Networking and More
June 30, 2008 from Marquette, MI
I've recently moved to Marquette, Michigan. Since moving here I've been exciting to hear from several of my trips hosts. But I'd like to hear from more.

I want to update everyone on where you can find me, network with me, send freelance work my way, talk about photography, travels, trip planning, or just share some good stories.

First off you can find my new portfolio at www.bugsyrocker.com so you can keep up to date with what I'm working on. Don't forget to bookmark it!

It gets lonely up here, so I want to know what you're up to as well! What you're doing, where you're at, you name it.

If you're not linked up with me on this sites get to it right away...

               

Posted: Jun 30, 2008 2:38am EST | Post a comment | Printable version

141 Gas Stations
June 8, 2008 from Marquette, MI
This is what 141 gas stations looks like.

Average gas price: $2.63

At the time I thought that was expensive, and it hasn't even been a year since it's been done.



               

Posted: Jun 8, 2008 2:43am EST | Post a comment | Printable version

Daily Fruit 2.0
May 25, 2008 from Baraga, MI
On October 8th, 2007 I announced my final entry of Daily Fruit, "The Last Banana" if you will. After 6 years and 2,191 consecutive entries I needed a break.

It's back. And as Jay-Z said, "What'd you want me to do, I'm sorry, I'm back!".



Hey, Michael Jordan came out of retirement too, even Celine Dion did.

Give it a look, bookmark it, share it, and everything else.

               

Posted: May 25, 2008 11:44pm EST | Post a comment | Printable version

624 Days in a Duffel Bag
May 7, 2008 from Baraga, MI
For the last 624 days I have been living out of my duffel bag. Tomorrow is the last time I'll go to my duffel bag for a change of clothes.

This is no exaggeration. I moved into my duffel bag on about August 23rd of 2006, while leaving Lansing and headed home before my trip. Tomorrow, I move to Marquette and will have a dresser and closet of my own. Two things I have not had for 624 days (not even while I was at home!).

For 1 year, 8 months, and 15 days I have turned to my red L.L. Bean duffel bag for clothes, toiletries, and all of that.

It is a duffel bag that was given to me from Baraga High School, and says Baraga Class of 2001 on it. The duffel bag has been to France, England, Scotland, Czech Republic, and now to all 50 states. Pretty incredible.

It will be strange to move out of my duffel bag and use things such as a closet and a dresser.

624 days later, goodbye duffel bag!

               

Posted: May 7, 2008 8:38pm EST | Post a comment | Printable version

Bickering About Gas Prices
April 29, 2008 from East Lansing, MI
I'm not one to get on my soapbox, but it's time.

THESE GAS PRICES ARE RIDICULOUS.

Between September 2006 and September 2007 I spent $3,300 on gas money at 141 gas stations across the country. My trip average during that time came to just $2.63 per gallon, and I thought that was expensive.

Only six months after finishing my trip gas prices are already $1.00 more expensive than the average of my trip. I remember being shocked on my trip the first and only time I paid $3.60. Now I drive in East Lansing and see $3.75 and $3.79.

Exxon Mobil, the country's largest oil company, reported that its 2007 profit hit $40.6 billion, a 3 percent increase from 2006, while sales passed $404 billion. No American business has ever scored a higher profit.

Disgusting.

Americans are being stabbed in the back by oil companies and a government that is supporting the oil companies. The economy is in shambles and the oil companies are at the root of most of it. A $600 stimulus check is going to help the economy.

               

Posted: Apr 29, 2008 11:29pm EST | Post a comment | Printable version

We Are All Hokies
April 16, 2008 from Baraga, MI
The tragedy at Virginia Tech happened a year ago today. At the time I had just woken up for my first night in Alabama, where I was staying with students who attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

It was a pretty casual day and I turned on TV to catch up with the news in the world. Second only to 9/11 it was the most horrifying news I had seen in my lifetime. For the last several years I have grown to be someone very passionate and enthusiastic about college life. Every college student in the world took it just a little bit harder, knowing it could have just as well been their college.

Well... knowing that I was going to be visiting VA in the next month, several people asked if I was going to be visiting Virginia Tech. I wasn't sure if I even wanted to, if i belonged there, and I didn't want someone to have to host me amidst everything that had happened, and it would have been only a month later. My heart was torn I suppose.

As it went I never made it to Virginia Tech.

