I was almost completely ignored by the media for the first three months of the trip.  A few blogs gave me some love, and a couple of posts on reddit got a bit of traction, but that was pretty much it. (There was a tentative TV interview request, but I’ll get to that in a future post.)

Everything changed two weeks weeks ago.  My trip has now been on major blogs, newspapers, radio shows, and TV shows.

I’ve often wondered how stories like this get noticed in the media.  I don’t know if my experience is representative of the general case, but perhaps it can shed some light on the process.

Before the start of the trip, and a few times in the early weeks of it, I sent overtures to travel writers at various newspapers.  I played up the “every state, every province” aspect of the journey and barely mentioned the hockey.  I got no responses at all, not even “no thank you”; I might as well have been trying to communicate with black holes.

Part of the problem might have been that I was trying too soon.  It’s one thing to plan a trip like this, and it’s quite another to show evidence of substantial progress.  The other component of the problem was the subject matter.

The more I talked with people, the more I realized that the real hook of the story was the hockey.  Driving a lot? Yawn.  Playing hockey everywhere? Cool!  I had to use that angle.

An overture to a blog seemed like the best approach. Major blogs are very influential these days, and the cost structure of the medium makes them more inclined to take risks on unproven stories.  Some searching around showed that the Yahoo Sports hockey blog Puck Daddy was one of the biggest players in the sector, so they became my initial target.

Thus, three weeks ago on September 21, I sent an email to Puck Daddy using the address on their site.  In it, I wrote:

Hi Greg,

You know those guys who make a pilgrimage to see their team play in
every NHL arena?  That’s simple.  I’m taking the hockey-trek thing to
the next level by actually playing in every American state.  Plus
every Canadian province (eh!).  All as a goalie.  It’s the ultimate
hockey road trip.

That probably sounds crazy or awesome, but either way, I’m 17,000
miles into it, and there’s more info on the blog I set up for the
trip: http://www.stoppingineverystate.com

Any interest in this as a story for Puck Daddy?

Thanks!

Jeff Keacher

Almost a week went by, and I heard nothing.  I figured they weren’t interested, so I wrote it off.

Then, on September 26, I got a short note from Sean Leahy, one of the bloggers on Puck Daddy.  Did I have time for a phone interview, he asked?  Of course I did!

We had a nice conversation on the phone on September 27 while I was in Columbus, Ohio, and two days later, the 1,150-word story he wrote about me hit the intertubes.

The surge was immediate.  Thousands of new visitors made their way to my blog.  My number of Twitter followers rose dramatically.  And the best part: dozens of offers and invitations for playing hockey!  I was thrilled.

The story on Puck Daddy

Later that day, I got emails, blog comments, and tweets from several additional journalists.  They had seen the Puck Daddy piece, and they were interested in doing stories of their own.  Would I mind some phone interviews, they asked?

Here’s the thing about media interviews:  always grant the the interviews.  Doesn’t matter if it’s a major TV show or a little blog you’ve never heard of.  Do it, and genuinely treat the interviewer like their publication is the most important, most influential news source in the world.  It just might be; you never know who reads what or who knows who.  If nothing else, be excited: somebody out there actually thinks that you’re interesting enough to tell other people about you — amazing!  Or, just do them for the sake of practice. The only cost is time.

I spent several hours that day talking on the phone with journalists, and a few days after that, their stories started to be published.

The most influential of those turned out to be a 750-word feature article by Ken Warren in the Ottawa Citizen.  That ended up getting syndicated to a variety of other papers across Canada, including the National Post and Vancouver Sun, for a total daily print circulation in excess of 500,000.  The article, in turn, led to more contacts and served as a bridge into TV and radio.

The Ottawa Citizen article, which was widely syndicated. I'm amused by the photo the editors chose. Certainly catches the eye!

I’ve found the timing of the print articles interesting.  At first, I expected any articles published to be done only after I had visited the papers’ respective cities.  However, the Ottawa Citizen article was published before I reached Ottawa, and the recent article in the Western Star (Corner Brook, Newfoundland) was published on Wednesday, two days before my arrival on the island.  I’m not sure why.  I do know that the early coverage has proved useful in finding hockey games, so I’m not complaining.

What’s next?  The big challenge will be making the jump from the Canadian media to the American media.

Puck Daddy is written mostly by Americans, but the only coverage I’ve had in the traditional media in the States was in a column by Charley Walters in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.  It seems like hockey is popular enough at least in the northeastern US to make my trip a compelling story, so the question will be how to sell that south of the border.

Journalists: there’s an opportunity for somebody in the traditional American press to “break” this story.  Contact me.  🙂

I walked the narrow cobblestone streets, looked at the signs in French, and smelled the aromas of delicious cooking.  The sky above was pink from the setting sun. The temperature couldn’t have been more perfect: about 72 degrees, matched to my light t-shirt.

I sipped some coffee, not because I needed the warmth, but simply because it seemed the right thing to do.  Drinking coffee is a time-honored tradition in Paris.

Except I wasn’t in Paris.

No, I was in Quebec, the city that is the capital of the province of the same name.

I strolled to the edge of the city wall and gazed out across the wide St. Lawrence River, 100 ft or so below.  I watched the flocks of birds in the sky.  I watched the ferries go back and forth and the freighters chug towards the Great Lakes. I relaxed as I saw many others relaxing on the benches, quietly taking in the spectacularly beautiful night.

