Wednesday, 07/30, 12:24
Here is a list of the Media Coverage we received along the journey:
1. Yahoo Travel
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/tech-nerd-tuesday-this-family-is-road-tripping-using-89684772802.html
2. Concord Monitor
http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/12588401-95/texas-family-journeyed-to-new-hampshire-using-only-bitcoin
3. Hays Free Press
http://lovehays.com/san-marcos-family-on-month-long-road-trip-spending-only-bitcoin/
4. Sun Times
http://www.cleveland.com/cleveland-heights/index.ssf/2014/07/bitcoin_boulevard_becomes_a_po.html
5. Tony’s Kansas City
http://www.tonyskansascity.com/2014/07/liberty-activist-catherine-bleish.html
6. Ben Swann
http://benswann.com/uncoinventional-living-tour-takes-activist-family-from-texas-to-new-hampshire-using-only-bitcoin/
7. Coin Desk
http://www.coindesk.com/family-travel-across-us-spending-bitcoin/
8. Coin Telegraph
http://cointelegraph.com/news/111846/radical_road_trip_a_family_fuelled_by_btc_for_1_month
Here is a list of the articles I wrote about the journey:
1. Money and Tech, One Week in Review
http://moneyandtech.com/week-review-bitcoin-only-travel/
2. Money and Tech, Two Weeks in Review
http://moneyandtech.com/weeks-review-travel-btc/
3. Money and Tech, Week Three in Review
http://moneyandtech.com/week-three-review-btc-travel/
4. Bitcoin Magazine, Our Uncoinventional Journey to Bitcoin Boulevard US
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/uncoinventional-journey-bitcoin-boulevard-us-1405825199
5. Bitcoin Magazine, Constructive Reflections of Bitcoin on the Beltway
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/constructive-reflections-bitcoin-beltway-1405821961
6. Uncoinventional Tour in Review, Our Month on the Road Spending Bitcoin Only
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/uncoinventional-tour-review-month-road-spending-bitcoin-1405818562
7. Our Nightmarish Experience Using Bitcoin on Expedia
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/nightmare-on-expedia-1404324043
8. “Uncoinventional” Family on Bitcoin Only Tour to Visit Ohio’s Bitcoin Boulevard
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/uncoinventional-family-on-bitcoin-only-cross-country-tour-to-visit-ohios-bitcoin-boulevard-1404323601
9. Unvoinventional Living Tour 2014 Press Release
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/uncoinventional-living-tour-2014-press-release-1402968570
Here are John’s Podcasts about the journey:
Wednesday, 07/09, 11:34
Almost home! We have our kitties!
Wednesday, 07/09, 8:03
Uncoinventional Living Tour Wednesday July 9 Day 24, The Last Supper
We just had our final meal on our cross country bitcoin-only road trip at the Free Man in Dallas, Texas. This restaurant is owned by a friend and was a real treat!
The food is cajun and features delicious plates of catfish, shrimp and crab. I had a cream cheese crab dip and a house salad fit for a king. Oh, and the sweet potato fries had cinnamon on them!
Here is Dallas as we pull out!
Wednesday, 07/09, 4:51
Uncoinventional Living Tour Wednesday July 9th Day 24, Heading Home
I lost steam on this live blog after arriving in my hometown of KC. I was lost in the world of old friends and family. It was truly amazing.
We are on our final day and very excited to be on our way back. We crossed into Texas this morning, but missed the Welcome to Texas sign.
Last night we stayed in a Holiday Inn Express in Texarcana, AR. We tried to use Expedia, but could not find a single hotel with the option to pay in BTC. We decided to use CheapAir.com again, and paid quickly and easily with BTC.
Here we are leaving this morning.
Here is the Welcome to Arkansas sign from yesterday.
We slightly miscalculated how much we would need to spend in gas, so my mom bought us a gift card and we are sending her a card from coinfueled.com with btc.
Here is one of our final gas stops yesterday.
I will update more today, we have just over five and a quarter hours to get home!
In the coming days I will compile a list of media attention, articles, and stats on our trip.
Happy Bitcoin travels!
Monday, 07/07, 3:57
We have been visiting family in Kansas City and I have failed to update! Tomorrow I will catch up. It has been amazing!
Here are a few sneak peaks: Broadway Bridge in KC, the quad at Mizzou and the St. Louis Arch!
Only 3 days left!
Friday, 07/04, 3:35
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday July 3, Bitcoin Boulevard
Last night we arrived in Cleveland Heights, OH and met Nikhil Chand and his amazing wife Rebecca. They are the founders of BitcoinBoulevard.us. I really cannot speak more highly of this pair.
They took us on a stroll from their 1920s vintage home to Lee Street, also known as Bitcoin Boulevard. Nikhil knew people everywhere we went. Neighbors, store owners, and folks strolling down the street all knew who he was and excitedly greeted them. I believe it is this close connection to his community that allowed him to so quickly launch this inspiring project.
We weren’t planning on a stay in Ohio, but Nikhil had sent us a tweet inviting us to make the detour a few days back. I am so glad he did!
Via email he helped us decide where to eat.
Dinner at The Tavern Co. was amazing. I got the salmon roll salad and literally devoured every morsel.
Unfortunately our sweet baby Bill was totally crazy during the meal. Shreiking, biting, going nuts. My only guess is the Steak and Shake milkshake he shared with us earlier in the day. Our kids don’t usually have that kind of stuff…
A reporter for the Sun News met us there. I feeel bad for her having to work through all the kiddo choas, but she was able to produce an amazing article nonetheless.
It was republished in the Plain Times; you can read it here:
http://www.cleveland.com/cleveland-heights/index.ssf/2014/07/bitcoin_boulevard_becomes_a_po.html
John made the payment via BitPay and we walked down the block to SweetyFry to try some homemade ice cream on BTC. Once again we paid BTC directly through BitPay.
I had the dark chocolate and peanut butter flavors. Amazing!
We took a picture as a group out front, but my tablet won’t open it. I will try again when I have a computer!
Here are a few shots from around Bitcoin Boulevard, including a few places that currently accept BTC.
We took a nice stroll in the dark back to Nikhil and Rebecca’s house. They were super hospitable and our kids absolutely adored their dog, Clive, who I failed to snap a picture of! We miss our dog!
We stayed the night then returned to Bitcoin Boulevard this morning for breakfast. We ate at Katz’s Diner and this might have been the best meal of our trip to date. They offered local foods and had many gluten free options!
If you are wanting to dine on BTC, Cleveland Heights is the place to go. Every bite of every meal was simply amazing. What a fabulous detour on our journey.
Thank you Nikhil and Rebecca!
Friday, 07/04, 2:23
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday July 3rd, To Ohio We Go (Yesterday)!
To pick up where I left off in the last post, when the kids woke up we stopped at a Steak and Shake in Erie, PA. John had never ate there and it had been years for me. I was plesantly suprised to find vegetarian options. The vegetable soup is great, by the way!
Of course we got shakes, they only have 4,000 photos of them around the joint. Big mistake, our kids literally went insane later in the day.
We paid with a gift card we bought with BTC via Gyft. Another successful Bitcoin meal.
After we filled up, we hit the road and soon we arrived in Ohio.
Friday, 07/04, 1:30
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday July 3 Day 18, Niagara Falls and Bitcoin Boulevard
Yesterday was an awesome day for our family. After waking up in our hotel purchased with BTC through CheapAir.com we enjoyed a mediocre breakfast and then hit the road for Niagara Falls.
The drive was beautiful and we got to see Canada from across the river. I was pleased to find there is no fee to visit the falls!
After Niagara the kids tuckered out.
I thought I had found a Boomerang Grille on the way to Ohio that we could get a gift card through Gyft. We arrived to find that it was a local Boomerang Bar and Grill. Whoops. No BTC gift card for this place!
Since the kids were still asleep we had the brilliant idea to buy some snacks at the 7/11 attached to an Exxon. We had purchased Exxon gift cards with BTC through coinfueled.com. I grabbed a salad, some Boathouse juice, and some gluten free chips. I got to the register and swiped the card. Denied. John went in and tried all three of our other cards. Denied, denied, denied.
We never got a reason, but we assume it was because the shop was 7/11 and the pumps were Exxon. Thankfully we still had snacks we had ordered from Amazon with a gift card purchased with BTC from Gyft.
John pumped the gas and we hit the road again.
I will update more shortly, we are currently enjoying a meal at Cracker Barrel in Illinois.
Wednesday, 07/02, 10:55
Uncoinventional Living Tour Wednesday July 2, Quick Update
Lots to update, but we are pulling into Bitcoin Boulevard and I will have to update tonight.
Had a nice chat with both Expedia and CoinBase today about our issues. I think we have found a clear path toward resolution! More later!
Wednesday, 07/02, 2:32
Uncoinventional Living Tour Tuesday July 2, Day 17
Yesterday we got lunch on the road at Applebee’s. As a gluten free vegetarian, I am longing for other options. We talked to a very large gift card service that is interested in accepting BTC. Their list of establishments is over 700! That would change the game for me! The transaction was flawless on Gyft. We ordered a gift card with BTC and paid!
