Wrapping up the Bus

So the bus tour has ended. It was the most frequent thing I wrote about on this blog. By far. It was one of the few primary sources of info I had, so I hoped you like it. Anyone can write about sports or movies, but who else would tell you about the nightlife and people in places like Joplin, Missouri or Oneonta, New York?

We ended in DC, Philly, and Baltimore. The culmination of the tour of kind of disappointing. Not many people and little, little media.
I was glad to be done with it.
I think in the end the bus went 40,000+ miles, traveled to 45 states (sorry Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming.)
The best part was just talking to tons of different people - dumb college girls, old racist white people, excited first time voters, small town reporters trying to make their big break, foreigners, people who love Project Vote Smart.
The travel was great too. Missouri, then Oklahoma, then Colorado, then Utah, then California.
Traveling does make me appreciate Wisconsin much more, though.
Doing interview was very cool too. I got pretty good at it. Seeing yourself on TV give you a big head, but still cool.
Another perk was seeing friends I normally would not have the chance to see in D.C, San Francisco, Philly, San Jose, Ithaca, CT, Chicago, Oregon
I won't miss public toilets, fast food, sleeping on the floor, living out of a suitcase, Wal-mart parking lots, waking up too cold or too hot.
But still, definitely much better than an office job.


Best Places: BYU, Reno (I won money), Santa Barbara (beautiful), Oklahoma (pretty fun), Notre Dame, Evansville
Worst Places: Yuma, AZ (hot), Washington University in St. Louis (wins award for worst students, people) DC (we had a few days where we talk to single digit people, St. Paul (protesters), Tacoma, Binghamton
Most Random: Flea market outside of Sacramento, outside a grocery store in Yakima, WA, Buffalo Wild Wings in between Ithaca and Syracuse (literally in the middle of farm fields)

Yes, so it's been a fun year. I definitely know I am privileged to travel to all over this great country and get paid for it. Not bad. Yeo!

Random

So it's been a week since there's been a post. Wow. Long time.
Let's see, what has happened since then?

CC dominated the Big Dunc election. He has many donuts coming his way if he stays with the Brew Crew. I admire the solitary person that voted for John McCain. Way to keep it real. But our readers have spoken, "We WANT CC." Yes we do, sorry Barack, baseball is more important than the economy or health care or the Iraq war. I need to send this link to the Brewers and to CC.

In other less significant news, Barack Obama has been elected the next President of the United States.

On our drive back from the East Coast, we got stuck in South Dakota due to bad weather. The first night we had to stop in Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace. The second night we had to stop in Murdo, South Dakota, even smaller than Mitchell.

I'm currently reading The Stand. I have seen the TV movie a while back, but have never read it. I got the book in August, but hadn't got to it until a few weeks ago. Watching interviews from the creators of LOST made me want to read it. And I had lots of time on my hands being on the bus and stuck in SD. (I had already finished Seasons 3 of LOST and The Office.) But yeah, it's pretty good.
But the actor that played Harold in the TV movie was also in the show Parker Lewis Can't Lose.
Wow, I would be willing to bet that that show has not crossed anyone's mind in at least 8 years.
What happened to it? Does anyone know what it was about? Wow, these are important questions.

Boston, MA

Boston is the best city ever.
Boston is great.
Boston is awesome. Everyone I know who goes there loves it.

This is what people told me about Boston. I disagree. It was a tease being in Boston with a 45 foot bus. I would call the city lame, definitely impractical and poorly planned. Maybe I am just bitter because I couldn't go out.
We went to Boston College and Harvard. BC was not the best. The people at the school who planned our stop didn't clear it with the right people, so we had to wait, and then ended up being placed somewhere else. The kids were not too excited. Only a few were interested in free t-shirts.
Harvard was cool. I was expecting stuck up rich kids, but that was not the case. People were generally nice. Lots of foreigners. I'm pretty sure if I would have went to Harvard I would have got a lot of girls. All the guys were either super dorky, super stuck up, or super gay. So I think by default I would have faired rather well.

