Liberty Caravan

Website activity moved to google, libertycaravan.org

I wanted a website that was more than just a blog, and gave me more control of the appearance. I am now putting my updates and information on a google website, for which I have purchased the domain libertycaravan.org. Check out the site!

Only a little more than 2 months until the caravan sets off to join the freedom movement in New Hampshire!

Liberty Caravan goals

Here are the liberty caravan goals, as promised:

1. Get more people to move to NH in September.

2. Raise publicity for the FSP through the caravan.

3. An opportunity for those involved to get together, socialize, and plan fun things together while traveling across the country.

4. Personally, it is a way for me to get involved and do something more than just focusing on my own move while I am still in Utah.

I just want to say, I want to take my time on this move because I may not get another opportunity to stop and do the sight-seeing again for years that I would be doing with the 12-day itinerary. Chances are my next several trips across the country to see family would have to be done much quicker as I would have to do the whole round trip journey in one vacation. I suspect some other people who are moving would have the same situation.

Fast itineraries (6 day trip)

It has been suggested that a 6-day crossing of the US would be more appropriate - here is what it would look like for all 3 routes I posted already:

Itineraries for fast routes:

(I couldn’t post my tables - here is my document in PDF, and in ODT, coming shortly (the ODT is a text document in OpenOffice.org, the free alternative to Microsoft Office).

Route 1 (Seattle to NH via I-80 and 90):

Link to fast route 1 map

Route 2 (starting in LA, crossing the country on I-15, and I-70)

Link to map for fast route 2

Route 3 (LA to NH via I-40, I-81, I-95)

Link to map for fast route 3

I am interested in hearing which way people think is the the one they are most likely to sign up for, keeping in mind that this caravan has publicity goals as well as the goal of actually getting more people to move to NH. Next post I will separate and list the goals.

Bryce

Visual version of itineraries coming

I was told my itineraries are a little text-heavy and hard to read, so I will work on some more visual versions, but I admit I don’t really know how to do it so it will be somewhat experimental.

It might be a while before I get it done.

I made some alternative itineraries for a quicker trip which are in a table format - they have much less info in them and should be easier to understand. Somehow I doubt my tables can be just copied and pasted into a website though.

Bryce

Tentative itinerary for route 3, from LA and across I-40

Route # 3

Start in Los Angeles, take I-40 across the country (the same general route taken by the original Liberty Caravan in March 2010).

Day 1, Tues Sep 6, 2011.

• Leave Los Angeles (meetup that morning or on Monday).
• Stop in Barstow, CA.
• Stop in Kingman, AZ.
• Arrive in Flagstaff, AZ.

• Day’s travel: 6 hrs 53 mins, 467 miles.

Day 2, Wed Sep 7, 2011:

• Leave Flagstaff.
• Stop in Gallup, NM.
• Arrive in Albuquerque, NM.

• 4 hrs 35 mins, 323 miles.

Day 3, Thu Sep 8, 2011:

• Leave Albuquerque.
• Stop in Amarillo, TX.
• Arrive in Oklahoma City, OK.

• 8 hrs, 1 min, 535 miles.

Day 4, Fri Sep 9:

• Rest.
• Oklahoma City meetup?

Day 5, Sat Sep 10:

• Leave Oklahoma City.
• Stop in Fort Smith, AR.
• Arrive Little Rock, AR.

• 5 hrs 8 mins, 339 miles.

Day 6, Sun Sep 11

• Leave Little Rock.
• Stop in Memphis, TN.
• Arrive in Nashville, TN.

• 5 hrs 24 mins, 350 miles.

Day 7, Mon Sep 12:

• Rest.
• Meetup?

Day 8, Tue Sep 13:

• Leave Nashville.
• Stop in Knoxville, TN. Travel on I-81 from junction east of Knoxville.
• Arrive in Roanoke, VA.

• 7 hours, 439 miles.

Day 9, Wed Sep 14:

• Leave Roanoke. Travel on I-81 and I-66.
• Arrive in Washington, D.C (meetup?).

• 4 hrs 3 mins, 240 miles.

Day 10, Thu Sep 15:

• Leave Washington, DC.
• Arrive in Philadelphia, PA.
• Short day allows for some sight-seeing, meetups there.

• 2 hrs 49 mins, 140 miles.

Days 11 and 12 the same as Route # 2.

