A visit to NC. "Inside Information"

Since I expected my former employer to come and collect the company car soon, I decided to take advantage while I could, and drove to NC to see my friends and their delightful baby boy (and the Tarheels, and the 2$ Pistols.)
So, being on the road cemented the idea for me; i was going to take one colossal road/hiking trip through the American West. But I really had very little idea of how i was going to plan effectively, not having hiked these areas before.
Fortunately, while I was in NC, my buddy Mark gave my a tutorial on Web 2.0. We're both in our early 30's, right on the digital divide (I didn't have an email address or use the internet in college.) However, he's gone on to become the president of a web design company, and i was challenged by iTunes...
But after getting back to b'klyn, i realized how i could apply all of these cool things that i had just learned about (social networking, creating maps online, etc.,) to my trip. So, to bring us up to the (almost) present, I spent the better part of 4 weeks learning by doing with Facebook, Google Maps/Earth, the blog (obv), etc. I've met people on fb from all over the areas that I want to hike, who have set me up with great recommendations, local conditions, and other useful beta. And soon, I had my overall itinerary planned, and was getting into the real details of planning the individual hikes.