Got to see another old intern friend in CT that night. Good times, mostly retelling old PVS stories. It was a quick dinner, probably better we didn't drink like we were in Montana.

In case you haven't noticed, the bus tour has lost its allure for me. Not as fun as it used to be. For the first time, I actually wish I was in Montana. Weird.

Grade: D+

Oneonta, NY (Not Albany)

So, the bus broke down on the way to Albany. We were in a town called Otego and were towed to a place named Oneonta, NY. Upstate New York is much different than down state New York. Lots of farms, lots of hills, not too many people. Yes, so the bus was towed finally on Tuesday morning. We were at a truck repair shop on the edge of town. It was cold and rainy, but sometimes you gotta find your own excitement.
So that's what I did. I ventured out. The prospects were bleak. Lots of car repair places and dealerships and light industry. I saw a Lowe's in the distance and went inside just to look around. Yes, this was how desperate I was. I even forced myself to go to the bathroom just for something to do. I looked at paint and Christmas decorations. Fun. Then I trekked on, oh and I forgot to mention I'm on a state highway without a sidewalk and it's pretty cold, and see an Amish Barn Company, an ice cream shop which is closed for the season, a skating rink, and sing that says Fatman, but is not for a restaurant, then finally a gas station. And next to the gas station - a bowling alley! Yes, and for some reason it opens at 1:00 on Tuesdays. I check my watch and it's 12:45. Nice. I go to the gas station and get some food and as soon as I sit down Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby" starts playing. Wow, what a great turn of events!
So I get to the bowling alley. It's just me and a bunch of old people and a couple retarded people. I love it! I'm bowling average. It's fun. Before I know it I've played 5 games. Then I am about to pay and realize you can bowl two hours for only $16.00, so I get in two more games and top out at 170. I realize I am sweating at the end of it. Good stuff.
Then at night Jon and I go an another trek, more like a quest. Think Lord of the Rings, a long epic journey. And it was cold, very cold. But no hobbits or orcs or wizards and there were only two of us, and we were looking for a McDonald's. But it was long and tough, probably a three mile walk on dark back roads through upstate New York. And in the end, there was no McDonald's, but Burger King, even better. Rodeo Burgers!
And, the bus was not even in the garage yet. Man.

So yesterday the bus gets fixed in like two hours, just a leaky hose, but that is a big deal on a 22-ton bus. So we finally leave Oneonta. And then about 5 miles away we see a sign for the Baseball Hall of Fame, so we decide to head to Cooperstown. Pretty crazy. It was cool. Something pretty impromptu, so that made it even better. I was definitely the only one interested in the Milwaukee Braves and Brewers, haha, but I tried my best to see everything. It was cool, something I'm glad I went to but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

But the bus breaking down turned into so good fun. I'm glad I got out and explored.

Ithaca, NY

Alright, so Ithaca was definitely a step up from Scranton and Binghamton. I mean it was no paradise, but it was ok, very a much the combination of hippie college town and rural upstate New York. I got to see old summer interns Kaitlyn and Joel, very cool. Probably the highlight of the city.

The stop itself went well. Ithaca College, not Cornell, alma mater of my favorite Office character Andy Bernard. IC has a real quality communications department. I was interview probably 7 times, 3 times from students from version types of school news, but it must be said that the students asked much better questions than the real reporters. Two TV stations came up from Binghamton and really had no idea what was going on. One of them, this girl was like 6'2", asked where the bathroom was as soon as she got out of her car and was like upset that I didn't know exactly where it was. Geez. Yeah, but it was a fun day, went by very quickly.

Grade: A- : Oh and the bus broke down in the evening on the way to Albany.
To be continued...........