Day 11 from Philadelphia to Albany, NY.

• 5 hrs 33 mins, 323 miles.

Day 12 from Albany to Manchester, NH, arriving Sat Sep 17th.

• 3 hrs 39 mins, 163 miles.

Total trip: 53 hrs 11 mins, 3327 miles.

Link to the Route # 3 map on mapquest: http://mapq.st/fDDN4h

Tentative itinerary 2, from Los Angeles and across I-70

Tentative itinerary for Route # 2.

Route starting in Los Angeles, CA, traveling up I-15 into Utah, and then across I-70.

Day 1, Tues Sep 6, 2011

• Leave Los Angeles, CA (Meetup the previous day).
• Stop in Las Vegas, NV, meetup.
• Arrive in Cedar City, UT.
• Day’s travel: 6 hrs 39 mins, 439 miles.

Day 2, Wed Sep 7, 2011

• Leave Cedar City.
• Stop in Richfield, UT (joining spot for people coming down from Salt Lake or Pacific Northwest).
• Arrive in Grand Junction, CO (I will be joining the caravan here, and possibly my brother as well).
• 4 hrs 50 mins, 338 miles.

Day 3. Thu Sep 8, 2011

• Leave Grand Junction.
• Arrive in Denver, CO.
• Meetup in Denver.
• 4 hrs 1 min, 243 miles.

Day 4, Fri Sep 9

• Leave Denver.
• Arrive Salina, KS.
• 6 hrs 27 mins, 432 miles.

Day 5, Sat Sep 10

• Leave Salina.
• Arrive Kansas City, MO.
• Kansas City meetup?
• 2 hrs 49 mins, 175 miles.
• I planned this as a short day so we can get extra rest. The other routes have 2 days off from traveling, this one only 1.

Day 6, Sun Sep 11:

• Leave Kansas City.
• Arrive in St. Louis, MO (meetup?).
• 3 hrs 58 mins, 249 miles.

Day 7, Mon Sep 12:

• Leave St. Louis.
• Arrive in Indianapolis, IN.
• 3 hrs 58 mins, 243 miles.

Day 8, Tue Sep 13:

• Leave Indianapolis.
• Stop in Columbus, OH.
• Arrive in Pittsburgh, PA.
• 5 hrs 57 mins, 360 miles.

Day 9, Wed Sep 14:

• Leave Pittsburgh. Stay on I-76 when I-70 drops down into Maryland.
• Stop in Harrisburgh, PA.
• Arrive Philadelphia, PA.
• 5 hrs 11 mins, 305 miles.

Day 10, Thurs Sep 15:

• Rest.
• Philadelphia meetup.
• Sightseeing in Philadelphia, Delaware, etc.

Day 11, Fri Sep 16:

• Leave Philadelphia, traveling on I-476, I-81, and I-88.
• Stop in Scranton, PA or Binghamton, NY (I chose this route to avoid the legal restrictions on the transport of guns in New Jersey, plus I REALLLY don’t want to drive in New York City).
• Arrive in Albany, NY.
• 5 hrs 33 mins, 323 miles.

Day 12, Sat Sep 17.

• Leave Albany. Travel on route 7 in NY, 9 in NH, then 101. Note: this route gets us to NH sooner, plus it avoids similar legal restrictions on guns in MA as in NJ.
• Stops in Bennington and Brattleboro, VT.
• Stop in Keene, NH, possible 1st celebration gathering to celebrate the caravan’s arrival in N, and the addition of a bunch of people to our numbers at once.
• Arrive in Manchester, NH, 2nd celebration gathering.
• 3 hrs 39 mins, 163 miles.
• Move-in parties!

Total trip: 53 hrs 8 mins, 3270 miles.

Caravan done!

Happy to be in the Live Free or Die state at last!

Map of route # 2 on Mapquest: http://mapq.st/hiVBUQ

Tentative itinerary 1, starting in Seattle and driving on I-80 and I-90

Written Jan 30, 2011, edited several times early morning of Jan 31, 2011.

Tentative Itinerary route 1 (Seattle to Manchester, NH):

There are two other tentative routes, starting in LA. I will post them shortly.

Note: for clarity I am using the word meetup to mean, a gathering people attend with us who are not joining the caravan. Joining is the word I am using when someone is traveling with the caravan to NH from that point. You do not have to be moving to NH to join the caravan, the first caravan had I believe 2 participants who were only going to NH to visit. Max is traveling back to NH with us after visiting Washington, and he already lives in NH.

