PORTLAND, OR – While at our Seattle meetup the MHD crew got a tip from Rachel Hawkridge about Coffee Strong, an Anti-War coffee shop ran by former military personnel and located just blocks from Fort Lewis. We arrived Sunday morning as one of the owners, Seth Manzel was opening the shop, which was filled with anti-war posters and a Don’t Tread on Me Flag on the wall behind the counter.

Seth is a veteran of Iraq and active with Iraq Veterans Against the War. He started this coffee shop in order to give enlisted soldiers an easy way to learn about their options and to advocate peace. They hold regular meetings, video nights, speakers and an occasional protest. They even offer free coffee to currently enlisted men and women.

While conversing with the Seth about how Coffee Strong was started he informed us of a protest (pics here) they were planning on the near by “Freedom Bridge” that afternoon.  This particular demonstration was taking place due to the treatment of Sergent Travis Bishop and Specialist Victor Agosto who are imprisoned at Fort Lewis for “crimes” related to being conscientious objectors to the the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A flyer that given to us at the rally states:

Sgt. Bishop is the second soldier from Fort Hood in as many weeks to be tried by the military for his stand against an occupation he believes is ‘illegal.’ He insists that it would be unethical for him to deploy to support an occupation he opposes on both moral and legal grounds, and has filed for conscientious objector (CO) status.

Bishop also claims that the CO status options were never made aware to him until he had received his orders to deploy to Afghanistan (visit WarIsImmoral.com to learn more about conscientious objector status) so Bishop went AWOL for a week to prepare his application of CO and claims:

Then I went back [to Fort Hood] with Branum and turned myself in. I never planned on staying AWOL. They gave me a barracks room and assigned me to a platoon and told me to show up to work the next day. That was it. They started the CO process, but they also started the Uniform Code of Military Justice process, and that’s where it gets shifty.

The flier didn’t give as much info on Spec. Agosto but does state that he also has conscientious objections that keep him from performing his job and filed proper paper work. I was also told that the majority of Agosto’s troubles started when family members of his were left homeless. He asked for a leave to go and provide for his family, when that was denied he went AWOL. He returned and has been detained ever since.

To me, the CO process seems to be way too lengthy. If these folks don’t agree with military doings, why not just cut them loose? Fill out a form put your stamp on it and let these men go. Instead they are hated, shunned, made to be ‘criminals’ and locked in a cage because they have the courage to stand up for what they believe in. I recall a statement made by Daniel Lakemacher during his interview with MHD, “If it’s an all volunteer military then why can’t I just leave?”

OLYMPIA, WA – We arrived in Seattle (photos & video) on the evening of the 14th. Seattle was an area that I was excited about visiting from previous experiences but this time was even better. We parked near the KOMO News Radio since we had an interview with anchor Brian Calvert the next day. We parked just a couple of blocks from the station under the shadow of the Space Needle where we slept. We were all antsy to see Seattle so we each went forth and explored the Emerald City.

Thursday morning, the 15th, we worked from a coffee shop that excitingly wasn’t Starbucks until our 11AM interview. Even though we showed up at the station punctually, Brian wanted to see MARV and interview us there. Gladly we replied and here is his coverage that made it on the air. This is the video he published on the KOMO website:

We then met up with our Seattle meetup point-person and all-around good guy Chip Barron for at lunch at and then a fantastic driving tour of Seattle (Photos & Videos). And before we parted ways with Chip he handed us a fresh-baked loaf of banana bread his mom Dana made for us. Needless to say it’s all gone now:)

As has been our routine, we left around 8AM before the meter maids (video) could harass us. On the morning of the 15th we parked a few blocks away from Jillian’s Billiards, the location of our 7PM meetup that night. We woke up, not necessarily hung over, but we all knew we had drank 151 proof the night before. When Jillian’s opened at 11AM we set up shop and worked there for the rest of the day (after they granted us permission to do so. I had a nice chicken sandwich there. Despite the rain, which Settle residents must be well familiar with, Seattle area libertarians came out to join us for subversive conversations. We ended a bit early to take everyone to MARV when a few folks from Young Americans for Liberty showed up and couldn’t get into the bar because the state deemed them underage. We all packed into MARV and talked for a while longer. The folks were very generous, buying t-shirts and donating enough money to get us to our next meetup in Olympia tonight. Rachel Hawkridge, the Chairwoman of the Washington State Libertarian Party, even assembled a care package we’ve been enjoying ever since we left.

For the final night we slept on the streets of Seattle as the rain beat down on MARV.

After the Anarchist Book Fair (that Pete previously covered) on the morning of Saturday the 16th we started our drive south and began the last two weeks our “search for freedom in America.”