But it was just a week ago I was standing on the Virginia Tech campus for the first time. I was fortunate to have an opportunity that sent me there for a day doing some work.

It didn't take long for my emotions to take over when I visited the memorial and the drill field.

I remember it clearly when I heard the news a year ago. Eventually it became just too much and I had to turn off the TV and just do something to not think about it so much.

MSU has become a home to me and my time there and memories mean more than I could express. I know there are thousands and thousands of Hokies that feel the same.

It was important to me that I was able to spend a day there a week ago, and to at least feel a little bit closer to Hokie Nation.

               

Posted: Apr 16, 2008 1:50pm EST | Post a comment | Printable version

A Small World
March 25, 2008 from Baraga, MI
I have a hard time deciding after my trip if it's a big world or a small world. There are stories of both. This would be one of those "it's a small world" stories.

A couple years before there the Hometown Invasion Tour existed I was the photography editor at the Red Cedar Log yearbook for MSU. It's the largest yearbook in the nation with 21,000 copies printed. I had a staff of about a dozen photographers. One of which was Terry, also a guy I skateboarded with around campus on a few occasions.

As you may have read I stayed in Charleston to represent South Carolina on my trip. My host was Mark, a pretty enthusiastic guy who's just a few years older than me.

Terry found his way to Charleston a few weeks ago to visit his sister, who works at a bar in town. Turns out it happened to be a bar that Mark frequented as well.

Ironically enough, they ran into each other. This is surprising. However, to my knowledge people I know could have ran into my hosts on numerous occasions without knowing it. Because the odds that they would actually have a conversation that brought me into the picture to discover they each know me is incredible.

For whatever reason the two of them randomly started talking, and they got onto the topic of road trips. Mark spoke up and said, "Oh, I had this guy stay with me who was on a 50-state tour sponsored by Jeep."

And that's the moment I wish I could have seen their faces, as Terry realized it was me, his former skateboarding buddy and photographer editor.

Really, a story like that was bound to happen sooner or later. After the trip I know a lot of people in a lot of places, and after all, it's a small world out there!

               

Posted: Mar 25, 2008 6:59pm EST | Post a comment | Printable version

Power to the T-Shirt
February 24, 2008 from Baraga, MI
(as posted originally on Yooper Steez)

Ahh, the tee shirt (or t-shirt). It is the ultimate fashion icon of the United States as no other country wears more t-shirts than U.S. citizens. We love them. Everyone has got to have a dozen t-shirts (or several dozen like me).

Communicating with t-shirts is something Americans know how to do best, they have it down to a "T" (insert laughter here). It can be at a bus stop, in a classroom, a concert, or anywhere else. A person wearing a t-shirt doesn't have to talk to show a part of their character. It's a way Americans brand themselves and reveal a small part of their character: a sports team, logo, city name, humor and more. The list goes on and on.

When I finished my 50-state tour of the United States I returned home and found myself sorting through about 50 tees I had collected on the road. They had stories, they represented where I had been, what I've done, and even things I ate.

One small conclusion I made was that there is no joy to wearing a Nike, Burton, or Abercrombie t-shirt. For most of my trip I wore nothing but local t-shirts of places I had been, and it became the starting point for many great conversations.

Why I love the power of a t-shirt

• Eskimo Joe's
  
  Stillwater, OK is home to one of the most famous t-shirts in the world at Eskimo Joe's restaurant. When I was there I had no choice to buy one for myself, and I wore it a lot! Almost two months later I was in Birmingham, Alabama. While at a coffee shop a college student came up to me and asked, "Have you been to that restaurant or do you just have the shirt?" I told him my story, he was inspired, and became a big follower of the trip. All because of a t-shirt. If I had been wearing a generic Nike, Burton, or Abercrombie t-shirt that inspiring conversation would have never happened.


• I {Heart} Belleville, IL
  
  For several years in college at Michigan State I lived with my good friend Mike. He first came to MSU from Belleville, IL and he always had this awesome yellow t-shirt that I loved, it read, "I {heart} Belleville, IL. I wanted one. When I found out I was heading out on a 50-state tour I made a point to go through Belleville so I could pick up my own shirt. I learned about Belleville six years prior to ever stepping foot in the town, and loved it all that time because of a single t-shirt.