Anyone who wishes to join the caravan should visit the facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135525403138047) and sign up either as attending, if you’re sure you can do this, or maybe, if you’re not sure. If you don’t have a facebook membership, I will give another contact method here soon. You can contact me and I will post your name and location on the facebook page so that all the participant information is in one location. I can be vague about your name and location if you are concerned about privacy, please ask if you wish this. It will help me in the planning to know how many people are coming from different locations so please sign up if you are interested in joining us! Also, I plan to put up a section for meetups soon as well. You can request a meetup along our route. The route here is only tentative as it may get its start in Los Angeles instead of Seattle. I will try to have the route nailed down by the end of March.

Day 1, Tuesday September 6, 2011:

• Leave Seattle, possible meetup location that morning or on Monday - travel on 1-90 from Seattle, then I-82 and I-84 (of current participants and potential participants, signed on the facebook page, only Max would be doing the first two days here).

• Stop in Yakima or Kennewick WA.

• Arrive in Boise, ID.
• Day’s travels: 505 miles, 7 hrs 54 mins.

Day 2, Wed Sep 7, 2011:

• Leave Boise (Travel on I-84, then I-15 in Utah).

• Arrive in Salt Lake City, possible meetup (maybes Furb and Nelson may join Max at this point)

• 4 hrs 57 mins, 340 miles.

Day 3: Thurs Sep 8:

• Leave Salt Lake City on I-80 (the freeway we will travel on for about a week, until Chicago / Cleveland).
• Stop in Rock Springs, WY. (this is where I join the caravan, also my brother Josh, who may be traveling with me. At this point with current maybes we could have 5 people, not counting Furb’s wife and children)

• Arrive in Cheyenne, WY, possible meetup.

• 6 hrs 19 mins, 442 miles.

Day 4: Fri Sep 9:

• Leave Cheyenne.
• Stop in North Platte, NE.

• Stop in Grand Island, NE.

• Arrive in Omaha, NE.
• 7 hrs 1 min, 498 miles

Day 5: Sat Sep 10:

• Day to rest, Omaha meetup?

Day 6: Sun Sep 11:

• Leave Omaha, NE.

• Stop in Des Moines, IA.

• Arrive in Davenport, IA.
• 4 hrs 42 mins, 303 miles.

Day 7: Mon Sep 12:

• Leave Davenport.

• Arrive in Chicago, IL (anyone from Wisconsin would join us here).
• 3 hrs 9 mins, 176 miles

Chicago area meetup.

Day 8: Tues Sep 13:

• Leave Chicago (Travel on combined I-80 and I-90).

• Stop in South Bend, IN.

• Arrive in Toledo, OH (first logical point for a potential participant from Florida to join us, could also join in Cleveland, Erie PA, Syracuse, or Albany. Also anyone coming down from Michigan would most likely join us here, or earlier in the day at South Bend, or Fremont IN).
• 4 hrs 7 mins, 247 miles.

Day 9: Wed Sep 14:

• Leave Toledo (I-80 and I-90 until just west of Cleveland, then take I-90 from there until Albany NY).

• Stop in Cleveland, OH, possible meetup or joining with anyone coming from the south up through Ohio to join us.
• Travel through Erie, PA, another possible joining location.

• Arrive in Buffalo, NY.
• 5 hrs 15 mins, 310 miles.

Day 10: Thu Sep 15:

• Rest, upstate NY meetups in Buffalo and/or Rochester.

• possibly end in Rochester NY

Day 11: Fri Sep 16:

• Leave Buffalo / Rochester

• Stop in Syracuse, NY, join up with anyone traveling up through eastern Pennsylvania.

• Arrive in Albany, NY.
• 4 hrs 48 mins, 289 miles from Buffalo.

Day 12: Sat Sep 17:

• Leave Albany. Note: Traveling on Highways 7 (NY) and 9 (VT and NH). I chose to leave the freeway system at this point, rather than travel through Massachusetts. I think it best that anyone transporting guns on the move try to avoid MA and NJ, two states with very strict laws about guns in cars. It is possible to do it legally but why bother when you can just drive through VT instead? Plus this way gets us into NH sooner.

