Google Maps Road Trip is an entirely new way of traveling.  See the world for all it’s got without actually leaving the house.  Experience the Grand Canyon, go stargazing on Google Sky, take a tour of Albuquerque with a local, get lost in Oklahoma city, head to the beach in LA, go across the Golden Gate Bridge…

How is this possible? It’s simple to take a virtual road trip. Here’s how:

1) Get on Google Maps and get directions to your destination.
2) Zoom in all the way to your starting point.
3) Turn on satellite view.
4) Press the arrow keys on your computer in the direction of your course, which happens to be easy to follow cause it’s a big blue line. And off you go!

If you do this by yourself, it’ll get really lonely and your friends and family may even consider you creepy.  So don’t do that.

Instead, call up a friend anywhere in the world on Skype, broadcast your trip live on ustream.tv or stickam.com, so folks can share in on the experience real time. That way others from around the world can also join you via the chat room and video broadcast.

Marc Horowitz and Peter Baldes just finished the first-ever virtual live-streaming broadcast cross-country road trip, as they traveled from Los Angles all the way to Richmond, VA entirely on Google maps. They broadcast the entire experience live on http://www.googlemapsroadtrip.com .  Remember the trip is real-time, driving at an estimated 60-80 mph across the US. When they stopped to eat, they actually ate, and when they stopped to sleep, they actually went to bed, and if someone wanted a visit, they’d actually “drive” to their house, pick em up, and tour their hood.

They’d call ahead of time and book hotels and restaurant reservations. They picked up hitchhikers in the middle of nowhere.  They drove deliriously through the night pondering the meaning of life, talked about ridiculous things like what it means to be zookeeper, and terribly sung Bette Midler songs.

Marc and Pete want to do it again, and they are. They will be in NYC on September 19th to do a live tour of the city. It’s being held at NYU’s Art Department – Space C: printmaking studio @ 34 Stuyvesant Street 10003 from 2:00pm – 3:45pm.

Check out the Facebook Invitation – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=129456455799 and come!