Mere has a lot of family in Butte... and that's where her parents grew up, so we made a stop there and stayed with her aunt.  Sorry to take so long to catch up, but this was the Saturday before last.  I had been having too much fun in too many places without wifi to keep up the vacation blogging.

Butte's an interesting place.  Called "the richest hill in the world", Butte was a copper boomtown that  peaked in 1917 and  started to significantly decline in the 50's and 60's.  That didn't stop mining companies from erasing a section of town called Meaderville in favor of a big gaping pit for copper excavation.

The pit closed in 1982 and is below the water line, so it continues to fill with toxic water to this day.  While some residents have renovated Butte's old "copper king" mansions and there are some people moving back in to start new businesses, the big pit is really a sad symbol of what we've done to the environment and how quickly one-industry towns can fall.

On the very bright side, however, Mere's Aunt Gretchen was a very gracious host and gave us a great tour of the town's history...and treated us to breakfast at the M&M.

Scott Gatz is thinking exactly what I am...   Facebook is not LinkedIn.

Lots of people who are new to Facebook have been friending me that I would consider more professional contacts... some people I don't even know.

Its not that I don't want to be connected to them, but I agree with Scott when he says,

"I’m turning down invitations from people I know well. I’m clicking “REJECT” to those professional contacts. I want my facebook to be my closest friends (professional and personal). I want it to be a fun place, I want to know what music they are listening to, what they are doing, restaurants, fun stuff. I’ll use a professional network for those professional contacts. I want to keep facebook fun! ...

Since I do want to be friends with you (I like you, trust you and want to keep in touch), I’ll kindly invite you to LinkedIn instead. So don’t be surprised to get a REJECT from Facebook and a INVITE from linked in."

I couldn't have said it better.

I mean, how likely is Jeff Jarvis going to change his Relationship Status?  For Jeff's sake, that should be like watching paint dry.   

The hard thing about all these social apps is that the lines between professional and personal get blurred... so I visit some bloggers in Louisville on my vacation, but others remain in my RSS reader.

So, please don't be surprised or offended if I don't accept your Facebook invite... I'd rather connect to you here on LinkedIn.

Who knew one would need such a thick skin in Web 2.0?

From Vault.com's take on VC...   (My comments in parenthesis)

Venture Capital uppers

1. You often get to be the one making decisions because you have money.   (Except when a deal is a good deal, of course... I mean, you *could* decide to pass on Twitter, but then you'd be an idiot)
2. Over the long term, you will certainly become rich because the job is well paying and you should eventually get "carry" or equity in the firm.    (Yup... all VCs become rich.. every single last one of them... except of course if you suck at it.)
3. Being "in the middle of it all" in some of the most interesting industries.  (Ok, I'll give them that...)
4. You have access to the best minds -the people you work with are typically very smart and interesting.    (As an analyst?  hmm...  :)   )
5. Your job is to absorb and enjoy the positive creative energy of entrepreneurs and direct it toward successful execution.     (What exactly does that mean?   I couldn't imagine sitting at my desk in reception at USV and telling Brad and Fred, "I'll be absorbing and enjoying creative energy for the rest of the afternoon")
6. You could suddenly become rich if one of your companies does extremely well and you were able to co-invest or you have carry.   (You could also stand in a field with a big metal pole during a lightning storm...)
7. You have access to the best information systems.    (Really?   All I got at USV was a laptop and a phone...   Isn't the whole lack of information what enables outsized returns in VC?)

Venture Capital downers

1. You don't have pride of ownership in anything. You're just an investor, not a builder.   (I'm pretty sure ownership is what you get when you hand someone a check... unless I'm completely mistaken about what "equity investment" means.  Also, a quick read of VC blogs will show you that there is no lacking on the pride side.)
2. VC is a slow path to wealth compared with the immediate cash income you get in investment banking, hedge funds or even management consulting.   (No, book publishing is a slow path to wealth.  That's like saying the guy who finishes 22nd in the Tour De France was too slow of a cyclist.)
3. You are a jack-of-all-trades, not an expert. After a few years, you can't do anything other than VC because you grow spoiled by making decisions without much compromise.  (And your muscles atrophy, too... from all that absorbing and enjoying...)
4. Venture capital is fundamentally a negative process. Because you reject 99 of every 100 plans, year after year, over time you focus on figuring out what is wrong with a company so you can reject it and get onto the next deal. What is wrong with the management? The technology? The deal terms? The strategy? After just a few years, that mentality may bleed into your life. What is wrong with my partners? What is wrong with my spouse? What is wrong with me? Oh, the angst!   (I really need to know which VC they interviewed to get this answer.)
5. Because you reject 99 of every 100 entrepreneurs, you make a lot of enemies, no matter how nice and helpful you try to be. No one likes rejection, and passionate entrepreneurs have long memories.    (Yes... that's why so many VCs are killed in the line of duty--like a passionate district attorney putting thugs away.)

(Remind me again how this is helpful to a college student or young person starting their career...)

I'm getting this weird sms response anytime I attempt to twit.

