{"id":21,"date":"2010-07-26T00:52:43","date_gmt":"2010-07-26T00:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/hello-its-me.html"},"modified":"2010-07-26T00:52:43","modified_gmt":"2010-07-26T00:52:43","slug":"hello-its-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/hello-its-me.html","title":{"rendered":"Hello, It&#8217;s Me!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just returned from the road, where my son and I were on a dinosaur dig expedition in Utah. My son, a soon-to-be-17-year-old paleontology student, has been fascinated by prehistoric life since he was a little boy. For years we&#8217;ve gone on these trips and they are truly life-changing. Soon as I get the dust off everything I&#8217;ll post some images, and also recount some places we discovered on the road &#8211; meantime though, I&#8217;ve also been out talking about my new book, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Hello-Its-Me-Dispatches-Culture\/dp\/1595800530\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1274849200&amp;sr=8-1\">&#8220;Hello It&#8217;s Me &#8211; Dispatches from a Pop Culture Junkie.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Beliefnet&#8217;s own <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/moviemom\/2010\/07\/interview-chris-epting-a-pop-c.html\">Nell Minow was kind enough to interview me about the book <\/a>and I was asked to write <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/chris-epting\/hello-its-me----dispatche_b_654840.html#comments\">a piece for the Huffington Post <\/a>about it.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>There&#8217;s a piece on our dino journeys in the book &#8211; and lots more &#8211; that I think you might enjoy. More on that, dinosaurs, and this just concluded road trip in juts a day or two&#8230;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just returned from the road, where my son and I were on a dinosaur dig expedition in Utah. My son, a soon-to-be-17-year-old paleontology student, has been fascinated by prehistoric life since he was a little boy. For years we&#8217;ve gone on these trips and they are truly life-changing. Soon as I get the dust off&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hello, It&#039;s Me! - The Pop Culture Road Trip<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/hello-its-me.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hello, It&#039;s Me! - The Pop Culture Road Trip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just returned from the road, where my son and I were on a dinosaur dig expedition in Utah. My son, a soon-to-be-17-year-old paleontology student, has been fascinated by prehistoric life since he was a little boy. For years we&#8217;ve gone on these trips and they are truly life-changing. Soon as I get the dust off&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/hello-its-me.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Pop Culture Road Trip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-26T00:52:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Epting\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hello, It's Me! - The Pop Culture Road Trip","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/hello-its-me.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hello, It's Me! - The Pop Culture Road Trip","og_description":"Just returned from the road, where my son and I were on a dinosaur dig expedition in Utah. My son, a soon-to-be-17-year-old paleontology student, has been fascinated by prehistoric life since he was a little boy. For years we&#8217;ve gone on these trips and they are truly life-changing. Soon as I get the dust off&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/hello-its-me.html","og_site_name":"The Pop Culture Road Trip","article_published_time":"2010-07-26T00:52:43+00:00","author":"Chris Epting","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/hello-its-me.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/hello-its-me.html","name":"Hello, It's Me! - The Pop Culture Road Trip","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-07-26T00:52:43+00:00","dateModified":"2010-07-26T00:52:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/#\/schema\/person\/90e02a67ea704d6f277e5c57264de6c7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/hello-its-me.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/hello-its-me.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/2010\/07\/hello-its-me.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hello, It&#8217;s Me!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/","name":"The Pop Culture Road Trip","description":"Chris Epting&#039;s uplifting and nostalgic stories from America&#039;s entertainment landscape","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/#\/schema\/person\/90e02a67ea704d6f277e5c57264de6c7","name":"Chris Epting","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/ecf\/ecfc2e5ddaa5892930733367b5ce59bbx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/ecf\/ecfc2e5ddaa5892930733367b5ce59bbx96.jpg","caption":"Chris Epting"},"description":"A pop culture history aficionado, Chris has a lifelong penchant for documenting the exact sites where things both great and small occurred. As an author, Epting has found that unearthing and chronicling \"\"hidden\"\" locations offers him a challenge. What began as an inquisitive hobby soon developed into the writing and photographing of 18 books based on his discoveries, including \"\"James Dean Died Here\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6The Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks,\"\" \"\"Elvis Presley Passed Here, Even More Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks,\"\" \"\"Roadside Baseball,\"\" and \"\"The Ruby Slippers, Madonna's Bra, and Einstein's Brain: The Locations of America's Pop Culture.\"\" As an extension of his efforts to chronicle the unique, Epting joined Hampton Hotels for a sixth exciting year as national spokesperson and consultant for the Hidden Landmarks program in support of the brand's national \"\"Explore the Highway with Hampton Save-A-Landmark\u00c3\u201d\"\" campaign (the program recently won the President's award). Chris is a frequent featured guest on numerous radio and television programs such as National Public Radio's \"\"All Things Considered,\"\" \"\"The Savvy Traveler,\"\" \"\"Access Hollywood\"\" and FOX TV's the \"\"Best Damn Sports Show Period,\"\" plus radio and TV programs around the world. He has contributed articles for such publications as the \"\"Los Angeles Times,\"\" \"\"Westways,\"\" \"\"Travel + Leisure\"\" and \"\"Preservation\"\" magazine, and hosts the weekly syndicated radio show, \"\"The Pop Culture Road Trip.\"\" Chris's latest book, \"\"Hello It's Me\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Dispatches from a Pop Culture Junkie\"\" will be released in July, 2010. Chris lives in Huntington Beach, CA with his wife and their two children.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/author\/cepting"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/popcultureroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}