Geek Gestalt

The entrance to Cheyenne Mountain, the former home of NORAD. Today, NORAD is based at Peterson Air Force Base, like Cheyenne Mountain, in Colorado Springs, Colo.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

This is not your "War Games" fan's NORAD.

If the picture in your head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command's operations center is straight out of that 1983 Matthew Broderick movie, you may need to replace it.

That real-life command center, where personnel from the militaries of the United States and Canada keep a watchful eye out for threats from the sky, is no longer buried deep under Cheyenne Mountain. It is, however, still in Colorado Springs, Colo. Today, it is housed at Peterson Air Force Base, and it is a joint venture with the U.S. Northern Command known as the NORAD Integrated Command Center.

And befitting the sensitive nature of that facility, the public does not often get a look inside.

But earlier this week, NORAD changed that equation when it posted a video (see below) showing nearly three minutes of B-roll shot inside the Integrated Command Center. It's not the most exciting three minutes that ever happened in there, to be sure, but then again, it is NORAD.

NORAD, of course, is gearing up for its annual Christmas Eve Santa Claus tracking marathon. Starting Dec. 1, the NORAD Santa tracking Web site has been live, and has been offering up a series of games for kids, as well as some historical information about that program. Come back to this blog on Monday for a look behind the scenes of the NORAD Santa tracker.

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, America's Fortress

NORAD's alternate command center, at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, near Colorado Springs, Colo. While NORAD's main operations recently moved to the nearby Peterson Air Force Base, it still maintains the ACC at Cheyenne Mountain.

(Credit: U.S. Air Force)

During my recently completed Road Trip 2009 project, one of the biggest highlights was my visit inside the Cheyenne Mountain Complex at the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station. Recognizable from the movie, "War Games," and the "Stargate" TV series, the complex was long popularly known as NORAD, or the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, America's Fortress

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But in 2008, NORAD officially moved to the nearby Peterson Air Force Base. Still, even to this day, it maintains an alternate command center at Cheyenne Mountain that it shares with U.S. Northern Command, or USNORTHCOM.

When I visited, I was allowed the rare privilege of bringing a camera with me, and I took a lot of pictures. But the pictures were mainly of the infrastructure of Cheyenne Mountain, and I wasn't able to see the alternate command center (ACC).

Now, the Air Force has provided me with this photo, of the ACC, which, since my very first step when planning Road Trip 2009 was to see about arranging a visit to Cheyenne Mountain, is a fitting way to formally close the book on the project.

The ACC, as seen in this photo, has certainly been "scrubbed," meaning that personnel in the room were very careful to ensure that nothing sensitive was visible in the shot. Still, you can get a sense for what goes on in the room today. To be sure, it looks very little like the giant command center that was made so famous in "War Games." Yet in today's world, where everything is smaller, more compact, and more efficient than back in the early 1980s, it's no wonder that a facility like this would have the feel of an office full of cubicles.

Either way, you can tell that the ACC is a place that has the ability to run serious exercises, and, in the case of a real emergency, is capable of being used as NORAD's main nerve center. Let's hope that's never necessary.

Road Trip 2009 hit 1,000 miles in the beautiful town of Glenwood Springs, Colo.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo.--It still feels like Road Trip 2009 has just started, but I've already hit 1,000 miles. Unlike Road Trip 2008, where I hit the 1,000-mile milestone while driving along a nondescript section of forested, deep South highway, this time the odometer turned over to four figures while I was rolling slowly in the Audi Q7 TDI "clean diesel" SUV I'm road-testing down a picturesque lane full of high-priced houses with fantastic views of the Rocky Mountains.

I like to use each of the thousand-mile points along the way as an excuse to blog about what has happened on Road Trip since the last such point. I suppose it's kind of arbitrary, and perhaps on my next trip I could just as well blog about where I'm at when I hit 843 miles, 1,843 miles, 2,843 miles and so on. But I'm a fan of round numbers; what can I do?

The odometer rolls over to 1,000 miles on the Audi Q7 TDI that CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman is driving around on Road Trip 2009.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

On Road Trip 2009, the first thousand miles has certainly been full of interesting stops, with a lot of variety.

I began by visiting the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colo., and learning about founder Amory Lovins' highly-efficient house in that high Rockies town. The house, which focuses on finding ways to reduce power consumption, produces more renewable energy than it uses, allowing it to feed electricity back into the grid. Also, because of its use of a greenhouse, it features banana trees that can even produce fruit at over 8,000 feet of altitude.

