Sustainable Couch Surfing

I look at these two particular people, and their lives seem like a movie. Two pretty people go to college — both photographers, both interesting people. They meet on a camping trip for a class, say all the right things and fall in love. They decide to travel across America this summer — staying in tents and friend’s houses. They’re going to see the world together while finding adventures, each other and themselves. They will kiss under a blanket of stars as the scene dissolves into the end credits.

"... someone hold me."

Note how I tell this story like a movie. You don’t need to know any more about my personal life besides that it’s not at all like this scene. Maybe if it involved dead-end, awkward conversations with mind-bogglingly good looking men, long silences, lots of reading and a cup of coffee, we’d be talking about me. I didn’t think that people in movies, people like Jim McCauley and Cayce Clifford, even existed. But I am happily mistaken.

This happy couple will set out on the open road June 19 starting here in good old O-HI-O. Their endeavor should be five weeks long and cover over 10,000 miles of open road. During their trip, they plan to stay with friends, family, free public camping sites and with families found on networking websites such as couchsurfing.org that offer free places to sleep for travelers. “Our goal is to never pay for a hotel,” said Jim. “But we might make an exception for the Dog Hotel in Idaho. It’s actually shaped like a dog.”

The two plan to keep blogs documenting their journey, and will work on publishing their work when they return. The main focus of the trip is to document a sustainable America. “We have a lot of aspects to cover,” said Jim, “The good, the bad, and what’s happening. Not just green energy, but what’s happening now. We want to cover what the big companies are doing, what the organic farmer is doing, what individuals are doing.” Jim stressed that the green movement is more than people reusing water bottles, and he and Cayce want to document it from all angles.

“When you travel, you just go straight to your destination” said Cayce. “Whenever I travel with my parents, I always see places where I want to stop and my parents never do. I always think, ‘maybe I’ll get back there,’ and now I finally am.”

Dreams are expensive, however, so the two have sought out corporate sponsorships for their trip. They have talked to about 40 companies but are still waiting to finalize any deals. And they’ve been stocking up on dried food with extra meals from Jim’s meal plan.

They will first head down to Louisiana to see New Orleans, head to Dallas, cross the Texas panhandle making their way to California, drive up along the coast, hit Portland and Seattle and possibly even Vancouver. Then they’ll make their way through Idaho and South Dakota, stop in Chicago, and head back for Ohio.

Their websites are still under construction, but they will have them up and running before they leave for the trip in June. If you want to follow the happy couple on their journey across America, you can log onto Jamescmcauley.com and Cayceclifford.com to check their progress.

Fade to end credits ...

Photos courtesy of Jim and Cayce.