HiDo K.D. Road Trip

My mother, Kathy Bruce (deceased), and I are going on a road trip. You’re welcome to join us. Read the details of the original campaign on the full project details page.

The initial goal was set at $500, which was achieved! (Still humbled. Y'all are amazing.) 

Because of those contributions it was much easier to improve the quality of the journey (my mission in life in general). Thanks to your contributions we were able to do the following, beyond what I would have done without the campaign:

• Upgrade the "turtle shell," what I'm calling the boxes used to protect everything. The original boxes chosen were chosen based on durability alone, not aesthetics + durability. Now we have both, which admittedly does increase the possibility of theft, which is ultimately okay, though undesirable; the important part is keeping the game piece "in play."
• Upgrade the lamination used to create the game tokens. Instead of using 3mil lamination we used 7mil, which is only because we couldn't use 10mil.
• We used square paper punches instead of a paper cutter, which improved consistency in the game pieces - a 1.5in printed area with a 1.75in total game piece.

As I'm writing this, I'm in Austin, Texas, having travelled from Seminole. 

We have:

• 50 packages, which include: 1 Geocaching trackable (front), 1 remembrance of my mother (back). 1 "hitchhiker" (a shell or worry stone), 1 jewelers bag, and ~20 "ornate" boxes ("turtle shells" as I've come to call them).
• All trackables have been activated, which you can see on Geocaching.
• 21 have been dropped in caches, which you can also see on Geocaching.
• 15 solo trackables claimed so far, which brings us to the next goal...

18 total supporters at $10 or more; this will get all 20 solo trackables claimed (limit one per person). If we achieve this goal by the time we reach Little Rock, we will go to The Devil's Icebox in Missouri (marker #7 on the map in the image gallery), which was a random stop on the last cross-country road trip I had with mom.

• Support with $10 or more, with a name associated.
• I assign you a solo trackable, add story to trackable, and make other minor edits.
• I will email you instructions and whatnot related to the trackable.
• If you include a list of cities you've lived (or if I know roughly what it is), that list will be put as the initial goal for the trackable; so, you can see if it makes it to you after going there. For example, this is my trackable.

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• See the list of activated trackables on Geocaching.com (or my profile on Geochacing.com)
• Project forum thread on Geocaching.com
• See the photos on Flickr

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When I told a long time mentor and friend about mom he said:

“If I can offer some advice - take the drive back to Nashville slowly. Use the time to see some of the country you haven't spent time in, and to sort out your thoughts a bit. I drove from south eastern Georgia all the way to Leavenworth Kansas in one shot several years ago, and I regret the fact that on that entire trip all I saw were truck stops and Waffle Houses.”

What started as a need to get the car to Nashville, some friendly advice, and the well wishes of others quickly escalated into a full-on creative and gamified project I think mom would have enjoyed.

Sea Shells and Geocaches

Mom had a few dozen sea shells roughly the size of a silver dollar. During the services we asked attendees to take one. By the end, we still had roughly 50 left. For each shell I will create what’s called a "trackable" to become part of a GPS game called Geocaching.

You can help move pieces of mom. You can see where these "pieces of her" have been and where she’s going.

The Path and Stops

Simplest way to see what the plan is would be to go to the map created using RAND McNally TripMaker.

Read the list of milestones, cities, and states.

Above the Goal

Any funds above the goal goes to:

• Improved food and lodging.
• The trip to Colorado to scatter mom's ashes.
• Lastly, to either the Denver Victims Service Center (where she worked for a time) or another foundation or charity.

A piece of you gets to travel with a piece of mom, figuratively speaking of course.

• Contribute $10 or more and have a trackable dedicated to you, like the one above (limit one per person and 20 altogether).
• Contribute anything and have your name added to one of the non-solo trackables.
• Once the trackables are dropped, pick one up and move it somewhere else; play the game, have an adventure, even if it’s in your own backyard.
• Bookmark some of the trackables and watch their traveling adventures; maybe you'll go somewhere one of them went to.
• See the story of the trackable and share your story at Geocaching.com and anywhere else you would like.

A Son’s Eulogy

My mother, Kathy Bruce, was found deceased in her apartment on Friday March 1st, 2019.

She was an amazing human. I know you’re supposed to say that but I’m not just saying that.

She flipped houses before it was cool. Spending her days taking down walls, putting them back up, and painting them. She taught herself to pour ceramics using a kiln she kept in her home. She was the manager and owner of a house turned apartments. She was a teacher and community leader in the Denver area. Mostly all at the same time, a true queen of the side hustle.

She counseled battered women in the greater Denver metropolitan area. She administered multiple online communities, some of which she created herself. A hardcore naturalist and observer of the world, fascinated and giddy by things she had not seen or done before, even late in life.

What struck me most about mom though was, as she got older, she took on more and more the look and feel of Janis Joplin captured in old news reels and interviews, complete with a cackling laugh that turned the soul.

Her big-brim hats flopping up and down revealing her big-rim, rose-colored glasses. Her brightly colored clothes draped over her like a series of cloaks waving around as if she were underwater at times. She dyed her hair bright red but subtle enough so she didn’t look like a clown.

She was always playing with something. Learning something. Reading something. Experimenting with something.

Food was probably my favorite as a kid. Dissecting and learning about squids, before cooking and eating them, for example.

She had her moments and days, like we all do. For me, however, I will always remember being related to Janis Joplin’s doppelgänger.

Many will sing the blues at the loss and mom will be here, in spirit, pullin’ her harpoon from her dirty red bandana, playin’ soft. Joplin’s album Pearl was released after her death and was the first to hit the Billboard charts, at number one, for nine weeks, and went quadruple platinum. I don’t know if a bang like that is prepared for mom or if she would have preferred to only live on in the hearts and minds of those she impacted.

I do know, I am forever changed for having known, experienced, and interacted with her.

I also know I’m not alone. Thank you, mom.

At this point, I’m reminded of the final recording of Janis’s life, which is also on Pearl. It’s an a cappella piece entitled Mercedes Benz. Janis closes it with a smile you can hear, filling the room with a quick, cackling laugh preceded simply with a jovial, “That’s it.”