We drove through a rainstorm before we stopped for gas stop number 12. It was another successful gasoline stop in upperstate NY. We used a card purchased with BTC through coinfueled.com.
Our only complaint is that we were on a turnpike and BTC friendly food was hard to come by. So we had Papa John’s delivered to the hotel. We bought the giftcard with BTC through Gyft then called and placed our order. We even left the tip through our gift card.
Gas, food and hotel all on BTC. Another successful day!
Here is a blog about our experience with Expedia. I did not include yesterday’s attempt: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/nightmare-on-expedia-1404324043
Here is a press release about our Bitcoin Boulevard stop tonight: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/uncoinventional-family-on-bitcoin-only-cross-country-tour-to-visit-ohios-bitcoin-boulevard-1404323601
Tuesday, 07/01, 7:46
Uncoinventional Living Tour Tuesday July 1 Day 16, Hotel Booked Via Cheapair.com
We tried to book a hotel room with our Expedia credit and could not find the option to pay with BTC. I had to turn to social media for help and it sounds like it was an issue of mobile phone verse desktop.
Here is a screenshot of what I could see, notice there is no Bitcoin option.
Here is a screenshot of the help I received.
I found it strange that three of us saw three different screens while trying to book on Expedia! We decided to simply book with cheapair.com since expedia.com was a pain, again. Here is a screenshot of they payment options. It was quick and painless. They use CoinBase to process the BTC payments o their site.
Tuesday, 07/01, 6:15
Uncoinventional Living Tour Tuesday July 1 Day 16, Gas Stop Eleven and Media Coverage
It looks like our gas stop 9 and 10 did not post. I will have to look into that. They may have got held up in editing, or it was an Internet issue.. Today we pumped at Exxon in Massachusetts with a coinfueled.com gift card bought with BTC!
We also received word of more media attention, this time local to our hometown!
http://lovehays.com/san-marcos-family-on-month-long-road-trip-spending-only-bitcoin/
Our friend Ian posted a screenshot of our tour on yahoo news.
Also, we received word that Gyft had paid ads on facebook for our tour!
Here is a screenshot of the daily dot coverage if you missed it.
We made it through Massachusetts and are now cruising through New York toward tonight’s destination of Buffalo. We will see the Niagara Falls tomorrow then hit up Bitcoin Boulevard in OH!
Tuesday, 07/01, 3:56
Uncoinventional Living Tour July 1 Day 16, On the Road Again
Two weeks on the road with a another week and a half to go! We are loving our life on the road; it has been filled with so many interesting experiences. Nice hotels, grungy hotels, camping, staying at friends’ homes, big cities, farms, forests, parks and more.
We are officially out of New Hampshire and cruising through Massachusetts on our way to Buffalo, New York.
Yesterday and today we ate breakfast via a proxy at a really great cafe in Hollis, NH. We also took our kids strawberry picking via a proxy.
Monday, 06/30, 8:23
Uncoinventional Living Tour Monday June 30 Day 15, Kiddos at Porcfest
This year was probably the most kid friendly Porcfest to date. There were kid activities and lots of new friends to play with. Here are some pics of Aliana and Bill enjoying themselves!
Mikey Arman teaching Bill to skateboard!
Enjoying bubbles and chalk outside the homemade icecream stand!
Bill pushing the stroller everywhere.
Aliana dancing on the path.
Monday, 06/30, 1:09
Uncoinventional Living Tour Monday June 30 Day 15
We survived Porcfest and are now enjoying a down day in Hollis, NH. We had our first hot showers in a week and slept on a bed instead of in a tent. Amazing.
Before I update about the entire Porcfest trip, I wanted to add more about the organization Fr33 Aid.
At nearly every Bitcoin event inthe country, you will hear of Fr33 Aid. Not only do they provide on the spot first aid, but they conduct CPR trainings and raise Bitcoin for emergency response when a disaster strikes.
After Aliana burned her hand we had to visit their booth four times for check ups and band aid reapplications. That is twelve band aids for those of you counting! Each time we met with a new volunteer and each time they made a great effort to connect with Aliana and make her feel safe.
When I reminisce on the burn itself it fills my heart with gratitude to know they were there. We didn’t miss a beat, we got her hand on ice then began running her to their tent. I knew right where they were and didn’t have to waste precious time figuring out a first aid response.
If you are planning an event of any sort in the future, please invite them to set up a booth. You will never know how valuable their service is until you need it!
Here is a picture of their booth amd QR code. I highly suggest you support them if you can!
www.freeaid.com
Friday, 06/27, 11:11
Uncoinventional Living Tour June 27 Day Twelve! Porcfest Continues
Yesterday was the Bitcoin Magazine Panel and party. They were both great!
I wasn’t able to speak on the panel because my daughter burned her fingers just minutes before it began. Thankfully, there is a fabulous Bitcoin based nonprofit called Fr33 Aid. They provide first aid and emergency aid trainings.
Friday, 06/27, 8:41
Uncoinventional Living Tour June 27 Day twelve, Porcfest in Progress
We are in site 29. Bitcoin Magazine, My Magic Mud, Pinkies Paleotillas, the Liberty Beat, Sovereign Living, Liberty Stickers, Hemp 360, thebitmom.com, Sovereign Living, Surviving Sheftall Bracelets, Austin Alliance of Agorists, Cowboy Miners. LOVE!
We have very limited internet, sorry for the delay.
Tuesday, 06/24, 7:58
Uncoinventional Living Tour Tuesday June 24 Day Nine, Gas Stop Ten
I just realized I failed to post about our ninth gas stop last night. It was a BP north of NYC and our coinfueled.com gas card worked perfectly.
I also failed to upload the photos from last night’s NYC TGI Friday’s meal. I will be glad to have better restaurant options at the end of this journey! Another successful Gyft meal!
We are an hour from Porcfest and getting gas at a small Mobil in Springfield, VT. John feels like he is falling asleep, so I am going to drive the last hour to the campground.
Tuesday, 06/24, 6:35
Uncoinventional Living Tour Tuesday June 24 Day Nine, Rough Start
Last night was nuts. We conducted a screening of sovereignliving.tv in NYC, we witnessed a mugging in Manhattan, we sat in bumper-to-bumper construction traffic, and dealt with an hour and a half Expedia debacle.
Because of this, we arrived in Springfiled, MA at 3 am. We all needed to sleep in this morning. Last year at Porcfest we worked way too hard and got sick after 3 weeks on the road. We know better this year, and put our wellbeing first.
My Women in Bitcoin Panel starts in 45 minutes and we are still 3 hours away. Thankfully, Stephanie Murphy is going to moderate for me. I am totally bummed. And still very tired. Porcfest is always a great pick-me-up, so I am excited to arrive and work the vendor booth. We do have a screening tonight at 9pm of episodes 1-3. Then we have four days of vending and playing before our screening of episode 4 and a preview of 5 and 6.
We just had a fabulous experience at Whole Foods in Hadley, MA. We got food for lunch and for camping.
Here we are checking out with our amazing cashier, Heather.
Another successful BTC purchase via Gyft!
And now, we drive!
Tuesday, 06/24, 7:44
Uncoinventional Living Tour Monday June 23 Day 8, Finally Checking In
I am never using Expedia again if I can help it. Ten representative calls later, it comes down to an impossible scenerio. The 100 FRN voucher from our Asheville debacle does not cover the cost of our room. There is no way to pay the difference in BTC over the phone and the website will no longer let us select last night (23rd) as the date of arrival because it is after THREE AM on the 24th. They offered another 50 FRN voucher, but only one voucher can be applied per purchase. This leaves us with 21 FRN that we cannot pay in Bitcoin over the phone or online.
We cannot book a hotel with a gyft card on globalhotelcard.com because their website also won’t let us choose yesterday (23rd) as our check in date.
Honestly, I sobbed in the car as John paid the 21 FRN with our debit card. He got tired of driving 1.5 hours ago and it took that entire time and ten rep calls to figure this situation out. I wish our first rep, who offered the 200 FRN voucher, had not been disconnected.
I intend to call tomorrow and talk the daytime supervisor about refunding my 21 FRN. They still owe us 25 FRN in BTC anyway. I committed to paying for food, gas and housing with Bitcoin on this trip and by golly, I am going to make that happen!
John says, and I agree, that our health and safety are on the line. We had to stop driving as it is simply unsafe to continue at this hour.
Wish me luck on finding resolution tomorrow!
Tuesday, 06/24, 6:46
Uncoinventional Living Tour Monday June 23 Day 8, Expedia Dropping the Ball
We tried to redeem our 0 credit Expedia offered after our debacle in Asheville, and we have spent another hour on the phone. I am talking to the seventh person tonight. Not only were we not given the 0 credit as promised, but we were not refunded the in BTC.