TACOMA, WA – The title for this post was taken from a comment Adam made earlier today as we exited the first-ever Seattle Anarchist Book Fair – an event put on our radar by Shawn Wilbur (pictured below), a self-described mutualist from Portland (whom we’re going to interview later this week). It was an event that we thought would be a great environment for us to interview a lot of people working on different projects, and though we did secure one interview that will be released later this week (with a war tax resistor) the event unfortunately didn’t live up to our expectations.

Sure, there were a number of interesting things going on and pretty much all the folks we talked with were chill people (and a few knew of MHD), but they just didn’t want to be on camera. Obviously we here at MHD respect people’s right to privacy but at the same time we question just how big an impact these folks – who are actively working to spread the ideas they hold – can have if they’re not willing to share them with others on camera. This tangentially relates to the IP debate – these folks could share their ideas for three minutes with someone on the corner but only that person (and perhaps a few people around) will be exposed to them. Or they could share their thoughts for three minutes on camera and literally millions of people can access that content at the same time at any time (not saying MHD has that kind of audience but that’s the way electronic mediums work).

I don’t want to downplay the importance of person-to-person communication – it’s often where deep, paradigm-shifting conversations happen – but also important is getting these ideas of peace and voluntary interactions in front of as many people as possible. Think about it this way: Many people go through life exposed only to pro-government rhetoric taught in public schools and echoed by the mainstream media. If they hear a perspective that emphasizes individual freedom and responsibility in a clear, consistent way – even if just for a minute – it may plant a seed and cause them to investigate further. That’s why we were all a bit disappointed that more people didn’t feel comfortable being on camera – it seemed like a lost opportunity.

Some people cited reasons for not being on film – that they have a “real job” and didn’t want their employer to see them or that they wanted to stay off the government’s radar – but if they’re scared to be overt about the views they hold – which again, emphasize peace and voluntary interactions – think how difficult it’ll be for people to speak out in a generation after more anti-individualists misinformation has been peddled.

MISSOULA, MONTANA – The guys and I had a productive week visiting several stops off of I-90 in Montana. We started in Hardin where we learned the facts surrounding the prison the town had built and released this video (more photos & video on Flickr).

We then headed to Bozeman (photos & video on Flickr) where we met up with our friend Rachel Maxam. Pete and I worked with Rachel while in DC at a now defunct anti-statist organization. She, like the crew of the Motorhome Diaries, is a member of the Fr33 Agents network. When we arrived on the night of the 5th we headed to a restaurant that served us what Montana is known for: beef and bison. Here’s the crew of the Motorhome Diaries with our pal Rachel:

On Tuesday the 6th we found a starbucks to work for most of the day. Later we met up with Carl Graham of the Montana Policy Institute for an interview. That night we were invited to speak to the local Campaign for Liberty / Young American for Liberty meeting. The crowd was very constitution-minded but hard core. The speaker after us was a woman from the Concord Coalition (CC). She was attempting to sell government solutions to government problems and I was happy to see that the crowd wasn’t buying. CC is concerned about fixing entitlement programs but the audience, including the MHD crew, wanted them eliminated. We had the cameras rolling so look for this soon. After showing the group MARV and socializing in the cold we scrambled back to Rachel’s crib for pizza. It was cold enough for us to abandon MARV for the night to sleep indoors.

The next day our mission was to meet up with Brian, a friend of Rachel’s, who just so happens to have a nuclear fallout shelter on his property (photos & video on Flickr). Below is Pete, me, Adam with Brian in front of an american flag 20 feet below the surface of Montana. Yes, we took video so look for this soon.

We had to do it. That’s me below. Adam and Pete also filmed this scene from Terminator 4.

Philipsburg, Montana (photos & video on Flickr) was an unexpected pleasure. We received an e-mail from Kirsten Tynan with the subject line “coming through Montana?” We answered in the affirmative and spent the next day in a half there. After parking MARV, Kirsten drove us to her home where we had a Thanksgiving style meal with some wonderfully well-armed anarchists. We then headed to a bar when drinking and pool ensued. That night we also abandoned a very chilly MARV and slept all toasty inside. That morning the anarchists of Philipsburg took us out to breakfast and then we hit the road. Kirsten published some more photos here.

We then headed to Missoula where we met up with Brandon Friede, a local voluntaryist who attends the University there. We spent the night in town and split after working from Starbucks this morning. Just before we passed the border into Idaho we stopped by 50,000 Silver Dollars (photos & video on Flickr) where we goofed off for a bit. It’s a touristy place that, as it’s name implies, has a lot of silver dollars. Here are some vids. The first is Adam telling us about the place. The second are some animals drinking.