I also visited Boulder, Colo., and among other things, I talked to the folks at Transition Boulder County, a nonprofit focusing on how to help local communities figure out how to thrive in what they say is a not-too-distant future in which the world has passed peak oil production.

In Boulder, I also talked to a scientist at the University of Colorado who is spearheading a nearly half-billion dollar project to investigate what happened to Mars' atmosphere in an attempt to find out if the Red Planet once was able to support life.

Then I moved on to Colorado Springs, where I spent several days doing a number of things.

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, America's Fortress

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First, I arrived at the United States Air Force Academy for a day witnessing the in-processing of the class of 2013, a group of 1,376 new basic cadets who are willing to endure four years of hard work and at least a year of humiliation at the hands of their older classmates for the chance to serve in the "Long Blue Line."

The next day, I had a very rare opportunity to visit Cheyenne Mountain, the underground facility also known as "America's Fortress," where NORAD and many other arms of the U.S. defense and military community maintain command centers and other facilities. The focus of my visit, however, was on the infrastructure of Cheyenne Mountain.

And then, before I left Colorado Springs, I returned to the Air Force Academy to watch dozens of firemen (and women) compete in the Firefighter Combat Challenge, a nationwide tour that pits teams against each other in a bid to show who is the strongest, fastest, and best at the many tasks these brave public servants have to perform on a daily basis.

Now I'm already well on my way to the next thousand miles. Where will I be the next time those three zeroes show up on the odometer? Only time will tell.

For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.

One of the two 25-ton blast doors that protects the main entrance to the Cheyenne Mountain complex outside of Colorado Springs, Colo.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--If there are two things that drive the folks at the world-famous Cheyenne Mountain complex crazy, it's the widely held public perceptions that, for one, the complex has shut down altogether, and that it is synonymous with NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

After visiting as part of my Road Trip 2009 project Friday, I'm here to report that both perceptions are quite incorrect.

For one, the Cheyenne Mountain complex is very much still operational. In some ways, in fact, in a world where existential threats come not from the Soviet Union but from things like natural disasters, cyberattacks, and amorphous terrorist organizations on the hunt for nuclear weapons, it may today even be considered more important than ever.

In its heyday, during the height of the Cold War, it was seen as the nerve center from which U.S. military operations could still conduct business during a nuclear attack. But today, in the post-9/11 era, a whole new set of operational tenants, including U.S. Strategic Command, Air Force Space Command, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Missile Defense Agency, have moved in.

Secondly, while NORAD does, and has always done, business inside the mountain, the daily operations of its command center moved in May 2008 to the nearby Peterson Air Force Base to form a combined U.S. Northern Command and NORAD command center. Today, the day-to-day NORAD mission at Cheyenne Mountain has combined with U.S. Northern Command and includes a number of missions including training.

Photos: Inside Cheyenne Mountain, America's Fortress

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"Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station is owned and operated by Air Force Space Command," the NORAD Web site explains. "In fact, NORAD and (U.S. Northern Command) use just under 30 percent of the floor space within the complex and comprise approximately 5 percent of the daily population at Cheyenne Mountain."

It would be dishonest of me to not admit that when I first set about trying to arrange a visit to Cheyenne Mountain, I didn't understand the relationship between the complex and NORAD.

It wasn't fully explained to me until my arrival that my initial request to visit the command center--where all the real action takes place--couldn't be met. But I was able to spend a few hours meeting with Col. Brad Gentry, the commander of the 721st Mission Support Group, which runs Cheyenne Mountain, and taking a rare tour--rare because I was allowed to bring a camera--of the deep underground complex.

And after my visit, I have a much clearer picture of what goes on at the facility, and, my hosts hope, so will the general public.

Mission Support Group
Gentry explained that the MSG is responsible for Cheyenne Mountain's civil engineering, its security--both physical and digital--and ensuring that it remains "America's Fortress," perhaps the most impenetrable command center on Earth. Ultimately, the job is to offer the various other agencies inside the complex "five nines reliability," meaning 99.999 percent, when it comes to power, electricity, air conditioning, water, and more.