The first supervisor I spoke to was apologetic, looked up the notes and offered a 0 voucher to make us whole. Then our phone died. We called back and were denied transfer to the same supervisor. While transferring us to a new supervisor, they hung up on us.
On our third call I finally got through to Supervisor Jessica, ID number 7410, in a call center in Central America. She was incredibly rude to us, saying she would give me in Bitcoin back OR our 0 credit, not both as we promised. She rose her voice to me saying no one told me they would give us the 0 credit that we were offered in apology as our phone died. I asked to speak to her supervisor, she said no. She told me to hang up and talk to someone else tomorrow if I wanted to complain about her.
She applied the 0 credit then I asked to be transferred to a call center to book a room. She put me on hold and I was never transferred. John is now speaking to the EIGHTH Expedia rep tonight, over an hour of time lost and we still do not have a room. They can not figure out how to accept BTC over the pbone and he is being transferred to a NINTH person tonight.
Unreal. Ridiculous.
No more Expedia for us, accepting Bitcoin or not. BUYER BEWARE.
Tuesday, 06/24, 5:06
Uncoinventional Living Tour Monday June 23 Day 8, Evening Plans Foiled.
Our goal was to leave at 9pm after our screening of sovereignliving.tv at the NYC Bitcoin Center. Everything was going according to plan until we wittnessed a mugging on the way back to the Holiday Inn in Brooklyn where our car was parked.
Here is what I posted on Facebook about it:
“Today John Bush and I saw a girl get robbed in Brooklyn. Both had passed us and turned the corner heading away from us. We saw the man walking behind her, John said, “is that guy gonna do something to that girl?”, the guy started running toward her and we both stood there in shock as he grabbed her and she screamed. I felt so helpless standing so far away unable to do anything. I ran to her and held her hand and hugged her. She was shaking violently. We walked her to her boyfriend’s place; I held her hand the whole way; she only had a few buildings left to walk. The guy only got her phone, thankfully she wasn’t hurt. The police came and we left her in the care of her boyfriend. It was really scary. Don’t stare at your phones while walking alone at night, folks. I wish I had screamed to warn her, but we just weren’t sure what was going on. I think the fact John’s gut told him something was up and the fact we both stopped walking across the street to watch her was our intuition speaking loudly. Poor girl. It was really intense. I wish we were “allowed” to carry our gun when we visit NYC. Her name was Maggie, please say a prayer for her peace tonight as she sleeps….”
And now, of course, we are sitting in bumper to bumper traffic at 1 am. We really need to get to Porcfest before my Women in Bitcoin Panel tomorrow!
The plan is to sleep in Springfield, MA. Here is hoping we make it….
Tuesday, 06/24, 1:04
Here is an amazing article by the Daily Dot!
http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/bitcoin-road-trip-bush-bleish-family-charlie-shrem/
Monday, 06/23, 11:25
Uncoinventional Living Tour Monday June 23 Day 8, NYV Bitcoin Center Screening
The screening is live!
Monday, 06/23, 11:22
Uncoinventional Living Tour Monday June 22, Day 8, NYC Bitcoin Center
We have arrived!
Here is our journey to the Center! We start our screening of sovereignliving.tv episode four any minute!
Monday, 06/23, 8:02
Uncoinventional Living Tour Monday June 23 Day 8, Lunch and Fire Trucks
We met up with Danny Panzella of truthsquad.tv and his son, Xander. We took a nice stroll through Brooklyn to a restaurant that accepts bitcoin. Food was fabulous, service was ok. It took about 20 minutes to make the payment in BTC because they had to call the owner. John did a podcast on the experience, I will post later.
Out front we found a fire truck; they let the kids inside.
Monday, 06/23, 7:17
Uncoinventional Living Tour Monday June 23 Day 8, NYC Bitcoin Center
See you there!
Monday, 06/23, 6:03
Uncoinventional Living Tour Monday June 23 Day 8, Breakfast and Media
We woke up at our hotel and enjoyed an amazing breakfast – the best hotel breakfast we have had to date: Udi’s gluten free bagels and muffins. Absolute heaven.
Later we met with Charlie Shrem and a reporter from the Daily Dot, it was a great conversation. Wait for that article to launch later today!
Here we are with Charlie at the Holiday Inn in Brooklyn.
Here is the reporter from the Daily Dot:
John had a lengthy conversation with Yahoo Travel, watch for that article to hit tomorrow!
Monday, 06/23, 7:06
Uncoinventional Living Tour Sunday June 22 Day Seven, Hotel Check In
We just checked into the Holiday Inn Express in Brooklyn. They are doing a BTC pilot program set up by Charlie Shrem. Tomorrow morning we meet Charlie and a reporter from the Daily Dot, followed by a day of tourism and interviews.
Tomorrow night we will be at the NYC Bitcoin Center at 6pm to screen the bitcoin episode of www.sovereignliving.tv and to ring the bell on the Bitcoin Exchange Floor.
It is 3 am, I guess we should catch some z’s!
Monday, 06/23, 3:08
Uncoinventional Living Tour Sunday June 22 Day Seven, Word is Getting Out
A spa in NYC just invited us to get a massage on bitcoin after our morning interviews. I wish we could! I told them we are on a travel-only budget. If you are in the market for a massage or facial on BTC, metspa.com sounds like your destination of choice!
Monday, 06/23, 3:03
Uncoinventional Living Tour Sunday June 22 Day Seven, Gas Stop Number Eight
I didn’t take a picture at this stop because there were some interesting people standing very near John while he got out of the car and pumped the gas. We drove to another gas station to use the restroom.
While the gas pumping was a success in itself, I dont think we would have stopped there if we did not have a gift card to use. We would have picked a gas station closer to the road and with fewer hovering folk.
My daughter felt very uncomfortable with “those men staring at my dad”. Unintended consequence of bitcoin-only travel.
We are down to 85 miles on this journey!
Monday, 06/23, 1:45
I just found a picture of the media panel at Bitcoin in the Beltway on Twitter. Enjoy!
Left to right: Cathy Reisenwitz, Catherine Bleish and Perianne Boring.
Monday, 06/23, 1:26
Uncoinventional Living Tour Sunday June 22 Day Seven, Toll Roads
I guess my celebratory post of a full week on only BTC was preemptive. We just went through a toll road. I know there are probably routes without tolls, but we are exhausted and on target for another mid night arrival. So there you have it folks, our first expenditure of an FRN in one whole week was on a dang toll road.
I feel a tad inconsistent and slightly remorseful, but we really had to put our children and their well being first when we made this decision.
How do you all feel about this? What is the BTC solution to tolls?
Monday, 06/23, 1:16
Uncoinventional Living Tour Day Four Audio Update
Another tardy audio post! Enjoy!
Monday, 06/23, 1:08
Uncoinventional Living Tour – Audio Update from Day 3
I didn’t get this updated when it was posted, check it out!
Monday, 06/23, 12:34
Uncoinventional Living Tour Sunday June 22 Day Seven, On the Road Again
We just took off! We had to stop back by the hotel to pick up a package. We asked half a dozen times if it had arrived and they said no. Low and behold it was there with a typo in John’s last name! Thank goodness we got it before heading out! It is bumper stickers from Liberty Stickers and miners from Cowboy Miners to sell at Porcfest.
Here is John driving back to the hotel:
The tray that Aliana is eating her flxseed cookies on was bought with Bitcoin on Amazon.com with a Gyft giftcard.
Monday, 06/23, 12:22
Uncoinventional Living Tour Sunday June 22 Day Seven, Whole Foods on Gyft, Few Pictures from the Weekend
We just had another amazing meal at Whole Foods here in DC. I am going to be honest that this whole foods has a very different feel than others. Most shoppers must not come with children. None of the carts had children seats and there were no highchairs. The check out line is automated and calls out the open lines – very high pressure. The cashiers were impatient with our giftcards on the phone, but it was a success nonetheless.
I just pulled a few pics off of John’s phone from the conference, here they are!
Zhou Tonged is a music group that takes mainstream hits and changes the lyrics to Bitcoin related themes. They have a hotly followed YouTube channel that I am excited to check out. We tried to watch their show last night, but they took a while to come on stage and the kids were too restless. Thankfully, we met them in the green room.
Here we are walking through the hotel lobby after our breakfast at the hotel buffett:
And here is a better picture of our fabulous dinner company last night:
Sunday, 06/22, 11:56
Uncoinventional Living Tour Sunday June 22 Day 7, Week One Complete!
Today marks the end of our first week on the road. It has been a total success! Seven days and we have spent only BTC!
I spent most of the day today relaxing in the hotel room with the kids while John worked our vendor booth. I really needed some down time after all the driving and walking we have done this week.
John purchased a Bitcoin ATM today from a fellow Bitcoin in the Beltway vendor, we will have it set up at Porcfest. Be sure to stop by site 29 for all things BTC! I am super excited about this ATM and look forward to taking some pics! The brand is Sky Nook and it is open source software.
Our friend Tim Fry of Roberts and Roberts paid our parking and hotel tab in exchange for BTC.
