I was just fumbling around in my iPhoto and found this clip of Randy and I riding the New York New York roller coaster in Las Vegas Nevada.
So, I figured I’d slap the thing up on YouTube and publish away. Get this… similar videos like this on You Tube have over a million views and they are not much different than this simple video. I wonder what makes them get so many views?
Crazy!
Well, enjoy riding the coaster vicariously through my Kodak zI8 cam 
Peace
J-Mo
So, we left Austin Texas Monday afternoon at about 1 PM. The Garmin GPS said we’d be due to arrive in New Orleans around 10:30 PM or so. We couldn’t wait.
We’re headed to Mardi Gras baby! The excitement was rich in the air and Mary J was stoked with gas, beer and food. And Webber of course. And Couch Surfing Ori too.
While driving East we really had no clue where we’d stay or park our RV’s. The city was in such party mode right now, there was gridlock everywhere. We assumed we’d have to park a few miles out of town and figure out a way in. All the RV parks had been booked solid for weeks at $179 a night or higher. We had one prayer and that was Chad Mac may let us park at his place a few miles away.
Chad to the rescue. He said we could park at his place. However, he had something better up his sleeve. He tapped Rudy the concierge at the Ritz Carlton and let him work his magic. While cruising through Baton Rouge I got a call on my cell… “Hi this is Rudy from the Ritz Carlton. I have 2 RV parking spots right in the French Quarter for you guys.”
OMG! Rudy, you are the man! Thanks so much. And thanks Chad for being on the ball.
The RV spot was literally just blocks from Bourbon Street. We were smack dab in the middle of the madness. We couldn’t have asked for anything better! Of course it comes with a pretty price as well, but it was worth it.
So, was Fat Tuesday all it’s cracked up to be? I’d say Yes and No. Hear me out.
I had two separate experiences at Mardi Gras. The first was the wild partying, boozing, naked boobies, standing around like a herd of cattle on Bourbon and
Bourbon Street Fat Tuesday
During the day of Fat Tuesday I took my Macbook and Verizon Mifi card down to Bourbon street and broadcasted the madness for about an hour. People were loving it. (Especially the abundance of titties that were shown live). Oh crap, that doesn’t make me a porn producer does it? I need to go wash my hands.
Speaking of washing, I think I need to go clean my shoes too. The streets of the French Quarter are so disgusting. You always have to be careful where you are walking. One mis-step and you’ll be ankle deep in the nastiest mud puddle in existence. I pray that the streets are much cleaner today. In fact, I’m excited to see the French Quarter without all the craziness. I’ll probably take a nice bike ride around today and shoot some footage.
The second experience I had with Mardi Gras was a lot more family friendly. And to be honest, 10 times more enjoyable.
It involved hanging on the sidelines of the parades and watching the residents have so much fun. The action started early. Music was blaring at 8:00 AM and the city of New Orleans was ready to party.
People here are so excited and thankful because
Mardi Gras Parade
In my experience, the day time party and parades were a lot more fun than drinking on Bourbon street. Maybe I’m getting old.
I personally liked seeing the families and parade action more then the drunken booze fest. Of course I was still pounding Red Stripes at 10:00 AM, but it was much more pleasant vibe.
Recently I spoke with a guy named Tom Martin. Tom has a cool website called… My Mardi Gras Experience. You can see his site at… www.mymardigrasexperience.com .
Tom’s mission with this site is to change the perception of Mardi Gras and give people a glimpse into everything that is offered beyond the wild partying and boozing of Bourbon Street. Most people really don’t know this side of Mardi Gras because they usually only hear about the drunken crazyness and naked titties everywhere.
Trust me, it’s way deeper then that. And thanks to Tom for showing that side.
Well, I’m off to do some catch up work, eat a healthy breakfast and peruse the city. If yesterday was Fat Tuesday, I feel like today is Obese Wednesday.
I need a smoothie.
Vegas. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. That pretty much sums up most of my trips to sin city.
On new years eve, my buddy Randy Primm was having the best of times, then quickly the worst of times.
Check out this video of his new years eve debauchery…
I’ll be meeting up with Randy in about a week to start our trip. Can’t wait. To read the rest of the story (hey that sounded like Paul Harvey) head on over to the Road Bandit Blog by clicking here.
Go leave Randy a comment on the Road Bandit blog and commend him for pulling off such epic trip to the ER.
I’m in the rain capital of the world Brightwood Oregon. I think we got about 8 feet of rain this week.
The soaked carpets inside of the RV would almost back up my measurements. The fried screech of the TV also gives off clues that something ain’t right with the waterproofing above. That TV is toast. And so are my feet.
For some damn reason my feet are itching like crazy. I think it’s because I spend 90% of my life barefoot in the sun and all of the sudden I’m wearing socks and shoes in a very moist environment. The cold and wet sucks. I’m not a fan.
I need to head south. And quickly. I’ll be in the Portland area for a few more days to meet with a few clients and friends, and then I’m Going, Going, Back, Back, To Cali. A surf session is long overdue.
Then I’ll be off to Vegas to hook up with Randy Primm. Then the action starts. The guys at the InternetMarketingParty.com are urging me to come speak at the Feb 9th gig in Austin TX. I’m pretty sure that just may work out.
