The Trip

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ATTENTION NEWS-BUSINESS-LIFESTYLE EDITORS





“THE EMPTY TOUR”



Coming Soon To Your Town…Maybe





NEWS RELEASE





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The Summer Of 2009 is here. Time for the big Summer Rock

Tours…U2….Aerosmith…Cold Play…and…. Empty.



Beg your pardon? Never heard of them.



Yes, Empty.



Not a multimillion arena tour with an entourage of hundreds, where

just the staging can cost millions and a concert ticket is a month’s

rent. Nope. One successful businessmen from Canada is embarking upon another tour—to discover “A New America”.



In a world where there are daily doomsday predictions of the recession, where the latest pronouncement from Washington is to bulldoze Flint, Michigan due to the death of the auto industry, where malls are as empty as bowling alleys, where former engineers at Microsoft are working as Dog Walkers, the world has turned inside out and upside down.



With no end in site.



With no answers from political and business leaders.



To Gardner, that’s just fine. I will go check it out myself



While stars like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Bono already

have mapped out the dates and cities for their multi-million dollar

extravaganzas, Gardner’s itinerary is…well, he has no idea.



But he has a plan. And it just might surprise some people.

“America is filled with smart, amazingly creative and intelligent

people who don’t have lobbyists working in Washington for

handouts. Who don’t come up with solutions, just invoices. But

like in any other era where there is a catastrophe, Americans are

proud and resilient. The answers are out there…they just need a voice and a platform…and we will go there, find them and give them

a chance.



And that is what the Empty Tour is all about. Finding a new way to live when the old ways are gone…forever.



I look around my town. GM just closed a plant and we lost 1400 jobs. I walk down the streets of and the expressions of the people are frightened…defeated…overwhelmed. Not because they can’t deal with a crisis, but because their elected leaders and corporate executives have no answers and no leadership.



“We looked to Washington for answers and they gave us TARP— recovery program for banks and insurance companies. The result? Vice President Biden told "Meet the Press" that "everyone guessed wrong" on the impact of the stimulus, the economy is worse off than anyone thought.



No longer is the government projecting 3.5 million jobs…they are hoping for 600,000—and even that is a stretch in credibility.



We don’t need Joe Biden to tell us that. Americans and Canadians have figured that out months ago. That’s why they are in such despair.



Is that all there is? Is that all they have to offer?



“We may be Canadians, but we are America’s kindred spirits. Our borders are soft, we are family. And when America gets a cold, Canada gets pneumonia.”



Instead of a fleet of exotically furnished rock star buses filled with large screen TVs. private chefs and opulent furnishings, Gardner will be hitting the road in a very unusual car. One that brings smiles to faces and makes people talk about their fears and happiness



Yep. No $300 tickets, no $60 t-shirts. This rock tour is EMPTY.



No money. No credit cards. No endowments.



And while the rock stars are eating lobsters and steaks, they will seek their sustenance from the people they meet on the road. “There’s an old saying that those who wander are not necessarily lost” says Gardner, who used to be 350 pounds and barely able to get around.

He spent two years traveling around the United States on a motorcycle and lost 150 pounds and reinvented his life. Now a svelte 200 pounds, there is a method to his madness.



He’s going back to the road.



“Here is what is really happening…we are not in a recession—we are in a Depression. The auto factories that have been closed will never be producing cars again. Not when India is exporting a $2,500 car this fall. The manufacturing industry in America is in Asia, and soon may be in Africa. Malls are as empty as bowling alleys. Millions of condos and homes around the country are abandoned, and the only living things are the swimming pools alive with mosquito infestation.



And what is the government’s answer? Bulldoze dead cities like Flint.

Cut off welfare and public assistance, cut school programs.

People have thrown up their arms in despair, because the leaders in

Canada and America have no answers. They fear for their livelihood, their security, their family.



But Gardner, who will be producing a documentary feature on this journey, is not pessimistic—he is very optimistic…”after the American Civil War, the country had to be rebuilt and the result was The Industrial Revolution. The day after Pearl Harbor in 1941, factories turned themselves over in weeks and were producing tanks and planes.



And now, in 2009, Gardner sees the need of a New American Revolution. Not a revolution of people rioting in the streets, but a revolution of ideas. A revolution of thinking and ingenuity…Gardner adds…perhaps our auto factories should stop thinking about cars and start producing high speed rail, cheap and efficient light rail and free public transportation…perhaps the health care industry—the source of huge deficits…needs to convert from treatment to prevention of diseases.



There’s plenty of work to do…and if we can’t get leadership and direction from Washington, we’ll find the answers in the farmlands, the bayous and the small towns.



Like that famous television show…”the truth is out there.”







THE EMPTY TOUR 2009



“Coming to a Town near You…Maybe”