According to a fact sheet I was given, the threats that the MSG is geared up for, in descending order of likelihood, but increasing level of consequences, are: medical emergencies, natural disasters, civil disorder, a conventional attack, an electromagnetic pulse attack, a cyber or information attack, chemical or biological or radiological attack, an improvised nuclear attack, a limited nuclear attack, or a general nuclear attack.

Preparing for the various kinds of nuclear attacks, however, has nothing to do with the U.S. Strategic Command's Cheyenne Mountain missile warning center, which, Gentry explained, connects with and collects data from missile sensors around the world.

Still, there is plenty of awareness about the potential for a nuclear explosion at Cheyenne Mountain, and during my tour of the infrastructure, much of that was spelled out.

Among the systems set up to protect the critical operations inside the complex from the most dire attacks are giant, 25-ton blast doors placed deep within the mountain, as well as a tunnel and portal structure designed to deflect a nuclear detonation (see video below).

There are also a network of blast valves set up to ensure safe air, redundant power generators on top of a huge battery bank, a massive diesel fuel reservoir, a 4.5 million gallon reservoir of water used as a heat sink, a system of giant springs designed to allow the 15 three-story buildings inside the mountain to shift up to an inch in any direction in case of an explosion or earthquake, and countless sections of flexible pipe connectors meant to ensure that significant shaking doesn't upset normal operations.

Throughout the Cheyenne Mountain complex, the buildings inside are perched on top of more than 1,000 of these giant springs, which are designed to allow the buildings to shift up to an inch in any direction in case of a nuclear attack or a major earthquake.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)

In essence, the complex is a small city. Six hundred people work there, and as such, there's a medical center, a small store, a cafeteria, and more. Should Cheyenne Mountain be shut down for any reason--what is known in the complex's parlance as a "button up," the personnel left inside "can maintain fitness" at the gym, Gentry said.

And while top brass inside are afforded sleeping suites for use in case of a button up, lesser personnel would still be able to rest there, as the facility maintains a sizable collection of cots.

So finely tuned
When entering the complex, everyone has to go through two sets of the giant blast doors. Though they weigh 25 tons, they're "so finely tuned," Gentry said, that even just two people should be able to swing them shut or open.

At the same time, the doors lock when a series of giant pistons swing forward and into large, corresponding slots. Even the piston system has a backup, though, with levers that can be manually operated to pull open or push shut the pistons.

"People will not ever be trapped in this facility," Gentry said.

That's also true because, should every other system fail, including the blast doors, there's a small trap door inside one of the tunnels that allows people to escape. That's assuming they're not claustrophobic, Gentry joked.

The series of blast valves, meanwhile, are set up so that, should there be an attack, the air inside remains breathable. That's because the valves have sophisticated filters that can clean contaminated air, and which provide a 20-second delay between entering the mountain from the outside and making it inside the blast doors.

Indeed, said Jason Cook, the civil engineering director, the blast doors and blast valves are designed to work in conjunction to protect the complex from the worst possible scenario: a blast wave. With the single push of a button, Cook added, the filters kick in to clean the air, and the doors close. The civil engineering section of the facility even has its own blast door (see video below).

What's more, the complex is set up to shield the interior against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), which can fry most electronics. Cook said that, in fact, Cheyenne Mountain is the only DOD high-altitude Electromagnetic Pulse certified underground facility. Among the protections are wall-mounted EMP filters called metallic-oxide varistors, which dampen the pulse, as well as a system that allows personnel inside to break away interior electronic systems from the external commercial power systems.

Water supply, however, is something the mountain itself takes care of. While the complex maintains a 1.5 million gallon-capacity reservoir, there's actually a natural spring within the granite that supplies more water than the base uses. That means that the reservoir stores enough water to put out any fire that could break out inside the facility, Cook said.

Out of place and time
In a story she wrote in 2008, the journalist Annalee Newitz wrote of a tour of Cheyenne Mountain she got with a group of science-fiction writers that, "Yesterday, I traveled back in time to the Cold War...The underground base has become the stuff of historical myth and science fiction legend. That's why I felt gripped by the surreal as I walked into its rough-walled cave entrance, then through a gleaming blast door, fully three feet thick and packed with huge, hydraulic pins that slid into place when the door shut."

Having been there now myself, I know what Newitz means. While our daily lives are no longer spent worrying that the Russians might someday launch nuclear missiles at us, there's little doubt that we do face the risks of serious nuclear, chemical, or biological attack.