Since this post is so lame, I added a video of one of the students I talked to at St. John's. He was my first interview - straight up Long Island Greaser - and I was a little worried I was going to be in for a long day. (None of the other kids were as dumb as this guy. Some were even intelligent.)

Bus Bonus - Scranton, PA and Binghamton, NY

From time to time, the bus has a few days off and gets visit cities where it doesn't really have a stop. That is the case for this weekend. A little bonus for our readers.

Scranton, PA - Ok, Scranton has had a lot of hype these past few years. Most of it is from the office, but it is also the hometown of Joe Biden and Hilary Rodham Clinton. It seems to be a typical working class town. Nothing special lately. Went to a bar to get a few drinks - pretty empty. And I didn't have time to find and Dunder-Mifflin memorabilia because we got kicked out of our parking spot in the morning. Boo mall security. But I did get to watch the office in Scranton. Not bad.

Binghamton, NY - Well I have to say that Binghamton is the most unattractive place (as far as people go) in the nation. Really, and I've lived in Milwaukee, Montana, and Philadelphia, so this is saying a lot. Seriously, not an attractive person in the city. When the bar tenders and wait staff are unattractive, it's a bad sign for the rest of the city. Lots of fat people. Lots of single diners. An abnormally high amount of women with moustaches. Really. No good. That's all I gots.

Queens, NY

Hitting yet an borough with the bus. This time it Queens. It was my first time there, and unlike Staten Island and Long Island, Queens hit more of the my NY stereotypes - lots of buildings real close together (think Cosby show, was that Brooklyn?) lots of neighborhood stores an bars, LOTS of great NY accents, and lots of diversity. Yeah, Queens is alright.
We brought the bus to St. John's University, the real one this time. It was another fun, busy day. I did get woken up twice by the police telling us we needed to move the bus, but that's not too out of the ordinary.
I guess it was a normal day on the bus. We did give away t-shirts, which brought a crowd and I did get a lot of videos for out youtube channel. It was a fun, busy day again. I like those, the days go quick. People were for the most part very nice. Oh, and the diversity - white, black, Asian, Indian, mixed - was pretty cool to see. I've been to a lot of college campuses, and I went to school in Madison, so I notice diversity. I wish there were more places like that.
Look at Jon attracting the ladies. Must be the purple shirt.

Long Island, NY

The Site: Hofstra University - Hempstad, Long Island NY
The Event: The Final Presidential Debate
The Audience: Many, Many rich college kids.

See, we were not given press credentials for this debate. Our bus was in a parking lot with the CNN election Bus, the CSPAN Bus, The Rock the Vote Bus, and some eco-Bus. It was a busy day.
And for the record, we definitely kicked Rock the Vote's ass as far as people coming to talk to us went. Maybe it was the fact that we were giving away free flashlight pens, but hopefully more that our services are still usable (The NY registration deadline has past). But is you remember my previous DNC post, Rock the Vote is weak. We probably talked to 1,000 people. Good stuff. Lots of people, actually more older people than younger people were solely looking for free stuff. Yeah, but then I give them free information on Project Vote Smart.

I guess Hofstra did not have classes that day, so students were all over the place. LOTS of sorority girls. Lots of stretch pants and Uggz and big sun glasses. Just what I like, ok, actually the opposite of what I like. Lots of people loved the ball (below) but an oddly high percentage of them posed with the ball hugging or humping it. I'm not sure why, but they loved it. Oh, and I'm sure this will come as no surprise, but NY college kids love Barack Obama. Startling news I sure.


Since we didn't have press passes, I didn't get to see anyone famous. Boo. We did talk to journalists from Russia, New Zealand, South Korea, Sierra Leone, and France, but none from America. Great. Awesome. But it was fun day, definitely an interesting event. I hear the debate wasn't that great. But it was a fun busy day for us.