I can receive twits, but when I try to send, I get this weird "invalid number" response that tells me that I need to sms to 10 digits or use a valid short code. If you have any idea whats going on please twitter me.

I just got into California today and will be heading to SF tomorrow.  We've got a full day with friends and family, but we'll be setting up shop at Kennedy's at 9:30PM at night.  Feel free to stop by and say hello!

Mere & Charlie Meetup
Saturday, July 14th
9:30PM

Kennedy's
1040 Columbus Avenue
(between Chestnut St & Houston St)
San Francisco, CA 94133

I'm sorely behind in my tripblogging, mostly because we have such a packed schedule that I didn't really leave time for blogging (good to see I have at least one priority in order...).  However, my pics are mostly up to date here.

Just wanted to let Bay Area folks know that we'll be planting ourselves somewhere for drinks in SF on Saturday night, most likely in the North Beach area... I'd guess around 9ish.   Would love to catch up with blog friends, real friends, etc...

In the meantime, thanks to Drew and Dave from Zillow for inviting Mere and I to Lunch 2.0 yesterday.  It's sort of like a Tech Meetup only its kept to 50 and held in someone's office during lunch, obviously.  Zillow's got a really impressive operating going (and a sah-weet view) and the Seattle tech scene is really buzzing.   

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Even though I'm behind on my road trip blogging, I'm going to break for some thoughts on why this bubble isn't like what was experienced the first time around.  My experience with the first bubble was watching it all fall apart from a fund investor perspective at an institutional LP.  We dove deep into trying to assess the damage and try and figure out what actually happened to try and separate the smart VCs from the bad ones--at a time when everyone's performance was completely underwater when we started evaluating the next bunch of funds that came back to market in 2003 and 2004.

There are some marked differences that I was talking to someone about today worth noting:

One of my best friends is from Wyoming and she's always tried to get me out there.  Well, Deirdre, I finally got to see it, even if it was without you and after your fam has moved away... better late than never. 

I have to say, I was totally missing out.  July 5th was our big driving day (I'm  a few days behind in posting)... 11 hours from KC to Sioux City to Sundance, Wyoming.  Sundance, just so you know, isn't where the film festival is.  That's in Park City, Utah, for some reason. 

Anyway, by the time we got out there, we were dead tired.  That's what made the surprise jacuzzi so perfect.  We stayed in this great little cabin with a jacuzzi on the front porch.  Every day of driving should end with a jacuzzi. 

In the morning, we played in the fields and hills around the cabin, and then went off to see Devil's Tower.

Well, this answers the question of whether the shirt I'm wearing right now as I blog this was clean or dirty when I pulled it out of the suitcase.  Oh well.

The EuroPod (which is what I've been calling our Tribeca because of its bizzare design) and our cabin.

When I was planning our trip, everyone told me that I had to go see the Badlands.  I had heard of them, but really didn't know what they were or why they were so bad.  It sounded like something out of Mad Max, and to be honest, that's not so far from the truth.  Turns out, the Badlands were basically the bottom of a huge body of water that sat in the middle of North America for hundreds of thousands of years.  Receding water carved out these amazing rock formations  in the middle of nowhere, creating something that really needs to be seen to be experienced.

More photos of the Badlands here.

Ok, catching up... I posted the flat tire pic, and for those keeping up on Twitter, we did manage to get out of Sioux Falls, but I had some other pictures that I wanted to post.  Its a nice little town with a cute main street.

Thanks to the folks at Graham Tire for getting us back on the road!

Flat tire in Sioux Falls, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

...conveniently 2 blocks from biggest tire shop in town.

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Q: What did you do on your trip to Kansas City?

A: I bit the tail of the Royals mascot.

Today was a relatively easy day in St. Louis.  We have a very ambitious driving day tomorrow...  in fact, the next few days are going to be...  well, we'll stick with ambitious as the term.  Basically, by the end of Saturday, we'll find ourselves with Mere's family in Butte, Montana.

We did get to see the Arch, where I learned that my fear of heights isn't just about seeing the heights, but also feeling the ride up.  Elevators don't bother me too much, although they did in the WTC...  but the creaky tram system they've got up the Arch was a bit hairy for me.  What's bizzare is that they use the same pods on the tram as were used in the infamous Jeff Goldbloom movie, the Fly.

The small windows at the top of the Arch gave me at least a little bit of security. 

In the morning, there was a parade right outside our hotel.... very Middle America:

On our way out of St. Louis to KC, we stopped in the Dogtown neighborhood to meet up with fellow bloggers Matt Winn and Ashley Cecil.  Ashley's comments about the power of her blog in her career as (an artist interested in the non-profits) started a whole conversation about it afterwards between Mere and I which might lead to her blogging.  We'll see.  This has definitely been a great "people trip" for us... meeting up with old friends and new, family, analog friends and digital ones, too.

We decided to swing by Louisville to catch up with Rob from Businesspundit, who I had been reading and writing to for a few years and finally got to meet in person at SXSW.  We even got to meet Mrs. Businesspundit.  The Mays are a great couple and hopefully, we can take them out in NYC one day.

