JOY RIDE EXPEDITION!

When I found out my grandson, who is a professional videographer and lives in California, had been hired to do the videography for social media postings, for a cross-country tour of two guys on motorcycles, I was intrigued!  My husband and I had made several cross-country trips on our motorcycle, and took enough photos on Kodak film to bump up the world-wide sales numbers for that company!  This was before the days of social media and Internet, so we did not get to share the photos of our beautiful USA with others, until we got home and had the film developed.  Therefore,  it seemed to me that this newest "gig" my grandson was doing would be a very memorable experience, that I (and anyone connected to the Internet!) would be able to follow along, on the social media sites of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.    

The tour had a "catchy" name, that would be used as the "handle" for Internet searches:

 

Of course, I was familiar with the word "tango", but not with the other word in the name, but did not give it any thought.  However, as I was looking up various resources to publish this blog, I learned from the Urban Dictionary, that the phrase was not one I wanted to emulate.  

Their W-T team was made up of four guys---one from South Dakota, one from Minnesota, one from Texas, and one from California.  They all four converged in Minnesota, to start their month-long journey to Niagara Falls, the East Coast, the South, Texas, and finally---into Arkansas!  The photo below shows my grandson, Ryan, and his three companions waving to the camera, when they reached the home of Ryan's aunt and uncle in Arkansas. 

When I first started following their tour on Instagram, I was fascinated that the motorcycles were hauling bicycles!  In all my years of traveling, I had NEVER seen a motorcycle hauling a bicycle!  As I was to learn, the bicycles were electric models, and were part of a marketing campaign to get their name out to as many people as possible, via social media.  My grandson and the other photographer, followed along in a Mercedes van that could have been the visual aid for the long-ago marketing slogan, "Takes a licking, and keeps on ticking!"

A closeup of the Zooz brand electric bike is shown below:

With the help of my grandson, they even let me try out one of the bicycles:

And electric bicycles were not the only product this tour was promoting on social media.  They were also promoting a specialty, gourmet coffee product, shown in the photo below:

One of the motorcycle drivers had started this company, along with a friend from college, and were responsible for the cool design of the can, with the name "Joy Ride".

Yet another "product" being promoted was an Instagram account with over a million followers.  This is what a screenshot looks like from their site, and please note that the account has OVER ONE MILLION followers!  According to Wikipedia, when a social media account has over a million followers, they are considered a "MEGA INFLUENCER".  (that is, an account with 500,000 to 5,000,000 followers)

It is called CafeRacersOfInstagram, and here is a photo of Dave (the originator of the account) and me, that was posted on a different Instagram account, after their tour:

Another business the tour was promoting was an on-line lodging service called "Hip Camp"   (www.hipcamp.com).  Hip camp describes itself as the most comprehensive resource for unique outdoor stays.  Their listings include tent camping, RV parks, cabins, treehouses, and glamping.  The guys stayed at several different types of Hip Camp property listings on their journey, and posted photos of them on social media. 

The way Ryan first met these two motorcycle riders was when he did some video work for a project they were doing to raise funds for a non-profit called Waves 4 Water (www.wavesforwater.org).  The premise of the project was to build a "cafe racer" type motorcycle within a designated timeframe, sell tickets to the public to win the motorcycle, then donate the profits made from the ticket sales, to the non-profit that works to supply clean water for third world countries.  The motorcycle build went under the title of "CROIG", which stands for "CafeRacersOfInstagram", and their website is www.croig.com  If you go to their website, you can see a photo of the bike they built, as well as the gentleman who won the bike  Also, you can see some of the merchandise CROIG sells, such as shirts that have this graphic design, showing hands clasp in prayer, holding a wrench, and surrounded by a stylized, round gear.

If you are like me, you may not have known the meaning of the phrase, "cafe` racer".  According to Wikipedia, a cafe` racer is a genre of sport motorcycles that originated among British motorcycle enthusiasts of the early 1960's in London.  Cafe` racers were standard production bikes that were modified by their owners and optimized for speed and handling for quick rides over short distances.  You can read a vast amount of  information about cafe` racers in the Wikipedia article, including their connection with the Church of England.

Even though Ryan's aunt and uncle are not listed as a Hip Camp lodging location, they graciously extended overnight hospitality to Ryan and his three friends.  They provided a delicious BBQ supper for the travelers, as well as me and their daughter and son-in-law and dog Auggie.  The supper group is shown below, with photo complements of Brandon:

The next morning, the gracious hosts cooked up a delicious breakfast of pancakes, pastries, fresh fruit,  and bacon:

I was delighted to get a photo of Ryan and Dave with my favorite pose---uplifted arms showing gratitude!

The team seemed to enjoy a home-cooked meal:

As the guys started packing up their motorcycles to head north, neighbors came over to inquire about the unusual cargo.  Of course, that was the one of the goals of the trip---to get people to notice, and inquire, about the electric Zoozbikes they were transporting!

Another purpose of the trip was to promote custom Gold Wing motorcycles, which both of these bikes were.  I especially liked the name that was painted on the gold GoldWing:

As we were watching the loading process, we took the opportunity to snap a few final pictures that would be reminders of this most unique "Joy Ride" experience:

Brandon took the photo below of our family.  All the family members in this photo live in Arkansas, except one.  Can you tell which one is the out-of-stater?

Lest one think the concept of "Marketing via Influencers" is a new concept, it is not.  In fact, it is as old as God's Word that is recorded in Scripture.  This verse in Matthew 5:16 admonishes, "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."  If I can use my influence to give glory to my Father, who is in heaven, I can be assured there will be "MILES OF SMILES"!