Staten Island, NY

New York City! Yep, but Staten Island is definitely not the New York City I think of. No skyscrapers. No cabs. No streets jam packed with people. Staten Island is kind of like the suburbs. There was a nice little hood, though, which we drove through when took a few wrong turns on our way into the borough.
The people we talked to also didn't fit the stereotypes of New Yorkers. Everyone was pretty much nice. People were interested in what we had to say.
Oh, yeah, we were at St. John's Staten Island, which I didn't know existed until a few days ago. It was a cute little campus. Great weather. Nice people. And, my faithful readers know this will get a lot of points from me, free lunch. Yes, enough food to feed four or five people. I love it!

There were a few stereotypes which were confirmed. Lots of Italian-Americans, but not the pretty ones, grimmy working class kids. Lots of Yankee hats. A few straight Guido kids with spiked hair and chains and plucked eyebrows. Lots of people whipping pretty hard in Navigators and Excursions with nice rims. Some stretch pants and designer t-shirts, but nothing too bad. Lots of good accents, but like I said, overall nice people . Maybe people you wouldn't think would be cool, but were ok when you talked to them. Don't judge!

Grade: A- (CBS radio and NY1 came out. No network stations, but I'm guessing these two outlets reach a lot more people than say, CBS in Toledo.)

Fredericksburg, VA

Back on the bus. Fun for the blog. I flew into North Carolina Friday night and finally had my first stop on Monday evening. NC was kind of boring, but that isn't a bad thing. Montana had 3 feet of snow the weekend I left. Got out of there at the right time.

So Fredericksurg. It was ok, a nice way to ease back into the bus. People were nice and fairly interested. I did a radio and newspaper interview. The best part is obviously the picture.


Am I a super hero? I hope so. My only powers are defending democracy with nonpartisan information, pretty lame. But I try to look epic doing it.

Grade: B- (no TV in Fredericksburg, but a good start to the last leg.)

Republican National Convention

I have to say that the Republican National Convention was weird.
That is pretty much the best word for it. I mean, look at that logo. The picture with the police is pretty B-A too.
Yeah, there was no regular people around. All there were were protesters. Yeah, we were super busy Monday and Tuesday, but aside from the protests, the city was dead. There was no commerce going on. They must not have allowed any vendors, cuz the city was nothing like Denver. Also, all the Republican delegates were bussed directly into the Excel Center, so there was very little mingling of people. I'd estimate I saw a total of 10 people sporting some sort of McCain apparel.
The week was pretty disappointing.



A few notes.
- Anarchists are stupid. Also, most of them are 130 pound white kids, so I don't see them doing much damage.
- Riot Police are no joke. Those guys got a lot of accessories. Most are older too.
- There was a free concert on Tuesday. It was the biggest hippie-fest I have ever seen in my life. Really. People were hula-hooping, hacky-sacking, twirling ribbons, rhythmic dancing. The smell of cloves was in the air and lots of dred-locks were seen in abundance . And guess who was playing.
Dead Prez - yes the most anti-white artists I know. Pretty funny stuff. But wow, these kids were hula-hooping like it was a matter of life and death, like it was better than sex, crazy stuff. Is that going to change the world?
- I got to see some of my old high school friends and drink a lot of PBR.
- St. Paul has some nice houses
- Thursday I went to the University of Minnesota just to pass some stuff out for a few hours. It was cool, busier, and much more like a regular stop. But, you know how they put out list of like the Top 10, Top 20, even Top 50 hottest students? Well, now I know what U of M never made the list.


So, it was a week dominated by protesters, being board, and PBR. I wish I could compare Republicans to Democrats or something like that, but I simply didn't meet enough of the former in St. Paul.

Private Bus Tour

Here's a little video of the us I've been blogging so much about. Enjoy. This is hot of the presses, special video, only available here at Big Dunc.

Democratic National Convention - Denver, CO

5 days in Denver, Colorado. Lots of democrats, lots of people in suits, hot sunny weather lots of traffic, some interested people, a few scattered interviews, lots of protesters.
That's my impression about the Democratic National Convention. It's tough to write on so many days, so I'll break it down for you.


