Cooler scooters, Matt Lauer, and more happy thoughts

Reading over yesterday's entry, it seems like I was letting all the little complications get the best of me. My SPOT still isn't working and I still don't have a ride down the Caloosahatchee, but I am feeling more positive. I had a fun meeting with Peter Ames Carlin from The Oregonian and got an encouraging email from Matt Lauer, wishing me luck on the road.

I also had a nice email exchange with Hammacher Schlemmer, who are sending me one of their 14MPH coolers to use on one of the first legs of my journey.


It's got a 500 watt electric motor and, (as the name implies), it can go 14 MPH with a range of 15 miles. They're not cheap- about $500- but Hammacher Schlemmer is being very nice and lending me one for the trip. As long as I don't crash it, they say they want it back. Now that I have my motorcycle endorsement, I don't think they need to worry.

And I also heard back from a woman in Florida who's trying to hook me up with Reynolds Marion, who's invented the Hyper Sub, a submarine/power boat fusion. He came up with the original idea as an 11 year old, and now he has a working prototype. It looks pretty sweet.



I would love to go for a ride in that thing, though it's still in the prototype stage, so I may have to settle for a tour on dry land. Either way, it would be pretty awesome.

And now for something not at all Un-Road Trip related. As a longtime NPR listener, I've heard the name BJ Leiderman thousands of times. He's mentioned at the end of most broadcasts as the guy who wrote the theme song. But who is BJ? And how did he become so prolific? I don't have the answer to the second question, but here's a video of him and some of his masterpieces:


I wonder if he'd be interested in writing a theme song for the Un-Road Trip?

And no news from "you know who." I'll just leave it at that.