So for me, while walking through the complex in the Obama era is certainly different than it would have been during the Reagan years, there's no doubt that Cheyenne Mountain is still a place where the worst scenarios have corresponding contingency plans and where the people charged with running it take their jobs very seriously.

Whether America needs a facility like Cheyenne Mountain is not for me to say. But being inside and seeing how the base is put together makes one appreciate the mindset of 1961, when ground first broke on the complex, when it seemed as though the worst could come at any time. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet. But those involved have been as ready as possible all along.

Hoover Dam was a big hit from Road Trip 2007. What will be the biggest surprises of Road Trip 2009?

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)

In the United States, the major east-west Interstate highways are denominated by multiples of tens: I-10 goes from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Fla. I-40 goes from Barstow, Calif., to Wilmington, N.C. I-80 goes from San Francisco to New York.

The north-south Interstates, meanwhile, are denominated with fives. I-5 goes from the U.S.-Mexico border, through San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Seattle and ends at the U.S.-Canada border. I-15 goes from from San Diego to the Canadian border near Sweetgrass, Mont. And I-95 heads north from Miami all the way to northeast Maine.

Over the last three years, I've spent part of each summer doing a project called CNET Road Trip, and each time I've driven long distances through a specific region of the country. In 2006, it was the Pacific Northwest. In 2007, it was the Southwest. And in 2008, it was 4,593 miles through the Southeast.

All told, I've covered 12,853 miles and 17 states. But one of the little details about the three trips that I've enjoyed the most is that combined, I've driven at least a few miles on every one of those north-south divide-by-five interstates, except I-35. I spent a lot of time on I-5 on Road Trip 2006; I touched I-15 and I-25 on Road Trip 2007; and I actually hit I-45, I-55, I-65, I-75, I-85 and I-95 on Road Trip 2008.

On Sunday, I'll begin Road Trip 2009 in Denver. And looking back at that U.S. map, I realize that after this year's journey--which will take me through Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming--I'll have also driven on each of the divide-by-ten Interstates except I-30. Looking at that map, clearly there's a hole in the country I need to think about for future Road Trips.

Photos: High-tech gear complements Road Trip 2009

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Nevertheless, this time around, it's the Rocky Mountain region and a bit of the Great Plains. It'll start off with a drive--in the Audi Q7 TDI I'll be road-testing--to Mount Evans, due west of Denver, which features the highest paved road in North America. And given that the Audi has a so-called "clean diesel" engine, I'll be writing a fair bit about that technology and what it means for fuel efficiency and the environment.

There will be three major themes this year: military and defense; energy and sustainable living research; and America's natural wonders. To be sure, there will likely be plenty of little meanderings off those themes, but they will be the major backbones of the project.

That means I'll be visiting places like North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD/Cheyenne Mountain); the Air Force Academy; the Department of Energy's Idaho National Lab; a series of locations in and near national parks in Utah that were first put on a list by the Bush administration for drilling to private interests and then taken off the list by the new Obama administration; a firefighting technology center in Missoula, Mont.; a maker of commuter train engines in Boise, Idaho; an innovative wind farm in Wyoming; Air Force Space Command, also in Wyoming; Yellowstone National Park, also in Wyoming; the Badlands in South Dakota; a nonprofit working to help Boulder, Colo., transition to a peak-oil environment; and much, much more.

But even though I've worked out a more complete itinerary this year than I have in the past, I've still got plenty of wiggle room for unexpected discoveries. And I hope that you, dear readers, will get in touch with me as I go with suggestions for places to go and things to see.

Among the many high-tech gadgets Terdiman will be road-testing will be the new iPhone 3G S.

(Credit: Apple)

Along the way, I'll be blogging constantly, posting regular photo galleries and some video, Twittering like mad, organizing meet-ups through Facebook; and giving away a whole series of things, including DVD sets from Showtime, Halo: ODST game codes from Microsoft; lots of video games; and more.

As I have each of the three previous trips, I'll also be bringing a long a veritable Best Buy's worth of high-tech gadgetry to test out. Among the devices are Apple's brand-spanking-new 13-inch MacBook Pro and iPhone 3G S; Verizon's MiFi 2200 mobile hot-spot; Iridium's new 9555 satellite phone; Inmarsat's Explorer 500 mobile satellite modem; Amazon's Kindle 2; and LiveScribe's Pulse pen; and more.

