With over 3,000 stories in the aha moment tour vault, it’s not surprising that some of those moments happened on Thanksgiving. It is, after all, a day that sparks reflection and conversation (and apparently a few house fires as well).
Here’s a short list of moments sparked by everyone’s favorite day in November. They remind us that there’s more to Thanksgiving than apple pie and turkey.
Judy from Missoula:
Maria from Tucson:
Raymond from San Diego:
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us behind Mutual of Omaha’s aha moment tour!
If I asked my mind to replay our surprise San Diego tour stop, these 2 minutes and 24 seconds are exactly what I would see.
Without having much to add, I’ll just let you go ahead and click play. It’s worth a watch and will either leave you feeling amped up, amused, exhausted, or all of the above (hopefully not exhausted).
Thank you, San Diego for being a part of Mutual of Omaha’s aha moment tour. Unless there are any surprise holiday tour stops in the works (and there aren’t, trust me), that makes San Diego the last tour stop for the year. 26 of 26.
In addition to the incredible 5 stories we have lined up for spring, our surprise San Diego stop added one more to the list. Thanks to everyone who participated in the eventful three-day vote! Your tweets, texts, replays, “likes,” and shares got the word out. And not just to the rest of San Diego—people in Alaska and England were voting as well!
Enjoy RJ’s full aha moment recording. It’s a beautiful and incredible story about what really matters when times are tough. And we’ll have more on him and our San Diego stop soon.
An exciting element around Mutual of Omaha’s aha moment tour is when a story gets featured in a commercial. These are real people with real stories, like you and I, and we love playing a part in broadcasting a few on national TV.
Yesterday we chose our finalists for the San Diego tour stop: R.J., Vincent, Larise, and Tonya. Voting madness has ensued! Watch the three potential commercial below, text your vote, and share your favorite. One will become a commercial in 2012!
A few details: Voting ends Thursday, November 17th at 11:59p.m. PST. There are multiple ways to vote, and the chosen commercial will be determined based on a combination of the most views on Facebook, views on YouTube, votes by text and votes by Twitter.
Without further ado, I’d like to introduce our San Diego finalists!
Larise and Tonya
View on Facebook | Text: ahaTonyaLarise to 22333 | Tweet: @poll ahaTonyaLarise
R.J.
View on Facebook | Text: ahaRJ to 22333 | Tweet: @poll ahaRJ
Vincent
View on Facebook | Text: ahaVincent to 22333 | Tweet: @poll ahaVincent
As I sit here writing from our San Diego tour stop I can’t help but wish we could all go back to Salt Lake City. The air was crisp. We were on the brink of all things fall: hot apple cider, college football, falling leaves…
And the moments we recorded there were spectacular. It was our 75th city, why wouldn’t they be? From conversations about all-natural chocolate to setting up a dog stool for the interview, Mutual of Omaha’s aha moment tour was not lacking.
I actually lived in Utah growing up. It was for a short period during high school, but looking back I wish I would have spent more time in Salt Lake City. Things are happening; young people are moving into the city and the exchange of ideas and experiences is shaping the community rapidly.
Thank you for sharing your stories with us, Salt Lake City!
Nestled in the backyard of the “great outdoors,” Montana is an incredibly happy place to be. Parking lot attendants, radio personalities and downtown shop owners treated us the same way: with a twinkle in their eye and a flash of their carefree smile. I think the crew was unanimously looking forward to this stop, originally for its environmental setting, but got way more than we bargained for. I remember googling “happiest cities in America” because I was sure Missoula would top the list.
Aside from the friendly locals, there were a few more highlights from our 24th tour stop:
- We recorded a pregnant woman in labor. That was a first. 12 hours in with her fourth child, but Crissy was determined to record! Watch her aha moment.
- Camping in Glacier National Park. Every year we spend at least one night camping (although not in the Airstream). After many suggestions from Missoulian locals, we chose Glacier National Park. Watch the Slice Of Americana video here.
- We also recorded Ellie, from the House of Montana Representatives, and Cynthia, a meter maid in downtown Missoula. Both have incredible stories and I was honored to interview them.
Well that makes it a wrap for our Missoula tour stop this year. Thanks to everyone who came out to record!
Oh, and here’s a couple fun appearances the Mutual of Omaha Airstream made in Missoula news!
There are some incredibly original and interesting stories in South Dakota; we were honored to hear a fraction of them.
Set up downtown at the Main Street Square, Mutual of Omaha’s aha moment tour Airstream was parked for two days to record one of the widest ranges of aha moments we’ve ever had in a city.
Mutual of Omaha’s aha moment tour visits its home state: Nebraska!
Aside from the state fair (check out our blog video) and Friday Night Fest downtown, our Airstream loved Nebraska. We got to record so many incredible stories from locals at the Museum of Nebraska Art, some about kids getting to go to college, choosing to buy local and one about what inspired an author to write her cookbook.
So we’d like to thank Kearney for sharing your moments with us, your deeply personal and inspirational moments of clarity. Thank you!
I love it when the Mutual of Omaha airstream parks somewhere unique. Sometimes people in the immediate vicinity will wander down to the airstream and depending on the location we’ll meet zookeepers, street artists, bus drivers, surfers, motorcycle enthusiasts, etc.?
So when we recorded at the public library in Topeka, not only did we meet many wonderful (and curious) librarians, we also witnessed the outstanding crowd that flocked to the city’s incredible resource everyday. It was incredible! Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to see so much foot traffic at our Topeka stop.
We met some great people, and even tried our hand at decorating cupcakes [IN THE MOMENT with Billy Vanilly] while we recorded. Thanks so much Topeka for the warm (really, it felt like 100? degrees) welcome. And I even celebrated a birthday while we were in town!
We were moved by your stories, your songs and your weather. Set up at one of the best places in the area, the U.S. Bank Plaza, we got a great glimpse at the growth happening downtown. We also had a warm welcome from just about every radio and TV station in Fargo!
The best parts, still, were the stories we heard from the community. Thank you to everyone who shared.
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