Through a very long and strange string of events Paul Brown is responsible for us being at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado (where I am typing this post from). Check it out, Paul Brown wore an alexandluke.com t-shirt in his Facebook profile picture on April 4th of this year. One of his friends on Facebook, Cailin O’Neil, saw that the t-shirt had a map of North America on it. Being the founder of a travel website herself (travelyourself.ca), her interest was peaked and she looked up our website! She immediately wrote us a wonderful letter, and has been following us ever since on Twitter, always suggesting fun things for us to do. Cailin has a remarkable number of friends on Twitter, and when we entered the Gulf Coast in Alabama she mentioned that one of her friends Spencer Spellman would be in the Gulf soon. While we were unable to meet up with Spencer at this time, we have been following Spencer ever since Cailin told us about him and he has been following us as well. When we entered into Colorado, Spencer (who also has a remarkable number of friends on Twitter) asked Jason Hussong if he could give us recommendations of things to do in Colorado. Jason then wrote us an e-mail with a thorough list of suggestions. One of these suggestions was to visit The Stanley Hotel. We wrote The Stanley Hotel an e-mail, and 14 hours later we are sitting in a hotel room looking out at the mountains.

To be fair, our favourite followers this week should not just be Paul Brown, but also:
-Cailin O’Neil
-Spencer Spellman
-Jason Hussong, and
-The Stanley Hotel

But isn’t it great that the simple act of wearing an alexandluke.com in a Facebook picture led us to where we are today! Thanks Paul, and thanks to everyone else in the chain of events that have led us to one of the most beautiful spots of our entire trip.

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This is actually a facebook video – didn’t realise we have a facebook fanpage? You should check it out – we post more photos, and other videos, as well as discussions and more. Click the big F on the left sidebar OR click www.facebook.com/alexandlukedotcom to “like” our page.

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Life In A Day was a historic global experiment to create a user-generated feature film, shot in a single day, by the community behind YouTube. On July 24th, we had 24 hours to capture a glimpse of our life on camera. The most compelling and distinctive footage will be edited into an experimental documentary film, produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald (although we aren’t sure if our footage falls into that category).

We documented our Day, from waking up in Tulsa Oklahoma, driving to Arkansas, driving through Missouri, before eventually ending up in Kansas City, Kansas and finally in Lawrence Kansas.

It was an uncharacteristically busy day of traveling for us, and a fun day to record!

The editor behind the movie requested people to submit unedited raw footage so they could pick and choose what they like. Due to this we have over 25 minutes of unedited raw footage that we submitted to the Life In A Day experiment. Some of you have found it on your own already, but if those of you who haven’t found it are at all interested in watching over 25 minutes of us driving, bickering, talking, and driving some more, we have put it below for you.

Warning: It’s not terribly exciting.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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We stopped in at the Gowalla offices while in Austin, Texas! In Gowalla you are able to drop virtual items in real world places, and pick up virtual items that other people have left behind. This video documents the item Alex dropped and Picked up at the Gowalla offices.

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Most Respectfully submitted by: Joan Yates @joannietime (twitter)

I caught up with alexandluke in New Orleans and travelled with them in their VW Rabbit (affectionately named Burt Reynolds) for 8 days; ending my journey in Oklahoma City.

It’s a bit of a challenge to try and capture the essence of the experience in a short guest blog so I decided to present the things I learned on this adventure. For those of you who don’t know, I have the distinct privilege of being Luke’s Mom…now that’s a different adventure…I digress…back to the alexandluke story!

Here’s what I learned:

• VW Rabbit is a very comfortable car, even with lots of “stuff’ and 3 people packed in. The air conditioning could be a tad more effective in >100° weather.
• Alex and Luke are constantly thinking, working, planning, creating and worrying. If you join up with them you need to know they are working everyday and they focus relentlessly on making each day count…this is their job!
• Alex and Luke laugh and sing a lot in the car!
• Alex and Luke love people who show an interest in their social media experiment.
• The journey struck me as paralleling the early pioneers and settlers. They are travelling across North America in a completely new way (social media) and although they aren’t looking for a new place to settle they hope to return to their starting point to begin a new kind of life based on this experience.
• Every day they must seek food and shelter, they do this almost exclusively using suggestions from facebook, twitter and gowalla. Getting these basic needs met consumes a lot of time and energy. They rely heavily on the kindness, goodness and honesty of individual people and the organizations they come in contact with.
• People are remarkably kind, good and honest.
• I had no idea how “POWERFUL” social media can be!
• Alex and Luke constantly strive to be true, in everyway, to their original concept of using social media to guide them…really!
• I don’t like fried alligator, but I ate it…thank you Allen!
• I think I’m ‘done’ doing “shooters” in New Orleans.
• Observing Alex and Luke I learned a lot about my behavior in early life relationships…no details here but I’m thinking that may be my new blog!!!!
• Alex and Luke are TOTALLY authentic…I actually already knew that, but I thought I’d share it anyway!
• I hope to join them for a weekend some time during the Virgo astrological cycle for a bit of a celebration…we’re all Virgos after all! Anyone want to join me?

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
Buddha

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We have spent the last couple of days in Kansas. While walking to Starbucks we were terribly surprised when the Wicked Witch (from the Wizard of Oz) appeared before us. She informed us of three things:

1. She was a really big fan and wanted to see more videos with the skybear in it.
2. She was taking over the next directional vote, and in this vote visitors to alexandluke.com will vote on which State should be fed to the sharks.
3. She was selling chocolate bars to raise money for her daughters lacrosse team.

Uninterested in funding the Lacrosse team, Alex adressed the second point:
Alex: People will vote on which state should be fed to the what?
Wicked Witch: TO THE SHARKS!!!!

Then the Witch pulled back a curtain showing Nebraska, Iowa, and Colorado all resting on stacks of 24 pieces of the yellow brick road. We managed to take a picture and attached it above.

The witch then went on to explain that she set up a magical vote, where every time a State receives a vote one of the pieces of the yellow brick road disappears below it! Once all of the bricks disappear, that State will be consumed by Sharks and will not be visited on this directional vote (however, it may still be regurgitated for future votes).

She then instructed us to place a vote, below:
[poll id="38"]
She also told us that Twitter was fail whaling at the time she cast the spell so people will not be able to vote on Twitter.

UPDATE!

Vote Now!

*If you don’t have the patience for Luke’s imagination. Vote for the state you don’t want us to go to. If a state receives 24 votes it’s eliminated from the running. Last state standing wins. Luke came up with this idea while watching the hit show Top Shot starring Colby from Survivor.

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