THE LAB:GALLERY Presents INTERSECTION February 10-March 2, 2012
Why Fly To LA When You Can Drive…
Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by BrianSimpson in Community
Day 1 :
At 4:26am on Thanksgiving morning I ( Brian Simpson )
climbed into a, yet to be released, Ford Fiesta with Jill Hanner and our journey to the LA Auto Show began.
Our first stop was Alexandria, VA where we had and amazing Thanksgiving meal with friends and relatives. 
After recovering from a mini food coma, we forged ahead, next stop Charlotte, NC, to see our friend and Roger Smith Hotel regular, Jason Keith (@JakRose). The trip to Charlotte was a hard stretch… We had been up for 15 hours, eaten way too much food and were driving through a downpour most of the way.
We arrived in Charlotte at approximately 1:30am. Jason greeted us, poured us each a glass of wine and then one of the days highlights was having a video chat with NYC’er Nicole D’Alonzo before falling fast asleep.
Day 2:
Alarm goes of at 6am and I really thought it was a joke…wow! We shower, pack and are on the road by 7am.
With her Starbucks in hand
Jill took over the driving duties for the first leg of the day, my hero ! Jill and I each mentioned over Twitter that we would be swinging through Atlanta around lunch-time and would like some recommendations and/or companions… First to respond was my friend Tessa, who suggested Holy Taco and said she would meet us there. Then came Chance, who neither of us knew yet and Russel a friend of Jill’s from YouTube. The five of us had a great lunch, took pictures swapped stories and did what all good ‘social media’ people do, exchanged twitter handles and parted ways.
The second part of the day was going really well until we hit New Orleans and were confronted by thousands of Bayou Classic football fans. After circling The Hotel Monte Leone for about 30 minutes we were finally in. Bags were dropped, (literally) and dinner followed. After dinner we went for a quick drink at the famous rotating carousel bar in our hotel… big mistake, huge mistake. First of all trying to position yourself for a seat at a rotating bar means ‘stalking’ the people you think are getting up next. Normally you can wait quietly in the shadows and as guests pay you swoop in, not the case. You must, as casually as possible, walk around the bar following your ‘targets’. Finally after about 20 minutes of ‘stalking’ Jill and I had two seats. The best part was the couple getting up laughing and congratulating us on our efforts. I feel compelled to tell you this: Do NOT wait for a seat at the carousel bar. We sat for about one minute and felt so sick from the movement we left. Really? A moving bar… sounds cool, it isn’t. Its nauseating. Zzzz….
Day 3:
Local born n' raised !
Breakfast at the Bourbon House, after a failed attempt at IHOP, was great. We had a ‘local’ as a server and he made the buffet better than expected. After nomz we headed to the hotel, retrieved the car, showed the car to a twitter follower ‘sketch’ and were headed out of town! After only about 30 minutes we came to a standstill. Jill sent out a request on twitter to find out the source of the delay. We were frustrated, we had to get way into Texas to stay on schedule. We quickly found out there had been a bad accident leaving 8 critically injured and 5 dead. Our frustration turned to appreciation and the 3 hour traffic jam seemed small in comparison. It was a full day of driving and we thought it was going to be a full night as well. Somewhere on the drive we lost a day and thought we needed to drive through the night. Our big question was how to stay awake…A brilliant idea came up – we sent my phone number over our twitter and facebook accounts and asked people to call us and call they did. The best was George from CO. He was warning us about the ‘shape shifters’ & ‘skin stretchers’ ( A.K.A. Aliens) as we cross into Arizona. Around midnight Jill (thankfully one of us was still thinking) realized we had the whole next day to drive to our next destination. As the sentence crossed her lips a hotel sign appeared, we were asleep within minutes.
Day 4:
Not in NYC anymore...
6 a.m. Off across Texas with Phoenix and other Fiesta agents ( Jody and Seth ) in our sights. Texas consisted of long, straight roads, a lot of road-kill (seriously more dead animals than I have ever seen in one day), sand storms, rain and interesting food… I think the fondest memory of this leg of the trip was walking into the mens room on our breakfast/brunch stop.
Nomz???
With one swing of the rickety door, yours truly, dressed in baggy jeans, a T-shirt and tattoos everywhere, is in the middle of four authentic Texans, covered head to toe in camouflage. The greatest part was that none of them were taking advantage of the one stall… they were instead just hangin out chatting… fastest use of a urinal in my history… after some bad coffee (really bad coffee) and marginal eggs, we were back on the road. We flew through El Paso, do not remember New Mexico (I think we went through it) and pulled into Phoenix in time for a quick drink at Jody G’s with Seth and co. before passing out.
Day 5:
Up early, showered and ready for the easy 325 mile jaunt into LA. First a little detour up to Anthem to visit an old friend of Jill’s from NY. After a wonderful morning, a tour of a beautiful home and being entertained by a 3yr old with more energy than both of us combined at this stage we were off to Starbucks and on our way. The ride from Arizona to California was fairly uneventful except for the fork in the highway when I swear the Fiesta really wanted to go towards Vegas, not LA… Once in LA it was off to the hotel, sushi and a little rest before the big Sunset Strip cruise and meeting at Mel’s Diner.
As a bonus my friend Rachael even showed up !
An added bonus was going by the Roxy and seeing Nic Adler, whom I had just met as a co-speaker at Gravity Summit in NYC, standing out front chatting it up with people in line… thats why he gets it!
My mantra for ‘social media’ is great, like minded people meeting more great people – this trip connected me with some amazing people. I have new friendships and
memories that will hopefully last a lifetime !
I would like to thank Jill Hanner for allowing me to be her co-pilot and for editing a lot of video, The staff at Roger Smith Hotel for the time away and the people at Ford for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful experience !
Bsimi
Cross Country With Ford Fiesta Agent #51
Posted on 25. Nov, 2009 by BrianSimpson in Community
While most of America is busy eating turkey, watching football and enjoying family ~ I, @Bsimi ( @RSHotel ), will be the co-pilot, on a cross country journey in Ford Motor Companies first world car, the Fiesta, as part of the #Fiestamovement . Jill Hanner, A.K.A. Agent#51, and I will be driving to the Los Angeles Auto Show on a Southern route across the good ole’ U.S.of A. Although the main goal is getting Jill’s car to LA, our secondary hope is to meet and interview as many unique characters as we can along the way ! Here at The Roger Smith Hotel we pride ourselves in hospitality, making friends and sharing stories. What better way to get new stories, make new friends and share ourselves than to actually go on the road with one of YouTubes most respected personalities, XgobobeanX (Jill)?!
We will be starting our trip on Thanksgiving day and traveling from NYC > Alexandria > Charlotte > New Orleans > Dallas > Santa Fe > LA ! Please look for our updates on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube… #RSHFiesta
Brian’s info:
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Please travel along with us and have a safe and happy holiday !