We didn't really think we'd spend much time in Louisville besides lunch, as we still had to head out to St. Louis.  However, we found a waterfront park that rented surrey bikes that sat you down side by side.

Hilarity ensued:

We got some ices.  The guy at the cart asked us if we had ever heard of "Italian Ices."  He then asked me if I had ever seen a purple spoon, which he handed me.

I wanted to ask him, "Have you ever seen...  anything outside of Louisville?"  :)

BTW... all of our trip pics are on Flickr, here.

And you can keep track of us in real time on Twitter, here.

The Jake is a fantastic place to watch a game.  The Indians beat up on the Rays, but the turning point of the game was Perez coming out of the pen for the Indians in the 7th with bases loaded and no outs with a 3-2 lead.  He got the first out by leaping about 4 feet in the air to snare a chopper back to the mound and throwing home...  finished off the inning 1-2-3...  amazing job.  I went to the game with Mere and my friend Meg from Fordham who graciously opened up her Euclid Heights apt couch to us. 

They're serious about their "I" logo...

Didn't even realize beforehand...  Fireworks night!   We watched from the parking lot roof standing up through the sunroof of the Tribeca.

...they've got undetectable radar technology, and lasers.  I-71 was crawling with cops.  This must be the state's main source of revenue.  Yes, that's right, frickin' lasers.  The cops stood on the side of the road with these laser rifle things pointed at us and our detector went nuts... "Laser alert!  Laser alert!"  It was like we were in Star Trek.

I used to have the original Test Drive for my PS/2...   Remember this image?

$135.   Oops.

Thankfully, from WikiAnswers, "New York and Colorado will not enter out of state speeding tickets at all unless they are serious violations like reckless."   

Good thing.  I don't need my insurance raised.

After the HOF, we drove a few more miles and stopped in Ithaca, NY at the Amazing Grace Bed and Breakfast.  Alicia was a wonderful host and if you stay, make sure she makes you some of her German bread.  May very well be the best bread I've ever had in my life.  The house has some neat grounds around it as well.  You're basically living in her house, though, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for young couples.  :)  Still, the tradeoff for that breakfast...   pretty close call.  (I'm going to get in trouble for that one.)

At the recommendation of Eric, we met up with Jofish while in Ithaca as well. 

Not only did that make for some interesting conversation, lucky for us, he insisted that we stop by one of Ithaca's waterfalls.   I'm so glad we did.  Check these out!

I'll catch up on Cleveland, Louisville and St. Louis next time...   

I'm in St. Louis now.  We have an easy road day as we only have to make it to Kaufmann Stadium for tonight's Fireworks night Royals game against the Mariners.  So, I have a few minutes to catch everyone up.

First off, I'll tell you, I think I have some kind of special gene that gives me incredible driving stamina.  So far, I've done 100% of the driving and we're 1500+ miles in, counting my trip up to Boston for Dave's wedding.  I feel fantastic.  One thing that is helping is that we've gone running each morning, even for a little while, and I'm making sure I get a good stretch in at every gas stop.  Gotta keep those legs moving. 

Mere and I have been keeping ourselves occupied with our portable XM radio, which she has been conscientiously adjusting when it needs a change in the FM output signal.  We've also had some really good conversation.  She has a big book of questions and we had a good social media conversation yesterday.  In fact, she took some notes on it which I will try to get her to post here.

Anyway...  Out first official stop was the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Somehow, even though its only a few miles from NY, I've never gone.   It was alright.  I'm glad I went, but it didn't knock me over.  What was really disappointing was the lack of rich media exhibits.  MLB must have tons and tons of old clips that I've never seen before and I would have loved to see more of that.   Show me more home runs by Willie Mays and highlights from Nolan Ryan's no-hitters from the 70's.   At All-Star Fan Fest a few years ago, they allowed fans to get in a booth and call a inning of a famous game, and save the video.  That would have been awesome.  Its 2007... the Hall needs a serious upgrade for the future because little kids aren't just going to be enamored with old bats and balls alone.

In any case, though, Nate asked for a pic of Johnny Bench's plaque.  I also got photos of other faves of mine:  The lone Met Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan and Wade Boggs, because of Boggs doesn't swing, its not a strike.

The real story of Cooperstown, however, was the serendipitous discovery that Mere has all sorts of softball skills.  There's a beautiful lake up there with a nice park and I had brought two gloves and a ball.  We also bought a Wiffleball and bat while we were up there.  She proved adept at hitting the wiffleball, but even more impressive was her ability to throw and field the softball.  I thought I was going to teach her how to play, but she's a ringer. 

I have all sorts of video on this, but unfortunately, all of the online video services have uploading limits.  The ones that allow editing, JumpCut and MotionBox, do too.  JumpCut even directs you to a shareware tool that allows you to chop up your video before uploading.   I don't want to upload a big video, but I need to edit it down somewhere first.  This should be located in the uploading tools of these services.  I'm more than happy to edit it down to upload, but I don't want to have to use an entirely different set of tools to do it.  Phanfare should do the same thing.   I love their drag and drop uploading tool and that's a great spot for some additional tools.

So, instead, we have some lake pics... I'll edit the videos when I get back.