get a pin from, and my friends get me "city symbols" from cities I have not been to), or EVERY t-shirt they can get their hands on, or even those state magnets you see in truck stops, in hopes of building a full US map on their fridge.

At some point on this blog I want to talk about those collections, which are amazing, but they seem to be a collection you go after. It becomes the destination, rather than a trinket. You find you take trips to get those items, you make special arrangements around getting those items. You take stops to Hard Rock Cafes you never would have made had you not been collecting the pins, a sin I am guilty of time and time again. However I feel the more you travel, the more you find yourself going to places and hoping to find cool things once you get there.