• Possible stops in Bennington / Brattleboro, VT.

• Stop in Keene, NH, meetup/ arrival celebration?.

• Arrive in Manchester, NH (highway 101?)/ 2nd possible celebration location.
• 3 hrs 39 mins, 163 miles.
• Total trip distance, 3273 miles, time 51 hrs 56 mins.
• Move-in parties!

WELCOME TO THE LIVE FREE OR DIE STATE!

-Bryce

Map of itinerary 1 from Mapquest.

Caravan updates

A couple of updates to my first post:

In a previous post I said the Liberty Caravan 2 1/2 would probably start in Los Angeles. Actually, that’s still up in the air, Seattle is also a possible start location. However I would be joining up with the caravan in Wyoming or Colorado.

Also the Next 1000 pledge ended Dec 31, 2010, with only 235 signers. The way pledgebank pledges work, no one else can sign on the pledge, but I would still encourage anyone planning to move to sign the Free State Project statement of intent. I am hoping many of those signers will join in this caravan as a nice last opportunity to fulfill their pledge (excluding those who take literally the part about only moving if there are 1000 signers  - I hope most of the signers intend to move regardless of this issue).

Stay tuned for a couple of tentative itineraries, depending on starting location.

Website working again, under tumblr domain

It appears the libertycaravan.com web domain is inaccessible. Peter Bosse helped me out by removing the text that sent the content to the web address libertycaravan.com. The address is now www.libertycaravan.tumblr.com ,at least unless and until I buy another domain to send it to.

Thanks, Peter.

Announcing the Next 1000 Caravan

Announcing the Next 1000 Caravan, a.k.a. Liberty Caravan 2 1/2, or the Western Exodus Express, in September 2011.

Hello, readers. My name is Bryce Nielsen. I live in Utah, and I’ve been a signer to the FSP since July 2009. I’m grateful to Antigone for inviting me to post on the Liberty Caravan website, and to the other administrators for their agreement. I will be writing from time to time about my new caravan, which I first announced on other websites in July. This is the first post about it here. Hopefully this will be the longest post, other than the itinerary, until we are doing travel updates during our move.

The Next 1000 Caravan will be leaving the West Coast, probably Los Angeles CA, about September 6, 2011, right after Labor Day. I will be meeting the caravan in the 2nd or 3rd day, depending on the route chosen. The plan is to take about 12 days to arrive in New Hampshire, as I don’t want to have long driving days, and this also leaves times to do liberty meetups and publicity along the route, and maybe take a couple of days off from driving. This would put us in New Hampshire around Sep 17-18. The exact route is not yet determined, but will probably be determined by where other participants live. Likely routes in the west and midwest would be Interstate 15 and then 80, 70, or 40. I would love to repeat the I-40 route the original caravan chose as I have never traveled this way, but it wouldn’t make much sense if most of our participants are from the northern part of the country, and is a bit out of the way for me to get to that route.

The Caravan is named for the Next 1000 pledge, a pledge for people who intend to move to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project, and plan to do so by September 30, 2011 (or are willing to do so if 1000 people sign the pledge by the end of 2010). I am a signer of that pledge, which is looking for 1000 people and currently has 221 signed, many of whom have already moved. Max Abramson, the 1st signer, and the creator of the web page for the Next 1000 pledge on pledgebank.com, has now joined the caravan. He will be traveling with us on his return trip from a visit to southern California, though he already lives in Seabrook, New Hampshire.

I am also calling this caravan by the name Liberty Caravan 2 1/2. I chose that name because it is 1 1/2 years after the original caravan, which was in March 2010. There may be other caravans before this, and I really don’t want to have to keep changing the number. Also the idea of a numbering system that is calendar-based and reflects the amount of time that has passed, and is therefore not arbitrary, appeals to me.

For a caravan nickname, I tentatively chose the Western Exodus Express, though I am open to suggestions (in particular, some people might not like the acronym WEE). Also, we are not going to limit participation to people living in the West. Anyone moving or traveling along or the same direction as our route is welcome to join.