It is nearly 8pm and we are finally about to hit the road for NYC where we will spend the night in a Holiday Inn with a Bitcoin pilot program!
Tomorrow we have an interview with the Daily Dot and a tentative interview with a writer who recently published an article exploring Bitcoin travel on Fox News.
Charlie Shrem will be meeting with us for our morning interview, I really look forward to meeting him!
Perianne Boring also said she would cover our journey on the Boring Bitcoin Report she does for Forbes.
I am following all leads to a NYC morning show, so please help us make that happen if possible! I have reached out to the Today Show and Good Morning America among others….
Sunday, 06/22, 2:41
Uncoinventional Living Tour Sunday June 22 Day Seven, Yesterday’s Conference and Dinner
The conference has been great. We have been so busy with speeches and kids that we haven’t worked our booth much, but that is ok, we will have plenty of booth time at Porcfest.
Here are some shots of our booth and other vendors at the event:
Tatiana Moroz stopped by our booth while I was there, I got a picture of the two of us:
We really wanted to have an Ethiopian meal while in DC, but none of the restaurants took BTC. Thankfully, some of our friends served as proxies for us by paying in cash, allowing us to pay them back in BTC.
We took a fun stroll through the city with Davi Barker and the Pangman family. Our toddlers, Harvey and Aliana we super sweet together. They will be at Porcfest, too!
Saturday, 06/21, 9:50
Uncoinventional Living Tour Friday June 21 Day Six, Jeffrey Tucker
Right now Jeffrey Tucker has tbe mic and is dropping some knowledge about the realities of government and the beauty of Bitcoin.
Please check out his amazing information sharing site www.liberty.me
Saturday, 06/21, 9:44
Uncoinventional Living Tour Friday June 21 Day Six, Bitcoin in the Beltway
What a great day! We are listening to Tatiana Moroz (tatianacoin.com) jam on stage, she is amazing!
Earlier we had our screening of Sovereign Living (sovereignliving.tv) and I sat on the Media Panel with Perianne Boring. They were great!
Saturday, 06/21, 2:02
If you are interested in supporting our journey, here are a few ways you can contribute:
BTC: 1HJ3WRuEEapWgEFNTDCxpTxzWoJCZ8YZQc
LTC: Ld35jZQhkJrpRPKtnfRw1r37KuazzgAiQS
Doge: DLpxS6j6DA38kZzkGAUNtR6tCtCHckaW7k
All donations will go toward travel over the next three weeks.
Thank you to those who have contributed already!
Saturday, 06/21, 1:55
Uncoinventional Living Tour Friday June 20 Day Five, Golden Cinema Series
We took the kids to the Golden Cinema Series screening of Legally Blonde 2 in Farragut Square tonight. We had a nice walk through D.C. as the sun set and are now enjoying ourselves on the lawn in the park.
Tomorrow we screen Sovereign Living (sovereignliving.tv) and I speak on the media panel at Bitcoin in the Beltway. We are very excited!
Saturday, 06/21, 1:44
Uncoinventional Living Tour Friday June 20 Day Five, Bitcoin in the Beltway Starts
We stopped into the opening party for the conference to check out the scene, say hi to some friends and find out where our vendor booth will be.
Here is a picture of the social:
Here is a picture of John taking a selfie with speaker Jeffrey Tucker:
Here is a picture of me with speaker Davi Barker:
Friday, 06/20, 10:42
Uncoinventional Living Tour Friday June 20 Day Five, Lunch on BTC
We just enjoyed a fun meal at a D.C. Bitcoin establishment called Thomas Foolery. This was our first stop on our trip that accepted Bitcoin directly instead of using a third party like gyft.com or egifter.com.
We found the restaurant on coinmap.org and it just so happened to be in walking distance.
The restaurant has all sorts of toys I remember from the 90s. Pogs, rubix cubes, legos (the old kind that don’t all go to a specific set), hula hoops, monkeys in a barrel, and little magnetic fuzzy face games.
The kids had a blast and we did, too! There was a box of yBitcoin Magazines, and a QR code taped to the wall with a sign that says they accept Bitcoin.
Friday, 06/20, 10:31
Uncoinventional Living Tour Friday June 20 Day Five, BTC Pit Stop
After playing in the fountain (I was the only one to do so, Bill was asleep and Aliana has a booboo on her finger she was afraid to get wet), we walked a few blocks to a CVS to get some bottled water.
We bought a CVS giftcard with BTC on gyft.com while standing in line.
What a blessing Gyft has been for us on this trip!
Friday, 06/20, 6:26
We are out sightseeing in D.C. before the conference starts. Georgetown Waterfront Park is awesome!
Friday, 06/20, 4:21
Uncoinventional Living Tour Friday June 20 Day Five, BTC Obstacles
I failed to mention a few unexpected details. We have to pay a night for parking and the hotel does not accept BTC. Our room is covered by the event, so that is covered, I simply failed to consider the parking issue. We found a middleman who will be paying our hotel tab in cash after we pay them in BTC. This is how we ate breakfast this morning, by adding to our hotel tab with the expectation of paying our friend out on Sunday when we check out.
We are staying in NYC this Sunday at a Holiday Inn that has started a BTC pilot program. Charlie Shrem set this program up and may be riding back to NYC with us if we can finagle the space in our car! We need to figure out the toll road issue……
Friday, 06/20, 4:12
Uncoinventional Living Tour Friday June 20 Day Five, Belly of the Beast
We arrived at our hotel around 11pm last night. Washington, D.C. sure is interesting. When we pulled up a man in a wheelchair was arguing with the valet attendant who was asking him to leave. Both parties shouted obscenities.
The valet attendant was hopped up on adrenaline and came to our van (driver seat was vacant because John was checking us in), tried to open the door, started shouting we needed to move while banging on the car. He woke up baby Bill and I asked him to stop touching our car. His manager apologized profusely. It was a strange welcoming party.
We checked in and hauled all of our belongings and vendor items up to the room. I still need to enter our vendor inventory into shopify, we do everything at the last minute it seems.
This morning we enjoyed the hotel buffet. I forgot to bring the tablet for pics, so you will just have to believe me on how awesome it was!
Tomorrow is our screening of Sovereign Living episode four (bitcoin episode!) and the media panel I will be a part of. Bitcoinbeltway.com is the website for more details!
Today we are doing some family sightseeing then the thebitmom.com meet-up of crypto kids at a local park for a screening of Legally Blonde 2. Should be fun!
Here is a link with the details!
https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1418101635143761
John is uploading our most recent podcasts to his SovereignBTC.com podcast, stay tuned for those!
Friday, 06/20, 1:54
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday June 19 Day Four, Cracker Barrel on BTC
Tonight for dinner we tried a different giftcard website, egifter.com (we have been using gyft.com so far). This website, like Expedia, uses CoinBase.com to process BTC transactions (gyft.com uses BitPay). Last night we had trouble with the amount of time it took for our Expedia payment to process and days before we left on this trip we had an egifter.com transaction for Lowes take nearly 24 hours to confirm!
We really love eating at Cracker Barrel as a family, so we decided to give egifter.com another chance. This time the confirmation was instant. Cracker Barrel apparently has a new policy of only accepting giftcards that have been printed out, but John sweet talked them into accepting our egifter.com Cracker Barrel card directly off of our tablet.
Another BTC meal success! John even got me a beautiful new scarf from the gift shop!
We have an hour left before we arrive at Bitcoin in the Beltway!
Thursday, 06/19, 10:41
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday June 19 Day Four, Gas Stop Number Seven
We are cruising through Virgina at a nice pace now that we have passed the construction. GPS says just over three hours. With a dinner stop we are on target for a 10:30 arrival, much earlier than the past several nights!
We just took a pit stop in a small mountian town to get gasoline. Another successful BTC gasoline transaction! Thanks coinfueled.com!
The view is amazing! I have really enjoyed this portion of the drive!
Thursday, 06/19, 9:36
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday June 19, Mousey Friend
We picked up a friend along the way! This stray mouse was found at a rest stop in Virginia. He is obviously someone’s pet as he crawled right into our hands. He is currently in a box in our car eating some goat cheese. He is gray and white and very friendly!
Thursday, 06/19, 7:20
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday June 19 Day Four, Stuck in Construction Traffic
The GPS says nearly 6 hours left and here we sit on the road. Welcome to the East Coast!
Anyone want to take bets on how late we get in tonight?
Thursday, 06/19, 7:00
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday June 19 Day Four, Picnicking on Bitcoin
We just had a picnic lunch on BTC! These items (and the cooler ) were purchased with a Whole Foods gift card this morning. We bought the gift card through Gyft.com with BTC at the reigister after we knew our total. We talked to the cashier about what we were doing and she was super excited and interested. I was again left wishing we had some sort of educational business card for our tour…..
The rest stop was just after the Virginia state line. Another state down!
Thursday, 06/19, 5:31
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday June 19, Reminiscing on Asheville
Last night we had a really great screening of episodes 3 and 4 of Sovereign Living (www.sovereignliving.tv) at Justin Stout and Shayla Rose’s home.
