As many of you know, one week ago today we found ourselves locked in a cage at the Jones County Adult Detention Facility thanks to the Jones County Sheriff’s Department. The outpouring of support that stemmed from a couple of “tweets” Jason was able to send out prior to our arrest was amazing. Not just for us, but for all those around the world advancing the freedom movement in their own way. It was a true testament of our community and of the support that exists for those willing to stand for their rights against those who seek to usurp them. Hopefully this incident will embolden others to stand for their rights.

Before we get to the “thank-you’s” of this post, let me start with a few apologies. Because the Jones County Sheriff Department decided to arrest and lock the MHD crew in a cage for 10 hours we were unable to meet some commitments:

• Sorry that we missed breakfast in Meridian, MS with Withrow Newell and Danny Bedwell of the Mississippi Libertarian Party (40min from Jones County). Once these guys learned of our situation they went into action online and in-person — demanding answers at the jail where we were held.
  
• We apologize to the folks who we were to meet with in the evening at a meetup jointly sponsored by Nashville’s Chapter of Liberty on the Rocks, Tennessee Center for Policy Research and MHD. Somehow these great folks heard what happened to us and turned their event into a fundraiser for our release.

This week we have a ton of awesome folks to thank for keeping us rolling, including:

• John Stevens from Ponte Vedra Beach, FL who gave $20.
• Richard Tomasso from Manchester, NH who gave $1.
• Kris Borer from Philadelphia, PA who gave $5.
• Chad Wilcox from Arlington, VA who gave $25.
• Donald Ferguson from Alexandria, VA who gave $100.
• Jason Deraleau from Reston, VA who gave $50.
• John Goodman from Santa Clara, CA who gave $20.
• Mitch Anderson from Savannah, GA who gave $10.
• Ron Bogner from Glendale, AZ who gave $25.
• Mark Rand from Reno, NV who gave $50.
• Marc Brandl from Oakland, CA who gave $100.
• BH Supplies who gave $20.
• Douglas Mailly from Cornwall, NY who gave $25.
• Rohn Walter from Naples, FL who gave $25.
• Mary Anderson from Aberdeen, SD who gave $40.
• Molly Valentine from Pittsburgh who gave $5.
• Chris Whitten from Croton on Hudson, NY who gave $500.
• Linden Vopnfjord from Toronto, CA who gave $25.
• Josh Ducharme from Prescott Valley, AZ who gave $5.
• Kathy Breidel from Germantown, WI who gave $203.
• Morey Straus from Manchester, NH who gave $20.
• Andrew Sica from Woodbury, CT who gave $10.
• Paul Blumstein from Annandale, VA who gave $25.
• Darian Worden from High Bridge, NJ who gave $75.
• Sean Sullivan from Woodbridge, VA who gave $5.
• Precision Filtration Products from Pennsburg, PA who gave $50.
• Phil Reese from Manchester, MD who gave $50.
• Mark Warden from Manchester, NH who gave $50.
• Jacob Grier from Portland, OR who gave $10.
• Travis Usinger from Felton, CA who gave $10.
• Daniel Kamerling from Arlington, VA who gave $50.
• Charles Johnson from Las Vegas, NV who gave $20.
• Stephen Miller from Brooklyn, NY who gave $10.
• Christopher Robertson from Colleyville, TX who gave $25.
• Dave Barnes from Denver, CO who gave $10.
• Michael Powers from Charlotte, NC who gave $25.
• Matt Harrison who gave $100.
• Douglas McCullough from Opelika, AL who gave $100.
• Linda Gonzales from Fort Collins, CO who gave $25.
• Dennis Acton from Fremont, NH who gave $30.
• Michael Costello from Pflugerville, TX who gave $100.
• Pat Dixon from Lago Vista, TX who gave $50.
• Matthew Litman from Lexington, KY who gave $50.
• Jason Pye from Covington, GA who gave $10.
• Christian Hoffmann from Stuttgart, Germany who gave $50.
• Jennifer Thompson from Indianapolis, IN who gave $20.

