New Sponsor: The Original Pancake House

Hey all,

We just picked up a sponsorship from the Original Pancake Houses in Kirkland and Seattle Washington!

We're going to head up to one of the franchises in Denver in the next few weeks to show everyone what OPH is all about.  In the meantime check out the logo that's going on the side of our car and head over to their website.

-Jack

What better than an Iphone case? Plane tickets baby!!

We are super excited to announce that we have purchased our tickets to JAPAN!!! Richard and I will be flying to Portland on June 11th, where we plan on enjoying the wonderful sites of Portland for an evening and eating whatever delicious grub Jack, as host, provides. The next day we take off at mid-morning from Portland to Vancouver via Air Canada, which had the cheapest flights by far. After a couple hour layover, we will be heading out of Canada WESTWARD to the land of the rising sun, Japan. We arrive in Tokyo, Japan in the afternoon on June 13th, after about 13 hours of traveling. Here is a pretty sweet time lapse video of parts of Japan. The city section with the street of tons of stores is called Harajuku and the place with the gigantic road crossing is just outside Shibuya station. Anyway, it is a pretty tight video of Japan.

We are pumped to have this beginning part of our trip already planned and set in stone. For those who aren't sure whether this trip will actually happen (booo doubters), I would just like to confirm that, in fact, it is.

Thanks to all of those out there who continue to help we three, poor college students, have an amazing adventure.
-Ezra@TheRoadisWest

Hardcore iPhone Case for the Trip

Well I dropped my iPhone a couple weeks ago and broke the screen.  It got me thinking that a phone made of glass isn't going to last on this trip without some protection.  So I looked into just that.  My research led me to the Otterbox Defender, the Otterbox Commuter, the Cygnett WorkMate, and the Ballistic HC. I hated the fact that Otterbox didn't cover the Apple logo with either case. Why make a protective case, but leave a circle pointlessly uncovered?  In the end I found an unused Ballistic HC (Hard Core) on eBay for $18 shipped and I couldn't resist.  It's my first piece of equipment bought for the trip so I'm pretty excited and I wanted to share it with everyone.

Ballistic says that the HC offers "4 layers of protection."  I can't figure out what the layers are, but this is one tough case!  There's a hard plastic "case" with a separate soft rubber "skin" that all fits into a plastic belt clip.  The case adds a small amount of weight and a considerable amount of bulk, but I didn't buy the HC to look pretty or slip into my pocket more easily.  I bought it to protect, and I have not doubt that it will.  

It fits into the belt clip face first (screen in) which seems useful.  Another layer of protection over the screen can't be a bad idea.  But, as I'm not a construction foreman or a captain of industry, I don't clip my phone to my belt. As of now the belt clip is just an odd device that keeps the phone from fitting into my pocket.

-Jack