Work: We worked 10-12 hour days Monday - Thursday. We put a lot of money into this week to get a parking spot and do a few events, but it did not pay off. Mostly there were just a lot of random people walking around. Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty busy, but Monday and Thursday were slow. We were right across from the Colorado Convention Center and about a half mile away from the Pepsi Center, where most of the big activities were. We had two press credentials so we could get into the Pepsi Center and into the media areas. So, two of us were there trying to get the press to write stories on us or to visit the bus and two of us were at the bus. I really can't think of too many highlights. I did meet Michael Dukakis on Thursday at the bus. I happened to be the only one there at the time, so it was cool showing him around. I also saw Mitt Romney and Al Sharpton. I watched Michelle Obama speak along with Claire McCaskill. The Pepsi Center was packed. It was pretty cool. Lots of excitement and buzz in the air. Mostly, though, we were pretty tired by the time the big speeches came around so I didn't go see them. I watched the Obama speech at the Hard Rock Cafe, even there people were clapping and cheering. That was pretty cool.
But overall work was disappointing. I did a few interviews, but nothing too great. I like the regular bus tour much better.


Politics - Obviously most people there were big democrats, but there are still a few things you can take from the Convention. I feel Obama's final speech was good, but a pretty typical stump speech. At the convention you want to get people excited, get people hype, and not give away too much to your opponent. I feel Hilary's speech and Bill's speech were actually better, and more important to the party. Dems need to get Hilary voters to back Obama. We talked to one huge Hilary supporter who said she will not vote for Obama. That seems crazy to me. She will not vote for McCain either, but she was still so upset that Hilary was not the nominee. The Dems are in trouble if that is the trend. My colleague Jon pointed out that during the primaries democrats were split on sex and race, something hard to reconcile over. If they were both white old men, there would be no trouble once one was nominated, all the other's supporters would just join on. Not the case here.
I like the choice of Joe Biden as VP. He brings what Obama us lacking. An experienced white man who is strong on foreign policy. I like his keep-it-real style. His speech was kinda disappointing, though.
I feel in this current political climate Obama should be smoking McCain, but that is not the case. It will be an interesting fall.


People- Lots of people around. Lots of people just looking for free stuff. Like usual, most people that take the time to listen to what we have to say end up really being fans of Project Vote Smart.
Lots of young delegates around, lots of African-Americans. Lots of vendors selling stuff.
It's cool to see the families and stuff, all interested in the political process.


Protesters- Abortion pictures are gross. That was the most common thing people were protesting against. Lots of riot-geared police around and lots of police in general. The perimeter around the Pepsi Center got bigger everyday. Long security lines. It seemed to me that the police had everything under control. The first night we were there we had to leave the bus and clear the area. Then we heard these booms and flashing lights. I guess the police were sending a message to any potential protesters with concussion blasts or whatever they are. Pretty cool.

Rock the Vote- Rock the vote is lame. They were parked right in front of us in the same parking lot. I mean, registering people to vote is great, but they really are far from nonpartisan. They have corporate sponsorship and seem to stress certain progressive issues. They rely on celebrity endorsements and corporate money, pretty much the opposite of PVS. The best they could muster up at the Convention were a few WWE "Superstars" who I never heard of and a couple American Idol rejects. Also their tactics are a bit sketchy. They knew they would register very few people, so instead they were looking for volunteers to go out an register people and in order to get a free T-shirt you had to "volunteer". Rock the Vote will then use these "volunteer" numbers when releasing info to the press, saying something like "800 people were volunteering to register voters all over the city", when in actuality, they just gave out 800 shirts.
Maybe I'm just a hater.


