The Brew is Underway

The Trip Hopping Brew got a head start this past week at the home of the venerable Larry Streech, one of the masterminds behind Trip Hopping.  It's perfect weather in Phoenix these days and we're enjoying every minute of it. 

The Trip Hopping Casa

Corona's Palace

Corona talks.  A lot.

The office

Our fearless leader, Kenny

Security

 What would a Brew be without the brew?

10 days to go...

We've got potlucks, hikes and Halloween parades planned for the weekend, and we're looking forward to meeting new volunteers in the coming weeks.  So hop on a train, plane or boat, or start thumbin rides, cause it's high time you got yourself to Phoenix!

Volunteer with us this November at the Phoenix Brew

If you're a fan of Trip Hopping or just travel in general, perhaps you'd like to volunteer your efforts with us this November. We call it a Brew, good people coming together to collaborate on Trip Hopping and bring it a step further.

This November we'll be gathering at a house in Phoenix starting November 2nd until just before Thanksgiving. Some will be staying the whole time, others may just drop in for an afternoon. Food and accommodation is free for volunteers of course while you're there helping out, plus we'll be organizing an event or two to have some fun. If you can't make it to Phoenix and still want to help, that's totally cool, there's already a few people planning on helping remotely as well as chiming in via video chat every once in a while.

Our main objectives for this Brew are to increase the amount of sources for travel options that Trip Hopping searches, improve the feel of the site across all platforms, get the word out and solidify our volunteer structure.

These are the types of tasks and positions that will be needed:

• Research and data entry
• Coders (PHP, javascript, java, html5)
• Designers (CSS, artistic)
• Marketing & Communication
• Happiness (cooking, smiling, massaging, dropping in with beer)

If you think you can help in any of these ways (or another way), then you should send us a message via this short form: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dEUwUkxjUl9nU1A2T1lqQUt2WnZaV1E6MQ#gid=0

It wouldn't be a Brew without some home brew! If you like quality beer, there will be some fermenting alongside us and ready to sample before the end of the month. Also some other surprises for volunteers who stick all the way through.

Hope to hear from many of you, thanks!

Big update, here's what's new and what's coming

After many changes behind the scenes over the past year or so, we've finally updated the live site to share with everybody.

The look has been changed a bit, things should seem less cluttered and more organized. When you focus on one location, you can see all the activity going on there, as well as places to stay. Activity includes people coming and going, their comments, blogs and posts from couchsurfers in the area (only in select areas, more coming soon).

Couchsurfers will also be happy to see a few other new features too. Now you can see all the places along a route where there are couchsurfing.org hosts, and also all the couches close by whatever location you're looking at, great for people who want to stay just outside the city.

Hitchhikers can be happy too as there's now better integration with hitchwiki.org to retrieve relevant articles and get hitchhiking spots for the map.

This update also includes the upgrade to the latest version of the Google Maps API, this is lighter weight and works better on mobile devices.

Poke around and you may see some other things here and there that you like.

This is only the beginning of a rush of new energy being put into the Trip Hopping project. Over the next several months you will see some great new changes, behind the scenes things are getting more organized as well which will speed things up significantly.

Want to be a part of it? Check out triphopping.com/brew if you'd like to volunteer your efforts in any way. In November we will be having a volunteer marathon in Phoenix for the whole month, so let us know if you'd like to join.

Keep hopping!

Tent Surf 2011

It's that time of year again, time for Tent Surf! Trip Hoppers and Couchsurfers filled the beaches, boats and bars in Rocky Point, Mexico last year and had incredible good times. Four days and three nights on the beautiful beach with plenty of exciting activities planned and of course lot's of people you'll love, you'll be one of them!

Trip Hopping is guiding the caravan on June 9th at 8am for travelers arriving in Phoenix. The fun will begin right away and go through June 12th.

Find out more at TentSurf.com

Some more links to find out more on couchsurfing, facebook and twitter.

Last year was a blast and this year should be even better, people from all over the planet will be coming, see you there!

Facebook talking with Trip Hopping

Trip Hopping is now working with Facebook, here's how you can take advantage:

Login to Trip Hopping with your Facebook account, no Trip Hopping account needed.

See your Facebook friends on the map (along with your Trip Hopping and Couchsurfing friends).

Share your rides in your newsfeed.

Simple as that, we'll be working on more too, hope you enjoy!

Passing the bump in the road

About a month ago we missed a payment and a miscommunication cost us dearly when our hosting company deleted all of our data. Things have looked dire, the site was down and there were few answers. I've since managed to restore as much of the data as possible and get the site back online.

All data (meaning members, ride and locations posted) has been restored to December 11, 2009, but everything past that date is mostly gone. That means if you became a member after that, you'll have to join again. For the majority of people, this is just a five minute fix, but still, I apologize for the lameness of all this.

The site may be a bit buggy for a bit while I get it adjusted to the new server and sort out any issues that may arise, but I really wanted to get it back online, so it's up! Moving forward, I won't let this sort of thing happen again. I put my trust in the wrong places, lost focus on the core goodness of the idea and failed to get basic things done such as more frequent backups.

I'm in talks now with more talented folks that are eager to be a part of this site and I'm always open to anyone else who'd like to be a part of it. Good times.

Tent Surf 2010 was Awesome

For those of you who made it out to Rocky Point, you already know how great a trip it was. For those who couldn't make it, go ahead and check out TentSurf.com to see what we got up to, there's a lot of pictures posted!

We relaxed on the beach, we partied on the beach, we partied on a boat, we jumped off a boat, plenty of bars, plenty of music, plenty of good times. Tent Surf 2011 is already in the works, go ahead and sign up now on the Facebook event page, you won't want to miss it - same place, same time of year, but even more people and events going on.

There's plenty more events and festivals coming up this summer too, I'm personally looking forward to the North American Hitch Gathering in Boulder, Colorado this August. If you didn't know, Trip Hopping isn't just about finding rideshares, but also connecting with hitchhiking partners, the preferred arrival method for the Hitch Gathering. Hope to see some of you there, bring on the summer!