Last year, I took thousands of pictures with Nikon's D60 digital SLR. This year, I'll have Nikon's new D5000 dSLR, which adds HD video capabilities. I'll also be shooting some HD video with Flip Video's UltraHD. And I hope to edit some of the photos and video with the applications in Adobe's Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, and will be printing photos on Hewlett-Packard's Officejet H470wbt, a fully mobile printer.

And when I need to chill out and watch a movie, I'll have a pair of Sony's MDR-NC22 noise-canceling headphones to listen with.

On Road Trip 2009, Terdiman will be taking thousands of pictures with the Nikon D5000, which can also take HD video.

(Credit: Nikon)

I intend, during the trip, to blog about my experiences using each and every one of the products I'll have with me.

As in previous years, Road Trip 2009 will be both a great deal of fun and a tremendous challenge. I'll be working nearly nonstop, posting stories constantly, driving several hundred miles a day on average, and even trying to get a little food and sleep. And I'll be by myself most of the time.

But I will have plenty of good music to listen to, thousands of miles of beautiful country to look at, and the chance to visit some of the most interesting destinations this country has to offer.

It is a tough job. But as they say, somebody's got to do it.

Starting today, please check out the Road Trip 2009 page frequently, follow my Twitter feed, and join my Facebook fan page. I'll do my best to bring you along with me.

Road Trip 2008 included a stop at the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Ky. Road Trip 2009 will feature visits to factories, as well as to Air Force Space Command, the Badlands, the Firefighters Challenge, and much more.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)

Dear readers: I want you. And I want you to stay.

For each of the past three summers, I've spent some time on the road, driving around different regions of the United States, reporting on some of the most interesting destinations I could find, and road-testing some of the coolest gear around. The CNET Road Trip has taken me through 17 states (and one Canadian province) in the Pacific Northwest (2006), the Southwest (2007), and the Southeast (2008).

The trips have been hits, but I have struggled to organically build an audience throughout each journey. Rather, it seems most people have tended to come across a story they liked, read it, and then left.

For Road Trip 2009, which will take me through Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota, I want not just to get you here, but to give you as many reasons as I can to stay. And that, I'm learning, means being much more proactive in keeping you engaged.

To be sure, the heart of what I'll be offering up will be a steady flow of feature stories and photo galleries from places like NORAD, Yellowstone National Park, a unique Mars research program, an innovative Wyoming wind farm, the highest paved road in North America, and much more. But I know there has to be more than that. And the tools at my disposal are powerful, yet complex.

With that in mind, I asked four power social-media users for tips on how to make Road Trip 2009 a regular destination for a sizable audience. And if one thing became clear afterward, it's that I need to step it up and do a lot more personal outreach than I've ever done before.

Very busy days
Not to make excuses for my past lackluster social-media usage, but let me give a little context for how these trips work: Each day, I wake up in a new motel and quickly rush off to an appointment. I spend the late morning and early afternoon reporting, and then usually drive several hours to the next town. I eat something and then I write and process photos for a few hours. Then I go to sleep. Repeat. For several weeks.

Sadly, this hasn't allowed much time for things like meet-ups. But to hear my expert panel tell it, I need to get beyond that, and just embrace meet-ups. Or tweet-ups, if they're organized on Twitter, as many are these days.

"I'm a huge fan of the tweet-up," said Laura Roeder, a social-media consultant. "I just moved to Los Angeles...from Chicago. I've met so many of my friends through Twitter and through tweet-ups."

And despite my limited amount of available time, Chris Heuer, co-founder of the Social Media Club, says tweet-ups don't have to take all that long.

"Say, 'I'm going to be here at this place, from 6 to 7," advised Heuer. "Or have readers come and meet you and (organize the tweet-up) for you."

I also told Heuer that another element of my Road Trips has traditionally involved road-testing a number of high-tech products, and that this year is no different. Among the products I'll have with me this time are an Apple MacBook Pro and iPhone 3G S, a LiveScribe Pulse recording pen, an Amazon Kindle 2, a Verizon MiFi and more. I'll also be driving a "clean diesel" Audi Q7 TDI.

Heuer said that given that, one good way to get people to come out to the meet-ups would be to bring the technology along with me so that people could check out all the gear for themselves.

Of course, not everyone is a big fan of the meet-up. I asked Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin what she thought of them, and she explained that she has tended to skip such gatherings on her many reporting journeys around the world. Largely, it seemed, she didn't feel that meeting up with readers added all that much to the overall experience, though she did say she organized a couple of them in Latin America recently.

