Going to the 'Ship

On the last day of the month, my mom would always say “If there’s something you wanted to do this month, you better do it today!”

As I sit here in my tiny new office in Orange Beach, Alabama, I can’t help but think back to all the things West & I did this month; people we met and connected with, places we visited, sights we saw and experiences we shared.

We packed about as much as we possibly could have into 19 days, 11 states and 5700 miles.

So as West goes back to his life in Atlanta and I begin fresh in Orange Beach, we both just wanted to say thank you for all of the love and support and messages over the past month.

West even said he’s going to have to join a support group to replace all the love he was feeling during the trip to the ‘ship.

We’re not completely done yet…we’re still going to wrap everything up into a final video in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that.

Otherwise, thanks for hanging out with us and making January 2011 one of our most memorable months ever!

West can be reached at West@WWCProductions.com, Bo at SailingBo.com.


Bo

At 6:43pm we made it back to Toomer’s Corner after 19 days, 2 hours, 58 minutes and 5777.7 miles.

We threw a roll of toilet paper at Toomer’s for a little while, hung out with our receiving party and then went straight to Jordan-Hare to help with preparations for today’s celebration.

We’ll post more photos & video in a day or so…

West & I have been talking a lot about how amazing this trip has been.

I mean, obviously because we witnessed Auburn bring home a National Championship Title and all, but also because of the love and support we’ve gotten on this whole road trip thing of ours.

I’ve continually been amazed by the response from people who have been keeping up with our updates from the road.

The Auburn Family has taken care of us tremendously on this trip, whether it be in the form of inspirational emails, amazing dinners, hotel rooms, tanks of fuel or souvenirs for the crew. In fact, we were on Day 14 of the trip before West or I had to pay for our first gallon of gas. Insane.

And while I know several of the donations can be solely attributed to my ability to handsomely wear a cowboy hat or West’s ability to pull off wild animal screen printed t-shirts, the only reason we’re really here is because of our connection to AUHD.

So we’re going to give back.

For 4 years now, I’ve been promising the AUHD Crew a cookout. And since so much of our trip money was donated, West & I are going to take the money we would’ve spent and put it towards an AUHD shindig this weekend.

In fact, I’ve selfishly decided to combine the cookout with a low country boil in an effort to cross #5 off my bucket list. So, before pulling back into Auburn this weekend, we’re going to make a pass through Joe Patti’s Seafood in Pensacola, Florida and pick up some fresh shrimp.

On behalf of the whole AUHD Crew, West, me & my bucket list, I’d like to thank you for being such an awesome part of our season & letting us be a part of yours!

We’re not quite done yet…we still have a few things left to post, so stay tuned…

The last post was from I-70 in Colorado. A lot of difference a day and a half makes. We pulled out of Boulder around 3pm Tuesday and drove for a while. A long while.

We stopped for dinner in Kansas and kept on driving through all of Kansas & Oklahoma before pulling into the Best Western parking lot at 5:30am on Wednesday. And by “kept on driving” I mean West drove while I slept, waking every hour or so, posting an update to Twitter and then falling back asleep.

For all intents & purposes, I fell asleep in Colorado and woke up in Arkansas. We traveled over 1,000 miles in less than 24 hours.

5 am:

Bo: “Want me to drive?”
West: “Nah…I’m good. We’re going to stop in just a few minutes.”
Bo: “Let me drive…I’m wide awake.”
West: “We need to let the truck rest.”
Bo: “I’m beginning to think you don’t trust me.”

Seconds later…

*sound of Bo snoring*

The Best Western parking lot had nice, clean, wide spaces & made for a great place to park Motel Silverado for a few hours.

We (read: West) got up around 9am and started driving south towards Mississippi, by way of Louisiana. Well, actually, we crossed over into Mississippi for about 10 minutes before realizing we (again, read: West) took the wrong road and had to go back through LA for another hour…

My mom had some gumbo on the stove for our arrival to Jackson, MS and we had a great time visiting with family & friends, recounting stories from the trip so far.

As I type, we’re rolling on to our last stop before we complete the journey. Today we’re dipping south to Orange Beach, Alabama. Yes, I realize that there are more direct routes to Auburn, but we have a plan that I’ll post about soon…

A lot of people have been asking what our plans are and when we’re going to get home. (Aside: I love you, Mom!).

Don’t we have school & work & lives we have to get back to?

Well, kinda.

West is a professional freelancer. Most of the jobs he works on are in Atlanta, but he travels all over depending on the gig. That’s how we’ve been able to have him as a camera guy for AUHD every Saturday.

And in case you missed it, this was my last football season as the Producer for AUHD. As of December 23rd, I passed the torch to Bradley Green, your new Producer. As soon as we return from this trip, I’ll move down to Orange Beach and begin pursing other personal and professional dreams.

(BTW: If you have any web design or video production needs & think we might be a good fit, give us a shout!)

So what does that have to do with our schedule for the return trip? Not much, other than to say that we didn’t have a job we had to run back to immediately after the game. We’ve taken our time, seen some amazing National Parks and spent time with some awesome people.

But now, it’s time to head east.

We’ve been in contact with the folks back in Auburn, and West & I will be working the National Championship Celebration this Saturday at 1pm in Jordan-Hare Stadium. I think it’s perfectly fitting that we left Auburn with the team on January 3rd & will be returning this Saturday just in time for the celebration.

So as I type this, we’re on I-70 East with Denver in the rear-view mirror and Kansas up ahead. We have a good bit of driving to do between now & Saturday, so stay tuned & I’ll keep you updated on how many truck stop wolf shirts West has purchased.

Currently the count stands at 4.