Category Archives: Friends

Blogging, Food, Friends, Photo-A-Day, Photography, Travel, Vlog

Day One Recap of my Adventure in Joshua Tree

A lone tent at our Joshua Tree Campsite
Photo-A-Day #3991

For the next few days I am on an adventure in Joshua Tree National Park as part of trip sponsored in part by Mazda. You can follow along with my adventure with the hashtag of #DrivingMatters. We were also sponsored by Napoleon Grills and Hormel Foods with Support from DriveShop and Men Who Blog. You can see my other adventurers over at the Mazda #DrivingMatters Exploring The Desert page.

I took off from Boston on the early morning flight to Dallas and then on to Palm Springs California. The flights weren’t too bad and I was able to play my new LEGO Avengers game on the Nintendo 3DS. I was leaving on the day that Marvel Battlegrounds was going to come out so I would have some withdrawals. So, the time passed quickly and I even watched the Tim Burton Batman movie on the entertainment units on my first, and most modern plane. All the rest were still pretty old without many amenities. But I was excited so I didn’t quite care, I just wanted to get to Palm Springs to get the adventure started.

I landed in Palm Springs, which as a beautiful little airport. Part of it is open air, too. I was picked up by Josh from DriveShop in the Mazda CX-3. We had a great conversation the whole way to the campground. We did make a pit stop in Walmart so that we could get additional supplies for the campsite. While we were there we picked through the Hot Wheels and I found some of the remaining Hot Wheels Hot Trucks series that I had been collecting. I show those in today’s vlog.

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Blogging, Conferences, Friends, Photo-A-Day, Travel, Vlog

Goodbye Dad 2.0 Summit till #Dad2Summit 2017

Funky Craft Beers from Blue Jacket Brewery
Photo-A-Day #3967

Today was the last day of Dad 2.0 Summit. It was one incredible experience. I got to see so many of my old friends, some even appear in today’s vlog, and make some new ones. I was incredibly lucky all around. From winning a Miller Grant, to rooming with the generous and cool Dave Taylor, to winning a major gift card from Dove Men+Care and to go to a great YouTube event at Blue Jacket Brewery. Yes, it was a simply incredible day with a fantastic group of men and women. I waited way too long to attend but glad that I finally went. I’m all ready to go next year to San Diego. It is going to be incredible.

I did not know Oren Miller. I had heard the name when he passed. I learned of him and this weekend learned more of his legacy through his wife, his friends and this community. He is someone that I wish I had met. I understand why the scholarship fund was named for him. I am so incredibly lucky to receive one of these grants. It helped me big time for my being able to come to this event. It also hooked me in to going back to other Dad 2.0 Summits in the future. The other thing that makes me extremely lucky was that I won a $500 gift card from Dove Men+Care, the title sponsor for Dad 2.0. I tweeted many times for the sweepstakes and was amazed when I learned that I had won. So, my saving for Dad 2.0 Summit 2017 is $500 closer. Which is good because I can’t take the train to this one, it is in San Diego, CA.

I was also very lucky to room with Dave Taylor. Long ago he posted in the Dad 2.0 Group asking for a guy who doesn’t snore. Well, I don’t believe that I snore but Allison certainly thinks that I do. I was a bit nervous that I would be snoring away and keeping Dave up all night long. But it was all good. We both slept, worked and talked. He was so generous and I cannot thank him enough.

I also ended the day with a trip to Blue Jacket Brewery with YouTube Kids. My friend Leticia invited me to this event which was a lot of fun. Some great beers, food and time to hang out with friends new and old. Speaking of friends new and old take a look at Today’s vlog.