• Michigan State
  
  After spending five incredible years at Michigan State I was excited at the opportunity to represent MSU across the country. I can't count the times I was wearing my MSU hoodie and someone came up to me and asked if I go to MSU. I was able to meet a few alumni this way. Not only was I able to meet some from wearing it myself, but if I saw someone wearing an MSU shirt it was a conversation starter and I knew I had something in common with that person. Once again something that would have never come about if it was just a plain Nike shirt. My Boise State hoodie drew lots of comments too, especially after their undefeated season.


• Vail, CO and others
  
  While in Gatlinburg, TN (a long ways from Vail) I was in a grocery store parking lot while a passer by shouted out, "Awesome town! I used to live there." He seemed to be in a rush, but it made my day because I couldn't have agreed more. I've had similar comments for my Vermont t-shirt, MSU Advertising shirt, Mother Bear's t-shirt and many many others


• Red Neck Yacht Club, Roseburg, OR
  
  Perhaps one of the coolest t-shirts from the collection isn't because of the t-shirt itself, but how it all came to be. I was in Roseburg, OR staying with Randy Wesson, a local country radio DJ. While the Hallmark Channel met up with me to film on the road we spent the final part of the day at Nilknarf's, where I was inducted as an honorary member to the Roseburg Chapter of the Red Neck Yacht Club. Just about more than anyone on the trip I knew these people would look out for me. They treated me like one of their own.

If only I had a Yooper Steez shirt for all of this, but now you will when you go on your 50-state tour.

For all the times I educated people on my trip about what a "Yooper" is, how big the Lake Superior really is, or what a pasty is, I became motivated to come back and start a new project all about the Upper Peninsula. I hope people will be able to experience similar stories and simply be able to point to their shirt to show people where they live.

I've always wanted to create a top notch U.P. website and start a college scholarship. And I realized that unlike Belleville, Eskimo Joe's, Vermont, or countless other places there wasn't a t-shirt that was thee t-shirt of the Upper Peninsula.

And this is how Yooper Steez came to be.

All the best,
Justin "Bugsy" Sailor

P.S. If you have any similar t-shirt stories, please share.

               

Posted: Feb 24, 2008 7:27pm EST | Post a comment | Printable version

Published in JPG Magazine
February 11, 2008 from Baraga, MI
For everyone out there wondering "What in the world have you been up to Bugsy?", I can at least give you one update...

JPG Magazine has published another one of my photos from the trip. This one I'm ESPECIALLY excited about.

It was taken on the very last day of my trip, from the top of the Mackinac Bridge.

Feel free to make a run to your local Barnes & Noble or Borders to pick up a copy.

The theme for this photo was "Bird's-eye view" so it fit very well. It is in Issue 14. Check it out! And a very special thanks to the folks at the Mackinac Bridge and the Michigan Forests Association for making this happen for me.

Thank you, JPG!

               

Posted: Feb 11, 2008 2:59pm EST | Post a comment | Printable version

4 Best Bars in the United States
February 11, 2008 from Baraga, MI
I've seen a lot of bars. Not because I drink a lot, I can assure you that I don't drink very much at all. But when you're a guest in all 50 states for a year people like to bring you to drinking establishments, and it's the truth, you create a bond when you go out and have a beer. I ain't lyin'. I may have to start a bar review. Here are the best bars in the country given it's category


Casual cocktails: The Back Room, Lower East Side, NYC
Looking for some casual cocktails? Well fly to NYC if you have to, because this is the place to be. Low key, intimate, personal, and fun. It's like a museum and they serve your drinks in tea cups.


Casual beers: Keweenaw Brewing Company, Houghton, MI
For quality beer, cheap prices, and good conversation head to Houghton, MI. Do whatever it takes to get there, even if it's the snow storm of the century. It's warm and toasty inside, friendly, and super laid back and casual.


Clothing optional: Garden of Eden, Key West, FL
You read it yourself, clothing optional. If you're feeling a little risque you best get yourself to Key West. I haven't seen anything else like it. What more can I say.


Best overall and best college bar: The Phyrst, State College, PA
Crazy times, young crowd, and an atmosphere you won't see anywhere else. There is a camaraderie here that I haven't seen elsewhere. They have fun games, you can get your own mug, live music. Be sure to bring lots of energy.




               

Posted: Feb 11, 2008 2:27pm EST | Post a comment | Printable version