Buses- Buses seem all the rage this year. I saw a Daily Show Bus, a CSPAN election bus, a CNN Election Bus, Rock the Vote was more a truck, there was a Breast Cancer Awareness bus, a ONE bus, a American Stories bus, a Maker's Mark Rock the Vote Bus, a bus called the Bus Legacy, and a New Mexico Tourism Bus. Oh, and our PVS bus. Pretty much despite the huge media presence, there was too much else going on for PVS to get attention. Boo-urns.

All and all it was an interesting week. I got to see a lot of things I've never seen before. It was hard work, sometimes fun. Denver was a cool city.

Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix was a lot like how the bus tour was a few months ago. Mostly, because we didn't have to drive super far and had time to go out in Phoenix. We parked in a nice downtown spot for our stop the next morning. Oh, and damn, it was hot! Over 100. We went to a sports bar/restaurant. It was pretty slow for downtown and mostly had older people. Drinks were cheap, and the bar tender was friendly. So it was ok. My busmate Jon said one profound thing about babies, something to this effect "The thing I don't like about kids is, you can change them, feed them, let them sleep - give them everything they want and need and they still f-ing cry" Yeah, thought I'd share that profound statement with. He also had another gem about Arizona and the climate and vegetation and people living there, but it had a few too many f-bombs to put on here.
The stop in Phoenix blew. It was one of my more boring days. I cleaned the bus in fact. We were parked outside the American Legion National Convention, but talked to few people. I even had to bus out the soccer ball I was so bored. And it was still real hot.
Grade: D (one radio station came)

P.S. That night sleeping on the bus was ridiculous. A few beers in your system and then 90+ degrees on the bus makes for incredible night sweats. It looked like I spilled an entire bottle of water on my bed. Pretty gross.

Yuma, AZ

So, the election season hasn't really heated up (it should next week with the conventions starting), but the weather is. 108 degrees in Yuma, AZ and 110 in Phoenix, still 103 at 9PM. Really, that is just too hot. Why do people live here? How much money is spent to cool buildings and make grass green? Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
But, Yuma is the type of city that PVS will get a lot of play in. We did a live morning show. They went live to us 4 times between 6:30 and 7:00. It was fun stuff. The reporter was quite cute, but has nothing on my girlfriend and is working in Yuma, so can't be too successful. I did two other interviews. Both were real quick. The morning people and the other two stations both said that I was a good interview, that I got out good sound bites and answered the questions well without them having to set it up. That was cool to hear. What can I say? I'm a professional.
Seriously, though, I'd take the cold over the excessive hot anytime.

Grade:B (not enough people in Yuma to go any higher)

San Diego, CA

Yes, Spanish for Whale's Vagina.
San Diego was not bad. The weather was real nice. I woke up, went for a run next to the ocean, pretty great. We were at Ocean Beach. Lots of skaters, surfers, tattoo shops, and evidently, it's no longer cool to wear shirts. Lots of young people about. Lots of white people. The beach was cool, but I think Pacific Beach was much better. It's kind of funny I've been to San Diego twice this year. This time I didn't even feel the need to go swimming.
Ok, our stop was in the afternoon when the farmer's market just miraculously popped up. Three TV stations came to check us out, but none of them were from the major networks. Lots of attractive young ladies (Sorry Carla, I just call it how I see it). Apparently short shorts are still in style in San Diego and it's cool for them to be so short that your pockets come out of the bottom. Hmm. Lots of JB out there, so visitors beware.
People were generally not nice, seemed as though they thought they were too cool for voting. They just wanted to buy their vegan products. Also, they didn't even reserve a parking spot for us. There was this one member lady who came to help out, an man, she was annoying. One of those liberals who still brings up the 2000 election. And whenever we would get someone to come over to the table and be talking to them, she would just butt in and take over. Geez, I do this everyday. I think I can talk to people a little better than you.
But a fun day overall.

