The self-styled “Blush Family” - John Bush, Catherine Bleish and their two children - has embarked on their third “Uncoinventional Bitcoin Bus Tour” in the United States, travelling from Philadelphia back home to Texas using only cryptocurrency for payments.
The tour began on April 10 when the family, along with fellow Texan and independent journalist Derrick Broze, flew from Texas to Philadelphia, with the group travelling by plane, car and bus using only bitcoin to pay for goods and services. The total budget for the trip was US$5,758.
The Blush Family is using services like Cheap Air and BTC Trip to book their flights and hotels with bitcoin, while food is purchased directly with bitcoin at establishments listed in the Airbitz bitcoin directory, and via giftcard at restaurants available through Gyft. For miscellaneous expenses, the family is using WageCan, a brand new bitcoin wallet, and DebitCard.
Bush told Cointelegraph:
“We are hoping to inspire bitcoiners to spend their coin with bitcoin accepting merchants and educate merchants about the benefits of accepting cryptocurrency so as to help grow the bitcoin economy. We are also putting bitcoin applications to the test so as to improve the experience for new users.”
It is the family’s third bitcoin only travel experiment. Last year they travelled through over 9,000 miles, 26 states and spent only bitcoin for food, gasoline and housing, with their only non-bitcoin expense a toll road they were unprepared for.
“Catherine came up with the idea as a way to enhance our annual trip to PorcFest,” said Bush. “We were already planning on driving to New Hampshire and thought, why not do the whole thing on bitcoin as an experiment. Ten months later, we are on our third bitcoin only trip.”
The family travelled partly in a converted school bus that functions much like an RV that’s set up for full time living and full time travel. Bush said the trip began with some difficulties but bitcoin is still the only currency that has been used.
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