The attendees were super friendly and very like minded. I felt very at “home” with this crowd. Not only were they advocates of homebirth, peaceful parenting and organic food, but many were hardcore Bitcoin enthusiasts!
We received a few donations for our trip, but most importantly were able to enjoy some fabulous company.
I really loved Asheville. I have been told repeatedly for years that Asheville is a place I would enjoy. I wish we were able to spend some more time there!
If you are interested, they have a decentralized effort to attract like minded folks to the area called the Blue Ridge Liberty Project. Many of the people in attendance had moved from other areas.
Thursday, 06/19, 5:22
This picture was taken yesterday at a rest stop an hour outside of Asheville. Can you see the bags under my eyes? Thankfully I got to nap an hour or so in the car just before we stopped here!
Thursday, 06/19, 5:06
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday June 19, Potty Break
Aliana has been asking for ice cream at every gas station stop so far, so I decided to indulge her. Our BP gas card worked great for the .07 purchase, and Aliana even swiped the card herself!
Thursday, 06/19, 4:52
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday June 19, Travel on BTC
Yesterday I snagged a pic of the “Welcome to North Carolina” sign.
We have now managed to drive from Texas through Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, and into North Carolina. We have paid BTC for three hotel rooms, six fuel stops, and three meals a day plus snacks.
It is happening!
Thursday, 06/19, 4:46
This is posting a day late due to internet service issues on the road!
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 18, Day Three, Gas Stop Number Five
Pay at the pump worked great with our BP coinfueled.com gift card purchased with BTC. John is inside getting a gift for our hosts tonight with the card as well.
We just received our coinfueled.com BitPay invoice for an extra Exxon card. We will pay it when we get to Asheville.
I missed the “Welcome to South Carolina” sign, but we have officially checked another state off the list!
Thursday, 06/19, 4:41
Uncoinventional Living Tour Thursday June 19 Day Four, On The Road Again
We woke up after breakfast had ended at our hotel. Aliana was pretty upset as she had been looking forward to “apple juice and muffins”. I called the feedback line listed on our invoice that was slipped under the door and thanked them for accommodating us so late last night and let them know that 9am is a tad early to end breakfast for travellers who change timezones. Not three minutes after getting off the phone did I hear a knock on the door. They delivered us two bananas, four muffins and two glasses of apple juice. It was really thoughtful and much appreciated.
Spring Hill Suites Marriot was the hotel, I highly suggest it if you are ever in Asheville!
After loading up the car we returned to the Asheville Whole Foods Market to eat from the hot breakfast bar. It was delicious! We used the rest of our Gyft.com Whole Foods gift card, then returned to shop for lunch items with a new card.
Then we got Exxon Gasoline with our coinfueled.com gas card. This was our sixth gasoline purchase with BTC. Success!
Now we are cruising through NC and headed to Bitcoin in the Beltway!
I am going to try to update yesterday’s pending live blogs that wouldn’t post due to internet connectivity, so things will be a tad out of order!
Thursday, 06/19, 4:54
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 18, Day Three, Expedia Redeems
We have spent nearly an hour getting our hotel situation figured out. Expedia found us a room in a nearby hotel (0 more a night than the overbooked one), is refunding us worth of BTC and is giving us a 0 credit for future travel.
I was convinced we had screwed up trying Expedia tonight instead of going with what we know works (Gyft.com gift cards for globalhotelcard.com), but this is redeeming. We decided we are going to sleep in and arrive late to D.C. tomorrow. We have a major sleep deficit and really need rest.
Thank goodness both kids are asleep in their car seats. May all our heads find pillows soon tonight! (It is 1AM now!)
Thursday, 06/19, 4:21
Well, I could not live blog from our drive through the mountains due to internet connectivity issues. I will have to post them tomorrow.
We just left the screening in Asheville and tried to book a room through Expedia.com with BTC.
Two issues:
1. It took over ten minutes to confirm the payment and reservation with Expedia’s Coinbase set up, while the previous two nights Gyft.com got us instant gift cards and the hotels confirmed immediately with our globalhotelcard.com gift card.
2. They booked us a room that was not available and we have spent 30 minutes in the car with sleeping babies and no hotel. After declining our screening hosts’ offer to sleep at their house, of course. They are getting us a new room, but it has taken forever and I really want some rest.
4c1998503
Wednesday, 06/18, 4:28
Well, we just had lunch at the BitPay office. Thank you, BitPay team! They are going to do some social media about our trip, so watch their twitter feed for that!
I have to say, both John and I feel very inspired after visiting their new office. Everyone was very welcoming and seemed to love working there. It gives me hope to see such a thriving Bitcoin business. I feel like we got a small glimpse into the future today!
John interviewed Elizabeth Ploshay for his SovereignBTC.com podcast. It was really neat meeting her, because she recently took a job with BitPay after working for Bitcoin Magazine!
Here are a few more pictures from our visit:
We are now en route to Asheville, NC to stay with Justin Stout and Shayla Rose of the Blue Ridge Liberty Project!
Wednesday, 06/18, 3:29
We are at the BitPay headquarters! Details soon!
Wednesday, 06/18, 4:58
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 17, Day Two, Setting Up Tomorrow’s Agenda
We are in our hotel and settling in.
We just confirmed a 15 minute meeting with BitPay tomorrow!
We are also arranging lunch or an interview with radio host Jack Blood.
Then we drive three hours to our screening of Sovereign Living (sovereignliving.tv) in Asheville, NC.
RSVP here: https://m.facebook.com/events/501767733283104
No rest for the weary!
Wednesday, 06/18, 3:40
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 17, Day Two, Our Second Hotel Purchased with BTC
We entered Georgia at somepoint after dinner. It is dark so I missed witnessing the state line. Aliana woke up and ate her Applebees in the car while watching the Sound of Music on our car DVD player. Amazingly she is still awake at 11:30 pm.
We found a hotel near the BitPay head quarters and should arrive sometime after midnight. I am confused about what timezone we are in and hope it isn’t actually an hour later than I think it is!
We faced a similar issue paying for this hotel as we did paying for Applebees – our bill didn’t line up exactly with the giftcard amounts available on gyft.com. Last night our 0 globalhotelcard.com giftcard covered our .30 room perfectly. Tonight I used the remaining $.70 from that card, then purchased a 0 and giftcard from gyft.com with BTC. We will have extra in globalhotelcard.com value to apply toward future stays.
I have not heard back from BitPay to confirm our visit, so I am going to email them again after posting this. They know we are passing through, but we didn’t get anything set in stone. It would be a real treat to visit such a thriving and established BTC business, especially one John and I use on a regular basis!
Wednesday, 06/18, 1:44
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 17, Day Two, Applebee’s With BTC
We managed to survive dinner and fill our waiter in on our Bitcoin journey. I am not sure why we haven’t “talked shop” with anyone on the road about our journey so far. We talk BTC everywhere we go at home, I guess I was just getting my fix via the live blog. We need some sort of business card we can hand people…. I will have to figure that out as soon as possible.
Other than our exhaustion and crazy baby, Applebee’s was a great dining experience. One minor hang up with using gyft.com for our meals is that you can’t buy a gift card for the exact amount. Tonight we bought a gift card for a meal. I could not buy the card and leave him a tip, so we opted for the next highest option. It will work out in the end because we will surely have the opportunity to eat there again.
Over two more hours to go until we arrive in Atlanta. I hope the kiddos sleep soundly the rest of the drive!
Time to figure out our hotel stay for the night!
Wednesday, 06/18, 12:53
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 17, Day Two, Dinner Insanity
We decided to carry in the sleeping beauty and order her food to go from Applebee’s. She is sleeping in my lap and Bill is going slap happy crazy across the table in John’s lap. And I mean seriously nuts.
John had to take him outside because he is shrieking and finding it hilarious.
The reality of spending only bitcoin on the road is delayed gratification and fussy kids. I did a massive amount of pre planning, but we have not made it to our planned dinner destination once on this trip.
As I sit here eating our appetizer alone I am realizing that in order to survive the next three plus weeks of this trip we are going to need to take these sort of things into consideration and have back up plans at each stop.
We still have two and a half hours to drive tonight, I hope we don’t lose our minds!
Wednesday, 06/18, 12:18
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 17 Day Two, Dinner Mishaps
Well, our Bitcoin dinner in Montgomery has started disastrously. We showed up hungry with a car full of grumpy kids/parents to a TGI Fridays that has apparently closed. We then spent twenty minutes trying to find a restaurant on gyft.com that is still on our route. We found an Applebee’s, pulled into the lot and our daughter falls asleep. It is moments like these when I would rather have the convenience of eating somewhere with a dollar bill…. I will let you all know how it goes when we figure out what to do.
Tuesday, 06/17, 11:43
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 17, Day Two, Gas Stop Number Five
Well, its raining, hopefully that won’t slow us down too much. We are approaching Montegomery, AL where we intend to eat dinner. We just used our first BP gas card from coinfueled.com. It worked perfectly at the pump.
