Blog Post by Pete Jackson

For those of you who don’t know, Monday is the day that we officially leave the east coast and go inland toward middle America. The best part of having spent time on the east coast is that Joe and I both know people here. We’ve occasionally been able to spend time with family, eat home-cooked meals, sleep in nice beds and shower without having Hitchcockian fears. On Monday that all ends and motel-central begins.

One major concern is that we’re about to lose the occasional home-cooked meal. Some of you may laugh, but it’s my opinion that with a good home-cooked meal comes a heightened sense of security, familiarity and sanity.  It’s something that many of us take for granted and I’ll be the first to admit it. Inevitably, we’ll leave Joe’s sister’s house on Monday, end up at a 7-Eleven for dinner and we’ll each place an order for a processed turkey sandwich with a side of isolation.

One of the ways that we’re learning to deal with this type of change on the road is to come up with contests to boost morale.  Currently, the hottest contest in town is “the flash drive throwing contest.” There is a single flash drive that transfers data between our 3 computers and since we’re continually pushing data we throw a flash drive back and forth (sometimes great distances). As you’ve probably guessed, the whole point is not to drop the flash drive. Torio will be happy for you to know that I dropped it first (but it was an inside throw and I don’t use 2 hands like a wussinator).

“Exciting,” you say? “How can you get in on one of those contests,” you ask? Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out. Maybe we’ll do a “best dinner contest” where you can submit your home-cooked meals to us via mail while we’re on the road and we’ll pick the best one at the end of the trip. We’ll even create an authentic, one-of-a-kind, COB Collector’s Pack for the winner. Prize info below…