I got invited to speak at the Learning Annex in New York as well later in the spring, but I’m not sure if I can swing the dates or not. For some reason it doesn’t overly excite me. I turned down the gig at the San Diego Learning Annex for some reason as well.
I guess the main thing that I don’t like is committing to a date. That’s hard for me to do. Once I commit to a date I always feel some sort of uhhhhh, yeah commitment, that’s the word. I’m not entirely opposed to commitment but it really throws my care free vibe askew. Hence why I seldom commit to much.
Yesterday I did commit to spending about 9 to 10 hours working on a website that Kameron and I started last year. Lets see if I can finish the last 30% and get this baby live by the end of the week. That’s the plan. I’m a great starter, but a lousy finisher. Why are so many of us that way?
A few days ago I took a written drivers test at the Sandy DMV. That was kind of scary. I’d of felt pretty stupid if I failed. The clerk asked me if I read the book. I replied… “No”.
It was a multiple choice test. You need to get 28 answers correct before you miss 7. I got two questions wrong out of the first six. A 66% accuracy ratio surely wouldn’t get my license. Thankfully, I pimped out the rest of the questions and only missed 4 all together.
Lets see, what else is happening? New Years was a great festive time with a bunch of friends that I haven’t seen in a few years. It was a large family gathering and 2 day partypalooza. I had to cut out early. Lightweight.
Christmas was mellow with the folks and my brother. Santa brought me all the things I needed in my RV like a hand held vacuum, some tools and a new shaving kit. I tend to get all Grizzly Adams after a few days. I shaved my balls first though. (Hey, I thought blogging was all about transparency?)
I’ve lost a bit of weight over the holidays too. I’m still kind of puzzled how that happens because the amount of reps with the 12 ounce beer curls has surely increased. I think I must be eating a lot less because I don’t have a sweet lady around baking me cakes anymore.
Okay, I feel like I’m just rambling here. I’ve been meaning to make a blog post for a while but haven’t known exactly what to say. So I figured I’d just get on here and ramble a bit.
Missing Cali surf,
J-Mo
The adventure is getting closer and closer. In one day, I’ll be on the road like Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Willie Nelson and Randy Primm!
Who’s Randy you might ask? I’ll tell you more about him in a moment.
Anyhow, I finished up my second day of RV Orientation at Camping World. The folks at the San Marcos branch were just phenomenal. All of them. They couldn’t of been more helpful and patient with me.
We fixed the leaks in the plumbing system, got a new water filter and repaired the blown out hoses in the propane lines. I’m afraid of propane myself. I learned how to turn on my heat (yea) and how to get hot water into the shower (double yea). I’m pretty confident I can make it out on my own, but I may book another Camping World RV orientation in Oregon just for the hell of it. It’s only $49 and there is a branch about 10 blocks from my parents house.
So, the rig is pretty much ready to roll. The only major thing missing is a bad ass GPS system and satellite tv. I ended up getting one of those Mifi cards from Verizon for internet connections. Verizon by far has the best coverage across the country. Sadly, their internet plan blows like vampire toothed hooker.
For $59.99 you get 5G’s of transferable bandwidth. Being a video guy and all, I could suck that up in a day. If you go over the 5 G’s, you pay $50 per gigabyte of transfer. Talk about a rip off. Apparently the days of unlimited Verizon connections are gone. I’d pay good money to have one of those grandfathered accounts. So, it appears I’ll be stealing Wifi where I can along the way.
Everyone keeps asking… “Jason, where are you headed first”?
Here’s the sort of plan… Tuesday evening I’ll begin the trek north on Interstate 5 to Oregon. I figured I ought to spend some time with my folks for the holidays since I only see them about once a year. Then, I’ll head to Bothell Washington (just outside of Seattle) to see my biological father whom I’ve spent minimal time with in my life. From there, it’s open road.
I will be in Vegas around January 15th or so. And while there I’m really excited to meet up with a particular guy. His name is Randy Primm, aka “The Road Bandit“.
I somehow came across Randy’s site while perusing the net for crazy RV’ers. The moment I saw Randy’s videos I instantly dug the guy. “What a great idea” I thought to myself. I got hooked on his videos and proceeded to pretty much watch them all.
But then I got kind of bummed. Randy hadn’t been traveling much lately. Mostly due to financial woes. After seeing the enjoyment he had on the road, I imagined he was pretty bummed being holed up in his class C RV in Vegas parking lots.
So I had an idea…
We need to get this guy back on the road.
I noticed he had great video shooting and editing skills. Surely he could parlay that into some money on the road. Maybe I could help him out in some way? Maybe I could use a video guy like Randy on the road? I have been hinting at the idea of a RV gang. Or, maybe I could become a Road Bandit with Randy?
I’m not sure what is going to happen, but I’m very open to letting the universe provide me what is necessary on this adventure. Regardless of what happens, I know Randy and I can be an asset to each other. He has road experience, and I have hustling experience that can keep the gas tanks filled and the fridge stocked with grub and cold squeezers. It will be interesting to see what pans out. Either way, both of us are going to have some exciting times ahead.
So, instead of talking about this dude, why don’t I just share a video of his with you. It kind of breaks down the Road Bandit story. It’s entertaining, fun and inspiring. Inspiring enough for me to contact him and be willing to help him accomplish his goals. He seems like a great guy.
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