Tuesday, 06/17, 8:41
We just crossed into Alabama.
Texas, check.
Louisana, check.
Mississippi, check.
Today we cruise through Alabama and stop in Atlanta, Georgia for a night of rest. One more state to go today, then a short drive into Asheville, NC tomorrow.
In Asheville we have a screening of two episodes of Sovereign Living (episode 3 which covers midwives and home births and episode 4 which covers our actual homebirth of baby William and alternative currencies).
Then we have one more epic day of travel to reach the Bitcoin in the Beltway Conference in D.C.
I am so very ready for three nights in the same place. Washington D.C., I never thought I would be so happy to see you!
Tuesday, 06/17, 7:08
Another state down! Welcome to Mississippi!
Tuesday, 06/17, 7:04
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 17, Day Two, Gasoline Stop Number Four and Lunch on BTC
Another late start, typical of our family, so we had to stop for lunch about an hour into the drive. The Exxon we stopped at had some Louisiana PoBoy local grub, so we decided to try it. Trust me, gas station food is never my first choice, so this stuff had to look decent!
We filled up the tank for the fourth time on this trip with our coinfueled.com gas cards bought with BTC. Then I went in and asked if we could buy from the food counter with our Exxon gift card. They explained how and we ordered!
Now that we have bought some non-gas items with our counfueled.com gift cards, I am going to place another order with coinfueled.com to have delivered to Porcfest, just in case!
Here is the view we are currently enjoying as we cruise through Louisiana!
Tuesday, 06/17, 5:13
More coverage by the Coin Telegraph!
http://cointelegraph.com/news/111846/radical_road_trip_a_family_fuelled_by_btc_for_1_month
Tuesday, 06/17, 5:05
Here is an awesome article by Derrick Broze for Ben Swann’s website about our bitcoin only journey! Thanks for the coverage, guys!
Tuesday, 06/17, 4:55
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 17, Day Two, Our Third Gas Purchase
This morning we made our third gasoline purchase with a giftcard purchased with BTC through coinfueled.com.
The only minor hangup was that the gift card did not work at the pump as it did the past two times. John had to go in to the gas station, give them the card, pump the gas, then go back in to have them process the payment. I assume this was an issue with their pump, not the card!
Another successful BTC gasoline transaction!
Tuesday, 06/17, 4:45
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 17, Day Two, Hotel Stay
This morning we woke up in our hotel room purchased with BTC just in time to make the end of breakfast. 0 worth of BTC housed and fed our family of four, what a steal!
We found the hotel room on globalhotelcard.com, purchased a gift card on gyft.com, then reserved the room through globalhotelcard.com. It was so inexpensive because the hotel was undergoing renovations, but we didn’t notice from within our room!
Here is a screenshot of our hotel purchase last night.
Here we are loading up this morning!
Tonight we arrive in Atlanta, GA after another eight hours of driving. We are talking to BitPay about a visit to their office tomorrow morning!
Tuesday, 06/17, 4:28
Last night we recorded our first audio update from the road! Check it out via John’s podcast feed at www.sovereignbtc.com.
Here is a clickable audio embed of the episode!
Tuesday, 06/17, 3:01
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 16 Day One, End of Day Wrap up
Our first day on the road is almost over and it has gone without a hitch.
We bought a car charger at Target, gasoline twice from Exxon, food from Whole Foods, dinner at Logan’s Roadhouse, and a hotel room from GlobalHotelCard.com. All purchased with bitcoin!
Here is a screenshot of today’s Gyft.com purchases:
I tried to take a picture of our coinfueled.com gift card, but it is too dark in the car and it was blurry. Another time!
Check back here in the morning as we depart Baton Rouge!
Tuesday, 06/17, 2:41
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 16, Day One, Dinner
We just enjoyed a delightful meal at Logan’s Roadhouse. We bought the giftcard on Gyft.com with BTC after receiving our bill so we knew how much we needed. This was my first experience at a Logan’s. I honestly would not have tried it except it was listed on Gyft as an option. It was great! I love it how Bitcoin is introducing me to new places to eat!
We have two hours left on the journey for today. I am basically exhausted from multiple nights of not enough sleep. Thankfully John is driving, maybe I can nap!
We bought our hotel room by using gyft.com as well. It was a pain free experience, but we did have to give a credit card (obviously) for incidentals, despite our bill coming to 0 after the gift card was applied.
I chose the hotel based on high user ratings on Orbitz, multiple compliments in the reviews on the hot breakfast, and a low cost. Again, the gift card is for globalhotelcard.com which is powered by Orbitz.com, but not actually Orbitz.
I will post a screenshot of the order page after we have departed tomorrow!
Tuesday, 06/17, 12:24
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 16 Day One, Entering Louisiana
We finally made it out of Texas!
The kids are starting to get antsy. I am starting to get hungry. We will have to figure out the next stop as soon as possible.
I was incorrect in a previous post, we are getting our hotel through globalhotelcard.com, which is powered by Orbitz.com. The gift card will be bought through gyft.com as I previously mentioned, but is only redeemable on globalhotelcard.com, not redeemable on Orbitz.com. Sorry for the misinformation!
Monday, 06/16, 11:29
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 16, 2014 Day One, Second Gas Stop
We just finalized our second gasoline stop with a gift card purchased on coinfueled.com! Success!
We aren’t even out of Texas and it’s dinner time. It is going to be a long night!
We had planned to eat dinner at a large Whole Foods in Baton Rouge, but we will obviously need to eat sooner. I am personally not a fan of the restaurant options on gyft.com and egifter.com takes nearly 24 hours to get you the gift card.
I will post an update when we decide what to do!
We found a hotel on orbitz.com, but have not paid for the room yet. I will try to take a screenshot when we do. We will be buying a gift card on gyft.com with BTC then paying for our hotel with the gift card!
Monday, 06/16, 10:03
If you will be in Asheville, NC this Wednesday, please attend this casual screening of Sovereign Living hosted by Justin Stout and Shayla Rose!
https://www.facebook.com/events/501767733283104/
Monday, 06/16, 9:34
Uncoinventional Living Tour, June 16 Day One, Peaches
Peaches taste sweeter when bought with ethical money!
Here is Aliana showing off her mouth full of organic peach bought with BTC via Gyft.com.
Life is good!
Now that we have full bellies, we all want a nap! Too bad we still have half of Louisana to drive through! I am sure today won’t be our last late start.
Onward and forward!
Monday, 06/16, 9:00
Uncoinventional Living Tour June 16, 2014 Day One, Lunch on BTC
We finally made it to Whole Foods in Houston! Time for some grub, then off to run around and get the wiggles out at a local park!
Here is John paying with a Whole Foods gift card purchased with BTC from gyft.com!
Monday, 06/16, 8:28
Just a reminder, if you want to contribute to our journey, here are the various ways:
BTC: 1HJ3WRuEEapWgEFNTDCxpTxzWoJCZ8YZQc
LTC: Ld35jZQhkJrpRPKtnfRw1r37KuazzgAiQS
Doge: DLpxS6j6DA38kZzkGAUNtR6tCtCHckaW7k
Monday, 06/16, 5:26
Uncoinventional Living Tour 2014, June 16, 2014 Day One, Target Stop for Charger
We couldn’t find our car charger, which is important for live blogging, so we had to stop at Target on the way out of town. Two and a half hours after departure time, and we are finally ready to hit the road.
We got the Target gift card through Gyft.com with points we have earned with Bitcoin purchases!
Monday, 06/16, 4:46
Uncoinventional Living Tour 2014, Monday June 16, Day One, Our First Coinfueled Gas Pump Experience.
Success! We are currently filling our tank with gasoline purchased with Bitcoin! THANK YOU, Coinfueled!
Monday, 06/16, 4:30
Well, we are one and a half hours late hitting the road. I didn’t get the car fully loaded last night because my son woke up after my first load down. Then my daughter had troble staying asleep, probably from all the midnight activity in the house.
That would have only set us back an hour or so, but our new stroller did NOT want to fit in the back and I had to unload and reload the whole car!
Here we are taking off!
Sunday, 06/15, 5:36
Well, I have been up all night doing inventory for our vendor booths at Bitcoin in the Beltway and Porcfest. I am exhausted! I hope we are able to buy some more of our Come and Take Bit shirts as we are down to funky sizes…..
We will be selling shirts, miners, Sovereign Living DVDs and more!
My goal was to have the car loaded tonight so we could actually enjoy Father’s Day tomorrow, alas my toddler is still awake and my husband has yet to pack even one item!
Like always, we will be loading up way too late for my comfort.
One of our Amazon.com shipments didn’t make it by today so I have to get it forwarded onto DC. It’s a shame because it’s two carseat activity trays that I think will help make the long days in the car less stressful….
Sunday, 06/15, 4:58
Uncoinventional Living Tour 2014, Sunday June 15, Ten Hours Until Departure, Final Tasks!