A view from Quebec City at sunset

Not even the memory of the huge backlog of hockey-related writing I needed to do could spoil my content with the moment.

I’ve filled up Sam’s tank about 50 times so far on this trip, so I’ve spent a good chunk of time at gas stations.  As a result, I’ve seen a lot of gas prices.  No matter what, gas prices in the United States always end in 9/10 of a cent on the price per gallon.  I have yet to hear a satisfying explanation for why that is the case.

Not so in Canada. I have noticed something during my recent time north of the border: prices per liter in Canada end in all sorts of tenth-of-cent values.

See how the price per liter ends in 7/10 of a cent? You'd never see a gasoline price end in anything other than 9/10 of a cent in the states. (Toronto, Ontario)

I don’t think it’s the different units of measure.  My best guess is that it has something to do with taxes.  Gasoline taxes in the US are all a fixed number of cents per gallon, but when HST is applied to gasoline in Canada, it is done on a percentage basis.  Since the prices are shown with taxes included, perhaps there is something about the way the taxes are calculated that makes it difficult to get the total price to end in 9/10.

All of this presumes that a price ending in $0.009 is desirable for the retailer, which, as mentioned earlier, is not a sure thing.

Google doesn’t seem to have an explanation, at least not with the searches I’ve tried  Somebody must.  What’s the answer?

If you’ve taken a look at the map of my trip progress, you might have noticed a strange southern loop from Wisconsin down into Alabama and back into Indiana.  That wasn’t accidental; instead, it was a byproduct of my strong desire to go to Rose-Hulman‘s homecoming on September 24.

Cheerleaders for R-O-S-E at the homecoming football game

I got my BS in Electrical Engineering from Rose in 2004, and I’d been back for homecoming three times in the intervening years: 2005, 2006, and 2008.  It seemed time to make another appearance.

Why do I go back?  It’s not really to see the school.  Rose-Hulman is great, and it means more to me than my other alma mater (Stanford), but the real reason I go back is to visit with my fraternity brothers.  OK, OK — the homecoming bonfire put on by Rose is fun, too.

The bonfire is fueled by hundreds of railroad ties stacked in something resembling a log cabin configuration.  Back in my day (get my cane!), the fire was better because we used actual creosote-soaked ties, but even with the recent years’ untreated lumber, the fire is pretty entertaining.

A few hours after a great speech by noted physicist Michio Kaku, the school put on a rousing display of fireworks before igniting the blaze.  Thousands of alumni, students, and hangers-on flooded the IM soccer fields to watch the spectacle.

A sea of people watch the bonfire blaze

A few daring people even ran up to the extremely hot fire to tag some of the unburned wood.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they singed their hair, as it was nearly impossible to spend any length of time within 100 ft. of the blaze.

One guy did plan ahead.  He made what looked like a proximity fire suit out of foil (sort of), got a roasting stick, and browned some marshmallows in no time flat.

Roasting marshmallows the quick way

Back at the fraternity house, the mood was festive.  For context, you should know that my chapter’s house sits on about 23 acres of wooded land about a mile down the road from the college campus.  The space provides the opportunity to have a bunch of buildings, several fire trucks, and some big bonfires of our own.

I stood around the bonfire chatting with my Brothers, new and old.  We told stories, laughed at past misadventures, and pondered the future.  It had been 10 years since I first spent a homecoming at the house, and it was jarring to see how much older than the actives my classmates looked.  I could see the passage of time in my face, too, and that made me all the more glad that I chose to do this trip before I aged even more.

A photo from 2000: me (as a freshman) and the rest of the guys in Alpha Eta class

There were no ice arenas within 70 miles of Rose-Hulman, so I had played in Indianapolis the Friday before Homecoming.  That left me with nothing on my to-do list except to reminisce and have fun.

That said, part of the appeal of Homecoming is that it ends before it wears out its welcome, and this one was no exception.  Sunday morning came, and that saw me departing for more hockey, seven hours away in West Virginia.

As I drive throughout the country, I can’t help but wonder how my perceptions of each state and province are being skewed by the small areas of my visits.

For example, I know how beautiful northern Minnesota can be, what with its many lakes, dense pine forests, and rugged terrain.  However, if one’s sole exposure to Minnesota were to be running I-90 across the southern part of the state, one would conclude that it’s just one big farm field.

As a corollary, it’s amazing how similar many of the states and provinces look, at least when the sample size is limited.

Here’s a quiz: which state/province was the following photo taken in:

1. Wisconsin
2. Tennessee
3. British Columbia
4. Saskatchewan

Hard to tell, right? (Answers at the end.)

It isn’t just the plains.  Mountains look similar, too.  Match the following three photos to their respective states/provinces:

1. British Columbia
2. Wyoming
3. Alaska

Photo 1:

Photo 2:

Photo 3:

Perhaps it’s simpler to notice the similarities than the differences.  Perhaps I just have “mountain fatigue” or “plains fatigue” from seeing so much of each landscape.  It all starts to blend together after a while.

For that reason, I’m looking forward to the changing of the seasons.  The colors of the leaves, the crispness of the air, and the coming of the holidays will add a nice jolt of variety to the trip.

(Here are the answers: the first photo shows rural Saskatchewan, and the last three photos are shown in the order that the options are listed: the Alaska Highway near Muncho Lake in British Columia, Jackson Hole in Wyoming, and a glacier along the Glenn Highway in Alaska.)