We welcome anyone connected to the Free State Project who wishes to join us in this trek. You can be traveling there to live, or just to visit. You can be driving your own vehicle, or riding as a passenger (provided you make the appropriate arrangements with someone who is driving). Also, in keeping with the FSP Statement of Intent, we welcome big or small-L Libertarians, voluntaryists, minarchists, agorists, anarcho-capitalists, or any other political label that agrees that the “maximum role of civil government is the protection of life, liberty, and property”. We do ask that anyone who joins the caravan and has not already signed either the First 1000 or Next 1000 pledge to please sign the Next 1000 pledge. Also we would like to have everyone in the caravan who is moving sign the Free State Project statement of intent, and then report that they have moved after we arrive.

The Next 1000 pledge is at http://www.pledgebank.com/Next1000, and the facebook event for the caravan is at this address: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135525403138047

How much did it cost?

Originally written in response to a thread on the Free State Project forum.

I rented a U-Haul 5x8 trailer to tow behind our Subaru in Mountain View, CA with the intention of dropping it off in Manchester, NH.  The cost was $676.11.  That included 10 days (I think) for travel time, but the U-Haul representative was able to change that (without charge) to 13 days.  Just tell the rep how long you plan on the trip taking and they may be able to adjust it for you (or not, we may have just had a really nice U-Haul rep helping us).

Our things wouldn’t all fit in the U-Haul and we couldn’t tow the next larger trailer (our car is limited to 2500 lbs. for towing), so we ended up returning the trailer and being charged for a single day in-town rental instead ($96.58 once insurance and other fees were included).

(I’m using our credit card statement for this data and not the original U-Haul contract, so I may be leaving out some miscellaneous info.)

We bought at least $150 in packing material (boxes, padlocks, etc.) from U-Haul in addition to all the boxes we had saved from our previous moves.

Instead of towing a U-Haul trailer, we ended up using ABF Freight System’s U-Pack ReloCube which is a 6-ft x 7-ft x 8-ft locking shipping container which you pack and they’ll ship to your destination.  They can deliver them door-to-door or from shipping terminal-to-shipping terminal or other combinations depending on how convenient you want to make it for yourself.

We packed the ReloCube at the San Jose, CA ABF shipping terminal (since we had the U-Haul trailer for a day anyway and didn’t have time to have the ReloCube delivered to our apartment) and had it delivered to our door on the other end.  In other words, terminal-to-door.  Cost: $1939.

Gas (for the Subaru with a coffee table on top — ruining our otherwise decent gas milage) -

3/6 Cupertino, CA: $35.16

3/6 Bakersfield, CA: $49.22

3/7 Barstow, CA: $23.37

3/8 Las Vegas, NV: $28.10

3/8 Flagstaff, AZ: $46.19

3/8 Milan, NM: $32.33

3/9 Albuquerque, NM: $16.19

3/9 Amarillo, TX: $38.46

3/10 Oklahoma City, OK: $33.33

3/10 Alma, AR: $35.76

3/10 Forrest City, AR: $36.04

3/11 Jackson, TN: $23.94

3/12 Nashville, TN: $21.97

3/12 Knoxville, TN: $22.80

3/13 Asheville, NC: $18.15

3/13 Fairfield, VA: 45.29

3/13 Aberdeen, MD: $40.00

3/15 West Chester, PA: $26.71

3/15 Manchester, CT: $40.09

Total: $613.10 for gas alone

We also had our cat with us, which meant we needed to stay in hotels which allowed for pets (and generally couldn’t stay with friends along the way).  Our favorite hotel chain to stay in was Drury Inn.  Good rates, always allowed pets, and when we “lost” our cat in the hotel for an hour and a half in Tennessee, they helped look for him along with us.  They didn’t pay me to recommend them either — they’re just good folks — highly recommended.

3/7 Howard Johnson, Las Vegas, NV: $56 + $20 pet = $76

3/9 Drury Inn, Albuquerque, NM: $124.15

3/10 Holiday Inn Express, Bethany, OK: $134.27

3/11 Drury Inn, Memphis, TN: $127.53

3/12 Drury Inn, Nashville, TN: $152.31

3/13 Renaissance Hotel, Asheville, NC: $144.16

Total: $758.42 for lodging

We did end up splitting the cost of hotel rooms with other caravaners (caravanites?) and stayed with family as we arrived in the northeast.

The last big expense was food.  We ate out almost every meal and snacks on the road added up.  I’ll let you figure out how much it generally costs to eat out.  (The info I have isn’t quite accurate for the actual cost since we paid for others some times and they paid for us.)

I hope some of that information is helpful!

- Peter