Still, it's clear that doing meet-ups is a natural way to energize local audiences--and Heuer suggested that even if it's only local audiences at first, getting them interested in the trip, and the trip's themes, will have a snowball effect as they tweet and blog about coming together with me and other readers.

Among the many tools CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman plans to use to build an audience for his Road Trip 2009 project is Twellow, which allows anyone to search for Twitter users by city.

(Credit: Twellow)

I wondered, though, about how to get people in the cities and towns I'll be visiting interested in meeting up in the first place. And Heuer suggested using sites like Twellow, which allow you to find Twitter users by geography. Then, by interacting with some of the most popular Twitterers in each area, it's possible to engage them in helping to promote a gathering.

To Facebook, or not to Facebook
I wondered if Facebook would be a good way to organize the get-togethers, but found that, despite the social network's incredible success, the experts I talked to were mixed about its utility for this specific purpose.

"I honestly find Facebook a lot less useful than Twitter," said Roeder. "Twitter is much easier for more fluid, instant communications....I tell my (business clients) not to even worry about Facebook. To me, the core difference is that Twitter is all about meeting new people, and a lot of people don't use Facebook that way."

Heuer, on the other hand, said he'd actually turn to Facebook first, since the site's reach can be huge, and it offers specific tools for events. Clearly, the answer is to post meet-ups on both Twitter and Facebook, and hope that the two combined can create an echo effect.

Of course, I'm already using Facebook to some extent. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm a rank amateur when it comes to the massively popular social network. But a couple months ago, I started a Road Trip 2009 fan page. The response has been moderate, but not that bad, given that I haven't posted any new content to the page since then. But that is about to change. This story, for example, will be the first new post there, and every new piece of Road Trip content will appear there, as well.

That is, if I can be disciplined. Heuer cautioned against dropping the ball when it comes to utilizing Facebook. "The most important thing there is staying on top of it," he said, "and not dropping it after you start."

I agree. And we'll see how it goes.

Finding themes
One of the first people I talked to about expanding the reach of Road Trip was the futurist Jerry Paffendorf. An organizer of the Metaverse Roadmap Project, a very early Electric Sheep employee and generally a visionary thinker, Paffendorf asked me how I thought all the various destinations on the trip were tied together.

To date, I'd been thinking of the trip as concentrating on three major themes--environmental and energy research, military and defense, and America's natural wonders.

But Paffendorf said I needed to find a way to tie everything together, and that perhaps turning to my readers to help with that would be a good way to build an audience. He suggested asking readers, via the Road Trip blog, or on Facebook or Twitter, to suggest questions to ask the people I interview at each destination. That, he said, might create a dynamic where readers begin to feel like they're coming "on the trip" with me. So it's, "We're going to go on the road," not I'm going on the road.

Paffendorf also told me about a really cool project Flickr had done not long ago, commissioning a company called Uncommon Projects to build them a series of bikes complete with cameras that automatically take, geotag, and upload pictures on the go. It seemed like that would be a great addition to the car I'd be driving, especially since I'll be driving through some of the most beautiful country in the United States.

Unfortunately, after talking with Uncommon Projects, I discovered that commissioning something like that would cost several thousand dollars--money I don't have.

What I do have, however, is a bag full of things to give away to readers, things like Flip video cameras, Showtime DVD sets, and a series of video games. I can imagine handing them out to people at meet-ups, or to people who suggest the best things to go visit in a certain town, or maybe who offer the best question to ask my host at a military installation or national park. Or maybe I can offer a chance to have your picture posted on my blog, live, with awe-inspiring natural beauty as a backdrop, far from any normally available Internet signal. I want to get readers excited, and I want to give back to them for their attention.

Boing Boing's Jardin, for her part, said that when that popular tech culture blog has given away things like iPhones or iPod Touches, people have indeed gotten excited about the contests.

"People get jazzed about cool stuff," Jardin said. "But it's not just the device that's going to get them excited. The device is part of it, but so is the experience....(Giveaways) will pique their interest, but you have to have other stuff going on."

And, dear readers, that is something I feel very confident about. I may have a lot to learn about utilizing social media to build an audience, but at the very least, Road Trip 2009 will offer you an intriguing picture of some of the best that America has to offer.

On June 21, Geek Gestalt will kick off Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.