We leave in ten hours. John finally picked out his clothes; now I have to unload the tubs from the car to add his things, load our vender booth items (lots of miners and tshirts), and take care of some last minute tasks. I just finished the press release and submitted for editing.
I have cleaned the entire house, emptied the perishables from the fridge and cupboard, removed all trash from all bins, relocated the fish to the office, relocated our plants to John’s parents’ house, relocated the cats to an unschool family home, and yet I still feel unsettled and not ready to leave!
I will run the last load of dishes before bed, wash the last load of laundry, and pray I forgot nothing!
Tomorrow we have frozen breakfast treats purchased from Target with Gyft.com cards bought with BTC, then we fill our tank with gas bought with BTC from coinfueled.com, and then we finally begin this long crazy journey.
I am going to start hauling the last 5 or 6 loads down the two flights of stairs and hope the kids stay asleep long enough for me to finish since John is still at the office!
See you here tomorrow, bright and early, for our farewell photo
Sunday, 06/15, 1:23
Uncoinventional Living Tour 2014 Sunday June 15, One Day Until Departure, Dehydrating Eggs
In an effort to eat quality food on the road, we decided to dehydrate ten dozen eggs for the trip. I tested three dozen a few days ago and have the final ten going right now.
I am exhausted, but I think it is worth it!
Saturday, 06/14, 8:17
Uncoinventional Living Tour 2014: Saturday June 7, 2014, 9 Days Until Departure, Confirmation of Gas Cards
I checked in with Dante of Coinfuled.com today and he said he received our payment and will ship us the cards on Monday!
Saturday, 06/14, 8:16
Uncoinventional Living Tour 2014: Saturday June 7, 2014 9 Days Until Departure, Picking Tents
In 2011 we had a new tent delivered to the campground at Porcfest. We used it for camping until last year when the sting came out of the poles. We had to buy a tent on the fly and quite frankly, my husband can’t stand up in it. We decided to get a taller tent that he can fit inside a new vendor tent that is larger and will accommodate all the products we intend to sell.
John spent several hours on amazon.com trying to find something on Amazon Prime (Free delivery for members) that he could stand inside and that has good reviews for rain. I think we found the right tent, now we just have to sleep on it and then order it!
Saturday, 06/14, 8:11
Uncoinventional Living Tour 2014: Sunday June 8, 2014 8 Days Until Departure, Figuring Out the Farm
Our good friend Paul lives on the farm and will be in China for two weeks while we travel to DC, NH and KC. We thought we had found live-in help collecting eggs and watering the plants, but it fell through. We discussed what needs to be done by a volunteer and who potential options are. I hope we get it figured out soon, I really hate unchecking items from my to-do list. They will need to collect eggs, water the garden and feed the chickens!
Saturday, 06/14, 8:07
Uncoinventional Living Tour 2014: Monday June 9, 2014 7 days until Departure, Another Amazon Order Arrived!
Tonight my husband carried up three huge boxes of food, diapers and wipes. We purchased these items for the trip via amazon.com Subscribe and Save; we paid with amazon.com Gyft cards.
Tonight we also placed an order for a new stroller that will allow both of our children to fall asleep at events, two activity trays for our car seats that will allow the kids to have snacks, crafts, and toys within easy reach during the long driving days, a keyboard for the iPad so I can type on the road without my hands aching, and a mount for John’s cell phone in the car!
We were about ten minutes late placing the order so some of our things are arriving past our next planned trip to the PO box in Austin. This adds another day of errands this week, but that’s ok, the stroller will be worth it!
Saturday, 06/14, 8:03
Tuesday June 10, 2014 6 Days Until Departure, Packing and Packing
Today I have spent the entire day cleaning our apartment and packing for the trip. Because there are distinct legs of the trip that include distinct needs, I have been packing our belongings into event – specific containers. There is a container of travel clothes and snacks to get us to DC, there is a container of hotel and travel clothes to use at the Bitcoin in the Beltway conference and during the short drive to Porcfest, then a Porcfest container with camping clothes (lots of layers for the mountain rain).
All of the food I am packing has been purchased with Gyft.com cards for Target, Whole Foods and Amazon. I bought two new pairs of yoga pants for the travel portions from Target with a Gyft card, and everything else we already have. Even the giant Ziploc bags I am using to store each person’s outfits inside the containers were purchased with BTC by using a Gyft.com card!
We are anxiously awaiting our coinfueled.com gas cards to arrive. Armed with food, gas cards, and a tablet to buy orbitz.com Gyft cards, we should be able to make it all the way to DC using BTC only!
Saturday, 06/14, 7:58
June 11, 2014 5 Days Until Departure, Car Troubles
The check engine light has been bouncing on and off and our mechanic had us bring it in. Right now we are using a loaner car, way too small to travel the country in! Hopefully they figure out the situation and get it resolved before this weekend; I had planned to start packing on Friday.
Friday, 06/13, 8:28
Uncoinventional Living Tour 2014: June 13, 2014 3 Days Until Departure, Gas Cards Delivered, Last Minute Shopping
Today we did a final Target run to get some toys for the kids in the car and to get momma some new shirts for the trip. I also needed parchment paper so I could dehydrate some eggs from our farm to bring on the trip and some frozen breakfast items for the morning of departure.
I emailed Dante from Coinfueled.com while we were driving to Target and he confirmed the cards have been delivered to our PO Box! How exciting!
I have finished most of the packing for myself and the kids. John on the other hand has packed nothing. Not one thing.
Tomorrow we pick up our car, drop off the cats, and run some last minute errands. John has been in hustle mode to get some of our miners properly set up before we hit the road for so long!
It has been a LONG packing and planning journey, but I am feeling good!
Thursday, 06/12, 8:43
Uncoinventional Living Tour: Thursday June 12, 2014 Stroller Assembly Success!
Here is a photo of the happy stroller riders:
Thursday, 06/12, 8:42
Uncoinventional Living Tour: Thursday June 12, 2014 Stroller Assembly Success!
Not only did I get the stroller all together (by myself!), but the kids LOVE it. Aliana spent the entire night in the stroller eating snacks and loving the set up!!!! I am very excited about taking this to Porcfest.
Thursday, 06/12, 4:44
Uncoinventional Living Tour: Thursday June 12, 2014, Putting Together the New Stroller
Last year at Porcfest I was able to “wear” my youngest while we pushed our oldest in a stroller. This year my 30lb one year old really needs a place he can sleep while we cruise around the event. We decided to get a double stroller that has two reclining seats. I spent many hours reading reviews and price comparison shopping. Well, the big day has arrived and our new stroller (purchased with BTC on Amazon.com with a Gyft.com gift card) is in pieces on our kitchen floor.
I am sending the kids to the park with Daddy, let’s see how this goes!
Saturday, 06/07, 8:17
Thursday June 7, 2014, Payment for Gas Cards
Today I followed up with John about the invoice. He made payment. Gasoline paid for with BTC, CHECK!
Friday, 06/06, 8:22
Uncoinventional Living Tour 2014: Wednesday June 6, 2014, Invoice for Gas
Today we received the BitPay.com invoice for the gas cards. I forwarded it to my husband to make payment. The total came to 0, so we may need to order a few more before the end of the trip.
Tuesday, 06/03, 8:23
Tuesday June 3rd 13 Days Until Departure, Mishaps and Gasoline
Well, our farm-sitter fell through. Uncheck that from our to-do list! We spent today at the farm and made some plans for fundraising Bitcoin to keep it in operation. We are thinking about seeking donations of minders since he farm pays rent in BTC.
I also submitted our order for gas cards from coinfueled.com. It took me FOREVER to figure out what cards to get, but the method I found the easiest was to get on Google Maps and search for gas stations offered by coinfueled.com at each stop. I found on the way up (southern route through DC), there are Exxonmobils at every stop and on the way home from NH through Kansas City (northern route ), there are BPs at every stop with Exxons at about half. I ordered 0 in Exxon cards and 0 in BP cards.
Coinfueled.com asks for two weeks to make good on an order. We missed this by one day and they were very tolerant. I tried to use their online submission form, but received an error. I copied and pasted it and sent it to Dante via email. He replied that he would manually create us a BitPay.com invoice
Monday, 06/02, 4:01
Uncoinventional Living Tour: June 2nd 14 Days Until Departure, Logistics of Lodging
Today is the day I should have sent Coinfueled.com my order for the cards, but I am so bogged down with the logistics of this trip!
We reserved our hotel for the Bitcoin in the Beltway Conference today. A friend will be paying for the room in USD and we will be reimbursing them with Bitcoin. We could have ordered an Orbitz.com gift card with Bitcoin then bought the room with the gift card through Orbitz, but it would cost over more per night. We opted to use a more intimate middleman who could get the group rate for us.
We have not finalized the payment, but the room is on reserve. That means our housing is reserved but not yet paid for at Porcfest and
Sunday, 06/01, 3:55
Uncoinventional Living Tour: June 1st 15 Days Until Departure, Camping at Porcfest
Today I heard from the Alt Expo crew that I can camp in their row of campsites during Porcfest at a much lower cost than renting our own RV spot. We are going to pay them in BTC.