Also, a big thanks to those that’ve helped us in other ways:

• Allison Gibbs and Jil Wright, two awesome women who really did the heavy lifting during our lockup — getting information out, spearheading a drive to raise funds to cover our bonds (more on this below) and greeting us with smiling, though worried faces when we finally emerged from our cages.
• Jocelyn Armstrong and our good friends at the People’s Press Collective (some of whom we met for the first time at the Denver Liberty on the Rocks meetup, are all chipping in to buy us a phone that streams live video via Qik.
• Thomas Pearson and Kevin Stansbury for giving us a place to stay following our incident in Jones County. Here we were not only able to have a “family meeting” and decide how to progress with that incident but also paint MARV in their back yard and start planning our next route.
• Jacob Lovell who not only took us out to eat twice but helped us clean-up MARV after it was ransacked by the Jones County Sheriff’s Department.

A bunch of our pals started a cause on Facebook to raise money to help the Motor Home Diaries hire an attorney.

For those that donated money to help us get out of jail (it should be noted that while all of us were locked up the PayPal account was inaccessible and the jail required our bonds to be paid in cash, so the following folks stepped-up via Western Union and Money Gram):

• Jil Wright $100
• Elisabeth McCaffrey $50
• Stephen Thomas $300
• Vince Richardson $100
• Darryl Perry $50
• Jim Davidson $50
• Nicole Williams $100
• Antonio Musumeci $1,000
• Nikki Sullivan $100
• Tarrin Lupo $300
• Melissa Hayes $30
• Peter Orvetti $100
• Nicole Kardell $100
• Isabel Santa $200

Thanks so much for your support of Motorhome Diaries after our run-in with the Jones County Sheriff’s Department and Mississippi State Patrol. Though it was believed initially (due to statements from those at Jones County Adult Detention Facility) that the total of our bonds would be in excess of a few thousand dollars, as the charges leveled against us lessened in number so too did the amount of our bond, which means that we did not have to utilize all the donations we received.

As big fans of transparency and personal accountability we wanted to give you the option of getting some of your money back, especially in these tight economic times (thanks to Big Government and fiat currency).

In total, we received $2,580 and spent $1,487 as follows:

• Pete’s bond $200 + $25 turnkey fee (charged by the Jones Co. Adult Detention Facility)
• Adam’s bond $215 + $25 turnkey fee (charged by the Jones Co. Adult Detention Facility)
• Jason’s bond $365 +$25 turnkey fee (charged by the Jones Co. Adult Detention Facility)
• Getting MARV out of the impound lot $500
• One night in Motel 8 $68
• Cab to get from the Motel 8 to Wal-Mart $12
• Pack of undershirts, paper and pens from Wal-Mart $10 (shirts as Pete and Adam were arrested without them and paper/pens to jot down our memories of the incident when they were fresh)
• Subway sandwiches for the MHD crew and Allison Gibbs ~$20 (MARV was still in impound lot and we hadn’t eaten all day)
• Cab to get from Wal-Mart to impound lot $20

As we noted, we spent $1,487 of the $2,580, or 58% we received. We’d like to hear back from you on how you’d like the remainder of your money allocated.

• A. Returned to you (i.e. if you donated $100 we’re able to return $42)
• B. Utilized by Motorhome Diaries to keep us on the road (i.e. legal fees, gas or food)

If you choose Option A please email us at mail [at] motorhomediaries [dot] com and let us know your PayPal information and we’ll get you taken care of. If we don’t hear from you we’ll assume that you went with Option B.

This is our lengthiest Thank You Thursday post thus far and for good reason. Jason, Adam and I agreed that it was important to recognize the contributions everyone has made to our free-wheeling effort. Usually it buys us gas but this time it bought our freedom.

If you’d like to keep the Motorhome Diaries rolling, check out how at our support page.