AMES, IOWA – I’m not going to sugarcoat things: our first day in Ames sucked. It was the Sunday the 27th of September as the three of us rolled into town and as usual, found a Starbucks and got to work. To fight the cabin-fever Adam and I decided to walk and drive the city for a bit. We met a few people and ate a pork sandwich at an Art Festival but there wasn’t anything keeping us in Ames. At the Starbucks, Pete and I conversed with a fellow traveling businessman. He works for Wal-mart and had an extra 19″ flatscreen monitor that he wanted to give us as a donation. We accepted and now need to figure out what to do with it. We took off later that night and drove 30 minutes to the most desolate Flying J Truck Stop I’ve seen. After turkey burgers with some mac and cheese and conversation we were going to call it a night and wake up to continue our journey north.

That was until we received a message on Facebook from David Olson:

Hey man, come to the Liberty House in Ames! Are you still around? Send me a facebook asap if you are! My phone is dead, but when I get home it is xxx-xxx-xxxx. Hope to see you all!

After sending some messages back and forth and a 30 minute drive back south to Ames we parked MARV near what is dubbed the “Liberty House.” It’s where a bunch of libertarian students at Iowa State University call home and we stepped into a great evening. We even fit in an interview with the Ames Progressive. (More videos and photos can be found here):

I met David, and his brother Tim, 4 years ago at the Conservative Political Action conference. It’s great to see that like I did years ago, David has rejected the big-government philosophy of “conservatism” in favor of an approach that respects individual rights.

The next day, Monday the 28th, we woke up in MARV near the Liberty House to discover it was Monday and sped to the Starbucks yet again. It was a full workday although it started late due to excessive fun the night before. We ended up saying “screw it” and parked in front of an abandoned gas station across from street from the Starbucks. Our “commute” to work the next day was a real-life game of frogger since unpriced electricity and wireless internet was just across the street. We worked until three on Tuesday the 29th when David Olson was available to hang out at the Liberty House (BTW – when I say “Liberty House” I like to do so in the voice of a college dean while shaking my fist in the air). We listened to some great music in David’s room and watched cartoons with Campbell DeSousa. Later we got our Frisbee on.

Cambell and David are band members of Nuclear Rodeo and they were kind enough to play their ”pop” on the back porch for us. This single is available on MySpace and they kindly let me rip their songs onto my computer and promised me new stuff we it arrives:

About Nuclear Rodeo:

Originally intended to be trip-hop meets tribal beat fusioncore meets skaterskapop meets methamphetamine rockhophipcore, the group quickly sold out to nobody in particular and is now a pop group. Nuclear Rodeo will play any house show in the midwest, and will also teach you how to stand on your head.

Indeed. So later that night we rolled 6 deep in MARV (The crew with David, Cambell and Ms. Laura Bosworth) to the campus of Iowa State University. Despite us showing up with little advance notice they allowed us to film and speak to the Campus Libertarian group. We filmed the adviser of the campus Libertarians and Iowa Governor hopeful, Professor Eric Cooper, who practiced his upcoming speech to a local conservative organization. I now see what Libertarian Party members are talking about when they say they are primarily about education and not just about winning elections. Eric’s speech outlined the minarchist approach in a very straightforward way. We followed and tried to do the same about a voluntary society which would necessitate making the state illegal like all other acts of aggression.

After the meeting students headed into MARV where they signed our guestbook and talked some more. Adam and I then had pizza with David, Laura and fellow voluntarist Tom Spalding we met at Iowa State University. Tom was kind enough to shoot an Evolutionaries video with us.

Adam and I then rejoined Pete in MARV and drove a coupe of hours north to start the last five weeks of the search for freedom in America with the Motorhome Diaries.