This means the Arman family and our family will be camping with Alt Expo then manning our Agora Valley vendor spot on campsite 29 during the day! What a great set up!
I also found Lyn Ulbrict a hotel room to share during the event. Its all coming together!
Saturday, 05/31, 3:53
Uncoinventional Living Tour: May 31st 16 Days Until Departure, Final Order with Amazon.com
I spent several hours finalizing our Amazon.com order for the trip. iPad repair kit, DVD travel case, and lots of yummy snacks. I then applied an Amazon.com gift card purchased with Bitcoin through Gyft.com to my Amazon account. I could not figure out how to set my Subscribe and Pay order to accept the gift card as payment instead of my husbands debit card.
Several hours of chatting with customer service later, I found a forum post with updates as recent as last week with people discussing this issue. Apparently you can’t actually assign the gift card to your Subscribe and Save, but if you have a card applied to your account the default is for Subscribe and Save to use the card.
I was glad to see this, although some people were upset because they wanted their card billed on Subscribe and Save so they could use their gift cards on other items. My order is set to charge on Monday and I will find out first hand if the gift card is used or if they charge our debit card!
Friday, 05/30, 3:50
Uncoinventional Living Tour: May 30th 1 PM 17 Days Until Departure, Amazon.com with Gyft.com
I spent an hour today putting together our Subscribe and Save list on Amazon.com. These are items we need on the road and at the campground. Diapers, wipes, snacks for the kids and the parents, and maybe a new car seat for our toddler.
I have to finalize the order by tomorrow to receive by June 10th. This will give me enough time to pack and stage it all before go-time!
Tonight, I will finalize the trip shopping list and purchase amazon.com gift cards with Bitcoin on Gyft.com. After linking them with my amazon account I should be all set up for another seamless Amazon delivery! (I say seamless because their customer service is so great that mishaps feel more like blessings! )
Friday, 05/30, 3:48
Uncoinventional Living Tour May 30th, 17 Days Until Departure, Camping with BTC
I Just got off the phone with Jessica Arman. She agreed to pay the full amount to the campground with her card and accept our half of the campsite fees in Bitcoin.
Its incredible how many logistical hoops you have to jump through to travel with BTC today. I bet this time next year things will be much more easy! We shall see!
Friday, 05/30, 3:45
Uncoinventional Living Tour: May 30th 17, Days Until Departure, Rogers Campground
Rogers Campground (location of Porcfest in a Lancaster, NH) contacted me declining my offer to help set them up with Bitcoin through BitPay.com. I emailed the Arman Family, who we are sharing a vendor and camp site with, and asked if they could pay the full amount to Rogers with FRNs so we pay the Armans our half in BTC. Jessica Arman will be vending her amazing tooth whitener called My Magic Mud. She will also be speaking in the Women in Bitcoin Panel.
Friday, 05/30, 3:30
UnCoinventional Living Tour: May 30th 17 Days Until Departure, No BTC at Rogers Camp Ground
Today I heard back from Rogers Campground, the location of Porcfest, that they will not be accepting payment in Bitcoin for vendor or camper spots.
I’m surprised by this since so many of the thousand plus attendees use Bitcoin. How can we change this for next year?
Thursday, 05/29, 3:17
Uncoinventional Living: May 29th 18 Days Until Departure, Farm
Today I heard back from our friend Brooke that she can house sit the farm and help take care of the chickens and garden while we are on our Uncoinventional living Tour! Yaye!
Our community garden is a project of www.TheCenterforNaturalLiving.com and is operated with BTC! You can see pictures via: www.BlushFamilyFarm.com.
Thursday, 05/29, 3:16
Uncoinventional Living Tour: May 29th 18 Days Until Departure, Lyn Ulbrict
Today I have been helping Lyn Ulbrict (Mother of Ross Ulbrict, alleged founder of the Silk Road) find housing at Porcfest. She prefers a hotel. I have one hotel offer, a campsite offer coupled with an offer to use the facilities at an off site hotel to get ready for speeches. I also gave her the link to submit a speech idea. They first put her on Tuesday, then moved her to Saturday. I am including her in the Women in Bitcoin Panel.
Thursday, 05/29, 3:13
Uncoinventional Living Tour: May 29th 18 Days Until Departure, Coinfueled.com Update
Ruben, Editor In Cheif of Bitcoin Magazine, put me in touch with Dante of Coinfueled.com. Dante suggested using the “Gas Guru” Android application to find the best gasoline deals on our route. Dante will be fulfilling our order of gasoline gift cards in exchange for bitcoin after we decide how much we need from each gas company. He offered to waive the shipping fee in support of our trip. We gladly accepted! I will post an update on how this service works and the Android app after we complete the purchase!
Wednesday, 05/28, 3:06
Uncoinvential Living Tour: May 28th 19 Days Until Departure, The Route
Today we finished mapping out our driving route. We will drive from San Marcos to Dallas where we will host a Bitcoin Meetup and screening of Sovereign Living. Then to DC for the Bitcoin in the Beltway Conference where we are screening our show and working a vendor booth. Next stop is Porcfest where we will screen the full six episodes of Sovereign Living (Word Premier of 5 and 6) and give several speeches. Last is Kansas City where we are planning a Bitcoin Meetup and Screening of Sovereign Living. We will be camping and staying in highway towns along the way.
The stars of the Sovereign Living reality show will soon hit the road for four weeks to tour the country and spend Bitcoin only. They will find creative ways to travel, eat and sleep without the use of the dollar bill as they cruise over 4,400 miles in their family minivan.
The Blush Family (John Bush, Catherine Bleish and their children) are known for their strong advocacy of alternative currencies, natural health, sustainability, peaceful parenting, and unschooling.
The Center for Natural Living, a Texas based 501C3 Nonprofit, is producing a reality based educational program about their efforts to get off all centralized grids. The family will be hosting five screenings of the show, Sovereign Living, on their Uncoinventional Living Tour across the country.
Last summer the family conducted a no FRN challenge at the Porcupine Freedom Festival where they spent only Bitcoin, silver and barter. This year they are extending the challenge to the entire trip and adding several stops along the way.
Their journey will take them from Central Texas to Dallas where they will host a Bitcoin meetup and screening of Sovereign Living. Next they will trek west to Washington D.C. for the Bitcoin in the Beltway Conference where you can find them working a booth, hosting a screening and giving a few panel talks.
The following week will be spent in Lancaster, NH for the Porcupine Freedom Festival where they will work a vendor site, host the world premier screening of the two most recent episodes of Sovereign Living, and give several speeches. Finally their journey will end in Kansas City, Missouri where they will host a Bitcoin Meetup and screening.
They will be writing occasional comprehensive articles and daily live blogs about the journey on Bitcoin Magazine.
- Bitcoin Magazine Live Blog feed
- Catherine’s Twitter feed via: @TheBitMom
- Sovereign Living Twitter
Some of the resources they plan to utilize on the journey include:
1. Gyft.com for food and hotel cards (used regularly by the family)
2. CoinMap.org for lists of locations that accept Bitcoin
3. Coinfueled.com for gas cards (not yet tested by the family)
Please suggest additional resources in the comments!
You can contribute to the project in the following ways (all donations will go toward travel and marketing the journey):
- BTC: 1HJ3WRuEEapWgEFNTDCxpTxzWoJCZ8YZQc
- LTC: Ld35jZQhkJrpRPKtnfRw1r37KuazzgAiQS
- Doge: DLpxS6j6DA38kZzkGAUNtR6tCtCHckaW7k
Here is the tentative travel schedule:
- Monday June 16 Dallas, Texas – Sovereign Living Screening
- Tuesday June 17 drive to Memphis, Texas
- Wednesday June 18 drive to Knoxville, TX
- Thursday June 19 drive to Washington DC
- Friday June 20 Washington DC – BItcoin in the Beltway
- Saturday June 21 Washington DC – Bitcoin in the Beltway
- Sunday June 22 drive to Boston
- Monday June 23 drive to Lancaster, NH
- Tuesday June 24 Lancaster, NH – Porcfest
- Wednesday June 25 Lancaster, NH – Porcfest
- Thursday June 26 Lancaster, NH – Porcfest
- Friday June 27 Lancaster, NH – Porcfest
- Saturday June 28 Lancaster, NH – Porcfest
- Sunday June 29 Nashua, Nh – Sovereign Living Screening
- Monday June 30 drive to Erie, PA
- Tuesday July 1 Erie, PA
- Wednesday July 2 drive to Indianapolis
- Thursday July 3 drive to Kansas City
- Friday July 4 Kansas City
- Saturday July 5 Kansas City – Screening
- Sunday July 6 Kansas City
- Monday July 7 Kansas City
- Tuesday July 8 drive to Texarkana, AR
- Wednesday July 9 drive to San Marcos Texas
Thank you for being a part of this journey!