My first interview. Talked with Stephanie Herrmann, Director of Marketing and Communications at Sterling International in Spokane, WA. They make Rescue Pest Control Products.

Follow them at @rescue

Originally I was planning on waiting until I had some sponsors to help with travel costs before I set out.  After discussing the project with a former boss of mine over drinks, he convinced me to get on the road sooner rather than later.  I was planning on purchasing a beefier laptop (currently using an HP Mini netbook) and a nice HD camcorder. I have decided to start out on stage 1 of the road trip in a couple of weeks.  I am going to stick with my netbook and just purchased a Flip camera for $40 from Wal-Mart (groan, I know). The camera isn't one of the newer HD ones but should do the job for now. And although I would prefer to be driving a green car on loan from one of the auto companies on Twitter (@fordfiesta for example), I will stick with my 2002 Jeep Liberty (getting a paltry 18-20 MPG). I think I may have to set up an account with a carbon offset provider.

To help with travel costs for Stage 1 I want to accept donations online. At the moment I am thinking of going with PayPal. I have signed up for a debit card linked to the account. So any donations can be used right away to help pay for gas/food/lodging. I'm going to see if there is a way to expose the account balance automatically on this site. If that doesn't work I will tweet my balance. Of course, all donations will get a tweet of recognition. If there are better options out there for crowdsourced funding, I am open to suggestions.

Another change that I have made to the road trip is the Twitter account I will use. Originally I had tried to go with @roadtrip, but it was taken.  I settled for @troadtrip as opposed to @twitterroadtrip because you can't use the word "twitter" in a username.  @troadtrip already has a handful of followers but I have decided to switch to @route140 (get it?) because it is a LOT easier to tell to people.

The first stage of this project will take me to Seattle and Portland, since they are very close to my starting point of Spokane, WA. If things go well, I will venture down the west coast to California. I am going to start out interviewing people and companies on Twitter that are in the Spokane area. Not much of a road trip yet but I have to show some love to my hometown. @spokesmanreview, @rescue, @spokanedave; I'm going to be seeking you out in the coming week.

Time to hit the road!