Spreading holiday cheer, hugs and awareness about mental health!

So we left New Orleans right on schedule at 1:45 on board Amtrak’s “City of New Orleans” made famous in song. Appropriate for a train that connects tree very musical cities: New Orleans Memphis and Chicago!

Here’s a picture of our train, the double-decker Superliner:

The staff and most of the passengers were very happy about the Saints win over the Falcons the night before and there was a jubilant feeling in the air.

On the way out of New Orleans we through a swap and then along the western shore of Lake Ponchartrain. The view was beautiful!

I really do love the South with all it’s bogs, marshes and bayous

We headed northwards through Mississippi with an unpublished but extended stop in Jackson, MS and eventually made our way into Memphis, land of the Delta blues. I couldn’t walk t-10 feet off of Beale this time but I did light the last 8 candles of Hanukkah whilst the train was in the station!

And this morning I woke up to views of wind farms outside Champaign, Illinois being lit up by the first of the sun’s rays.

And now, I’m in Chicago’s Union Station looking for people to hug until my 2 PM train, the California Zephyr, through the Rockies and Sierra Nevadas to Emeryville, CA (for San Francisco) boards! This train has “hosted” some of the best moments of HugTrainUSA in the past two years and is special to me not to mention it has some of the best “accessible by train only” views in the country!

Tonight we stop in Omaha, Nebraska for 15 minutes at 10:55 PM and tomorrow morning we’ll be in Denver at 7:15 AM for 50 minutes! For a full itinerary please have a look at our itinerary page.

I hope to see and meet you along the way and I would love for you to take part in helping to make this year’s trip the best ever. Have a look at the ways you can help.

*HUGS*

Hi all!

This is the second morning of HugTrainUSA and I’m raring to go for another day! From New Orleans, I head to Chicago with an extended stop in Memphis, TN (Central Station, 545 South Main Street, Memphis, TN 38103) tonight at 10 PM for 40 minutes!

I need your help this year and I would love for you to be part of making HugTrain the best it’s ever been I would really appreciate your help this year in the following ways:

Please help me find people to hug, share the itinerary with your networks & spread the word!

Also, because the money I personally had saved up has been loaned to a friend in need, I also need help with:

Accomodations:

San Francisco on 30th and 31st December (walking distance to an Orthodox synagogue please)

Chicago on 4th January

Washington, DC on 6th January (walking distance to an Orthodox synagogue please)

Miami on 9th and 10th January

Meals for every day of the trip (including today!) – I’m not picky but I don’t eat meat

Intracity travel: Taxis and/or public transit services to help get me to/from events, accomodations and the train station!

As you can see from the content we post on the blog and across social networks, we are very happy to help you in return!

So, if you believe in our mission, please help!

How to reach me:

Call or text: 631-517-0672 or e-mail arie AT hugtrain.org

(I may not always be reachable as trains travel in rural areas but I will get back to you ASAP!)

As for today, I’ll be at the Amtrak station in the Union Passenger Terminal at 1001 Loyola Avenue from noon until the train boards (around 1:30 PM) giving out hugs…

This is what I look like:

I look forward to hearing from you! *HUGS*

We pulled into Atlanta around 9 AM and after getting permission from the conductor (always respect your train conductor), I went up to the platform and waited for Julie Hauldren to turn up at our pre-arranged time!

Julie, because she rocks, matched my “spirit of the season” sparkly blue Santa hat with her own bunny ears!

And like another holiday bunny, came bearing gifts! Xmas cookies AND $2 bills!

Cool huh?

I had to rush off so we shared a couple of hugs and back onto the train I went to travel through through the beautiful landscapes of Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana. Next stop is the final stop for Amtrak train number 19, the Crescent: NEW ORLEANS!

(Pics taken with the N8-00 generously donated by Nokia)

After more than 24 hours of bus travel from Montreal to Greenville, SC via NYC, DC and Charlotte, NC, I was met at the Greyhound station by Doug Cone, owner of Nullvariable Web Consulting at midnight. Doug enthusiastically and patiently showedme around downtown Greenville and brought me to Trey Pennington‘s (to whom this year’s trip is dedicated) favourite spot: The Liberty Bridge in Falls Park where Trey left the following tip: “While you’re there, stand just above the western bank of the Reedy River facing south (away from downtown), look straight down, follow the bank 5°, that’s Popkin Peak. Cool, huh?”

As it was the 6th night of Hanukkah and despite the thick, misty fog I attempted to light Hanukkah candles. They stayed lit long enough for me to get a picture but the wind and mist got the better of them.

Finally at 1:30 Doug drove me to the station and we had to wait a while for someone to let us in even though the posted hours said it was open. With a hug, Doug went home to bed and I waited for the train, which was delayed an hour and got underway on this 3rd year of HugTrainUSA… Next stop: Atlanta!

The Liberty Bridge in Falls Park, Greenville, SC

Lit Hanukkiah on Liberty Bridge

So the cat is out of the bag! And I’m glad for it!

I am happy to announce that a very responsive and helpful Nokia are helping HugTrainUSA out this year!

How?

• providing a phone: the very cool N8 with a 12 MP camera and Xenon flash) which we will be using to document this year’s trip and our new “HugDiary”,
• paying for our phone service so we can stay in touch on the road, organising events for us (one online & one offline – details to come!),
• connecting us with their vast network of advocates,
• creating a map of the trip on Nokia Maps
• and also blogging about the trip to help get the word out!  (First blog post here today: http://blog.maps.nokia.com/nokia-maps/whos-on-board-the-hug-train)

Working with Nokia so far has been brilliant, not only are they friendly and helpful but they are very responsive All the things you look for in a company!

Thank you to Elina and the team!

Debbie Horovitch from Social Sparkle & Shine has been a huge help in kickstarting our sponsor search by helping with the creation of our sponsorship documents.

Here’s a little about Debbie in here own words:

We are very grateful for eModeration‘s very generous support of HugTrainUSA

Here’s more information about them in their own words:

“eModeration Limited is an award-winning social media management company also offering a bespoke social media strategic and social media crisis consultancy.

Based in London UK, with offices in Los Angeles and New York, eModeration provides multi-lingual community management, moderation and social media consultancy services bluc chip clients and agencies worldwide.

Committed to ethical business practices and to the promotion of child online safety, eModeration’s CEO Tamara Littleton recently worked with the UK Government department UKCCIS to produce their guidelines on how to moderate online environments for children.

eModeration contributes to the growth of knowledge in the social media world via its white papers, blogs and seminars, and has a strong roster of returning clients who appreciate the high quality of its services”

It’s not too late for your company to sponsor HugTrainUSA: Contact us on sponsors@hugtrain.org for more information.

More sponsorship news coming VERY soon!

Hello everyone,
Just wanted to let you know that we are already planning the next HugTrainUSA
We plan to leave from Atlanta on 12/26 and travel to New Orleans, Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Whitefish MT, Chicago again, DC and Orlando with some long and short stops in between. We hope to see (and hug) you along the way!

Final details are being.. err… finalised but HugTrainUSA 2010 is set to depart from Boston’s South Station at 9:30 PM on December 27! More details will be shared as they become available. Like last year, we are supporting Mental Health America but this year we are collecting onlion donations through firstgiving.com You can pay for your hugs or give so others can get free hugs right here: http://www.firstgiving.com/hugtrainusa

Final details are being.. err… finalised but HugTrainUSA 2010 is set to depart from Boston’s South Station at 9:30 PM on December 27! More details will be shared as they become available. Like last year, we are supporting Mental Health America but this year we are collecting onlion donations through firstgiving.com You can pay for your hugs or give s