BOZEMAN, MT – We knew that our schedule was going to have us doing quite a bit of driving from Minnesota to Montana but we had no idea what mother nature had in store for us. Lets take a few steps back and start from the beginning. It was Saturday. We were heading west toward Rapid City, SD and had alot of fun, as Pete stated in his post “Crusin’ West Through South Dakota.” It wasn’t until the next day that the weather threw us a curve ball.

We woke up Sunday morning in Rapid City, SD to an email from our friend Rich, a Free State Wyoming member who had offered to host our MHD at his Ranch. Rich stated that a Winter Storm Warning was coming into NE Wyoming and that it was going to be difficult to get MARV into the ranch if we didn’t make it early and even then we might not be able to get out the following day. Much to our chagrin, we had to cancel the Wyoming meetup, our stop at Mt. Rushmore and leave Rapid City early to get get as many miles logged as possible before the storm hit. We grabbed a quick lunch with Justice Bryce at the Firehouse Brewing Co and hit the road. All was well and it was quite beautiful driving around/through the northern parts of the Black Hills.

That didn’t last long and we started seeing signs of the storm as soon as we entered Wyoming. We had stopped to get some gas, which was when we received our first sign of snow, though it had yet to start sticking to the ground. I got behind the wheel again to continue west hoping that we could make it to Buffalo, WY a couple of hours west. The drive was pretty good except for a few times when rain, slush, and road construction had me ‘white knuckling’ the wheel. The ride to Buffalo took about 45 minutes longer than it should of and I was relieved to be exiting the highway. We made our way down the main drag and realized that Buffalo might not be the best place to stop for the night. We made the decision to head to Sheridan, 40 miles west on I90, and it was then that the weather got pretty nasty. We had near white out conditions caused by snow, spray (slush) from other cars and the dense fog but arrived about an hour later.

Once we got into Sheridan, WY we noticed a few of our favorite things like, Wal Mart, Starbucks and a Perkins. We set up shop at the Starbucks, though it was closing in 30 minutes (the 9pm close-time was the earliest we’ve yet encountered), and got our computers a quick charge. Jason then offered to buy Pete and I some dinner at the Perkins down the road and we gladly accepted. The minute we sat down we were approached by the Bailey family, who were relocating from Texas, and stated they had seen us on the road (I assumed I90 considering we got passed by several cars). They were very curious of MHD’s project and stated that they were seriously considering doing the RV lifestyle before settling on Wyoming. We took a few pics, traded email addresses and wished each other well before going back to our meals. We finished off our night at Perkins and spent the night in the Starbucks parking lot, hoping to get to Hardin, MT the following day.

Pete and I woke up a little before 6am to about 2 inches of snow on the ground. We got online quickly and checked the weather. And, just like the following day, found we were in for another storm. We bunked down and got to hammering out some work. We have been without steady internet for most the weekend and it was nice to have the web at our finger tips for awhile. Later in the day it seemed that the snow was not sticking to the roads and had turned to rain.  We jumped at the chance to get on the road and maintain our schedule and soon, were out of the winter storm, thankfully.

It was an interesting two days on the road and I think the crew did really well handling the snowy conditions. We shot some good footage in MARV, at Harding, MT (video soon) and kept to our schedule. We arrived in Bozeman, MT a few hours early, the drive in was possibily the most postcard worthy of this trip (though we’re told the drive west will be even better), and we took advantage of our early arrival to hangout with Pete and Jason’s longtime friend Rachel Maxam. She took us out to eat in downtown Bozeman and gave us a much needed relaxing evening.

SHERIDAN, WY – A couple of days ago when cruising west on I-90 through South Dakota we agreed to break up the 600-mile drive when possible. In this video, a few of those times are shared in what we think is a pretty solid compilation of funny clips. Evidence that the venn diagram for humor and liberty overlap quite a bit!

RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA – We had a great day. I woke up on Saturday morning to discover that Pete was driving MARV West on I-90 as he and Adam were collecting statistics on various items passed during the long-ass 600 mile drive. For example, we drank 6 cans of Pepsi, saw 12 windmills, and about 50 billboards for Wall Drugs in the 150 miles from its location. We’ve long said that we’re taking a survey of the freedom movement in america and the guys were taking the survey part literally. Appropriate, since this was the route that Louis & Clark were on when they surveyed the west. We stopped at a very elaborate rest station in South Dakota where they had a display of L&C’s boat. The first sign (photo) we encountered was a stern reminder that the expedition was in fact a military operation by the United States government and the exhibit alluded to how native americans were dealt with:

This was authorized by the then president and slave-owning statist, Thomas Jefferson. He did some good stuff also. Speaking of presidents, the visitor center has floor mats that are very disrespectful to the presidents carved on Mt. Rushmore but I didn’t want to track mud into a government building:

Not wanting to perpetuate the “Cult of the Presidency,” we skipped Mt. Rushmore. It was a long drive so we decided to enjoy other stops along the way. The first was a gas station that sold fireworks and buffalo meat while warning customers, like us, of the impending disaster in the year 2012 and handing out LaRouche magazines. The guys bought some of the latter in the form of jerky and we snacked on it throughout the day.