Grade: B+
One last side note, pretty much all the shops and restaurants had signs that restrooms where for customers only, and I had a little too much Mexican food, and like I mentioned before, no pooping on the bus, so suffice to say, I had to become a customer at a few places. Well, worth the cost, though

Los Ageles, CA

We took the bus to the big city of LA. Driving a 45-foot bus in LA traffic is not too fun.
We parked the bus at the Original Farmer's Market. And, it may have originally been a farmer's market, but now it's more of an outdoor shopping mall. It was near Beverly Hills. It was trendy, but not too trendy. It'd say it was a hodgepodge of people. You'd see a guy in a wife-beater and then a girl in a Prada dress. Every age and race, lots of tourists. You can tell you Europeans by the black socks. Not too many people were interested in Project Vote Smart. No media either.
Yeah, LA is ok. I think my few bus visits are enough, though. I know I'd never want to live there and I can think of many places I'd rather vacation to.
After the stop we stuck around for a while to avoid the worst of the traffic. Adjacent to the market was another outdoor shopping mail, with pretty much all the semi-trendy stores like Nordstrum's and Crate & Barrel . Apparently it is a big deal because it is one of the few places in the city with grass. (man that sucks) The have concerts and movies and things and a lot of nice restaurants. Lots of good looking people, lots of people in general, lots of disposable income. A cool place to walk around, but not the place for me.

Grade: C-

San Jose, CA

It's been a few busy days for us. Well, mostly for Jon the driver.
We had to drive 11 hours from Albany, OR to Sacramento. Then Sunday we started at 8:00am there and worked until noon. Then we had to drive a little under 3 hours to San Jose to work 3:00-5:00pm. Then after that we had to drive to LA, which should have been about a 7 hour drive, but turned into and 11:00 drive because I-5 was completely shut down for a short stretch. Yes, the entire interstate was closed. We didn't arrive until 5:00am and had to get the bus to the shop to get serviced at 8:00am. Man, life on the road. Don't feel bad for me, though. Feel bad for Jon the driver.
Ok, Sacramento was weak. We were at a flea market. About half the people there did not speak English.
San Jose was pretty good. We got the the newspaper out and 3 TV stations. About time. One of them was Univision and none of us could speak Spanish. The reporter could, but he wanted a Spanish sound bite and waited around over an hour to get one. I hope that worked out for him.
But, yeah, it was finally a busy media day for me. Good stuff. And, a former intern friend of ours came out. The bus tour is great for seeing people you normally wouldn't see. Pretty cool.

Grade: A- (Only two hours and lots of good media. That is the favorite type of stop for me.


Interesting picture. I look real confused. "Huh? Whaaa?" And like the other picture a few posts ago, I look super short. I mean, I'm short, but not a hobbit. It looks like this guy and the previous guy would have to throw me on his back to travel through caves and mountain passes and things. Not the best angle for me I guess.

Albany, OR

So, I think it shows from these blog posts, but this time out on the bus is much less interesting than my previous times. It's been slow. Not many people to talk about. Not much media either.
Yesterday we were in Albany, Oregon, a small town of 50,000. It was our busiest day yet. There were a lot of people there who were big fans of Project Vote Smart. The days are more fun and go by more quickly when there are people to talk to.
So it was a good day, but still, it was just Albany, OR.
Grade: B-

Eugene, OR

This is a Big Dunc Bus Tour Special Report. You get a little review of Eugene, Oregon even though we did not have a stop there.
We went there to visit a former co-worker of ours, Party Marty. The name says all you need to know. We went there Thursday night after Portland and we had Friday off. So, Party Marty showed us a good time.
I thought Eugene was a pretty good time. Lots of people were out for a Thursday night when school was out of session. Lots of dudes. Lots of designer T-shirts. Not many good-looking girls. But the drinks were flowing and the people were nice.
Friday we slept late, were lazy, got to chill in a house as opposed to on a bus, went swimming and got a nice home-cooked meal. No complaints, all and all a nice day off.
I definitely would give Eugene a higher grade than anywhere we've gone so far. If only we actually took the bus there.