Later we stopped at another rest station and for some reason decided to explore a hiking trail down the hill. We goofed around and made some videos of the experience. It’s always fun to have opportunities to tell Adam about impending doom so this time it was Sasquatch, lost savage Indians and poisonous rattle snakes.

Wall Drugs was an interesting stop. Adam became more and more excited each time he saw a sign for this business, proving that their advertising works. Basically Wall Drugs is a single store that is made to look like an old Western Town. The crew and I checked it out as you can tell from our photos and videos.

As is often the case we like to end with a public service message:

ST PAUL, MN – We rolled across another arbitrary line late Tuesday night and we’re now in the state of Minnesota. I was hoping for cheaper Newport prices but was immediately disappointed. It didn’t take long for me to cheer up considering we were stopped at this massive truck stop. Jason was getting MARV’s propane filled while Pete and I were taking silly pictures inside the the T&A Truck stop. We did feel slightly guilty cheating on Flying J’s Truck Stops but had to stop to get some petro. Despite the Minnesota State government owning no gas stations, no transportation service or any other legitimate business that benefits consumer it takes 15% of the sales in taxes. This doesn’t make sense to me.

So after a cold night in the RV (I’m from WI but still don’t like being cold) we headed to Mankato, MN where Pete attended college. We had plan to meet up with some liberty minded folks around seven and decided to work til then. It was while at the Caribou Coffee House that Pete had met David Schmolz, who left a $100 donation under Pete’s computer. That’s the most creative way to donate we’ve seen yet and it was very kind of David. Later that evening we met up with some folks who love liberty as much as we do as well as a reporter from The Free Press. Overall it was a good stop for MHD and we got to experience/see a bit of Pete’s college stomping grounds. You can read more about MHD’s Mankato stop in Pete’s post here.

While in Mankato we got an email from Frankie James McBroom, who is active in the liberty movement in St. Cloud, MN. He stated that he heard from his friends in Ames, IA  that we were coming to MN and offered to host us. This was a bit out of our way and not on our schedule but Frank offered to cover our gas and get a few folks together for a meetup. We couldn’t say no so we headed up that way late Wednesday night, again working throughout the day from a WiFi location and meetup with Franks crew that night. It was a nice turnout with some active and vocal folks from the College Libertarians, Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and Young Americans for Liberty. We all had an open discussion about where we stand politically and tactics on how to communicate the ideas of freedom on campus. It is refreshing to see ‘younger’ folks so involved in the movement. I wish I would of came to these ideas at a younger age and worked to share them as these folks do.

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.

SHREVEPORT, LA – It was early May when Motorhome Diaries: Searching for Freedom in America came to Texas last. I really enjoyed the Lone Star state and it has a great mix of liberty minded individuals all over. Our journey started in the Wichita Falls at a gym, lead us into Austin, allowed us the opportunity to interview Ron Paul, a fellow RVing family called the Barenaked Family and ended with Gumbo, Guns and Guitars in Houston. Since MHD is returning to Texas today, we thought it would be nice to post some videos of our previous stop here.

Thanks to our friends at Campaign for Liberty and an almost all night drive, we had the chance to sit down with Ron Paul in Lake Charles, TX. It was a hot, muggy, Mother’s day morning when the congressman took time to chat with Pete Eyre. This was a memorable moment for me as I have credited Ron Paul with motivating me to get involved in the liberty movement. This is also one of my favorite interviews cause the line of questions Pete came up with on immigration, self-government and civil disobedience.

We also had the chance to check out Waco. This was the most surreal stop for me due to what the government had done to these people. They were living peacefully on their own land, minding their own business. Until the feds thought differently, they trespassed on the property, shot into these people’s homes, started a fire and committed murder. Yet not a single person with a badge has been held accountable for these acts. I was at a loss for words nearly the whole time Pete and I shot this video, I hope none of us forget what happened to these folks at the hands of government.

I think Pete said it best when he wrote the blog post for this vid in May:

After we had the great opportunity to sit down with Ron Paul in Lake Jackson, TX office we hit the road, driving north on 288 toward Houston, where we had a meetup later that evening. Off the west side of the highway we saw a collection of busts of former presidents. Obviously someone thought these guys were such good people that they deserved to be showcased.

We didn’t.

So today will mark our return to Texas and though this stay will be considerably shorter than the last. We know the folks here will be great and we hope to meet up with you tonight at our meet up. See all the details here.  If you would like to read more about our time in Texas back in May check out his post here.