Roadie Blog, Week 5, You've Got Junk Mail

We're in Atlanta, where the drought dries the lawns and the heat sits like a blanket on your shoulders. There's a party going on in Luda's bus as he's rolling into his hometown. In Tommy's bus Johnny Colt is doing a little dance of joy because Atlanta is his home too.

The teams' challenge comes from a mailman of all people. It's to turn in as much junk mail for recycling as possible. Every year 100 million trees are cut down to produce junk mail. Most of that goes to the landfill unopened. It's a tremendous waste and today our eco-warriors are going to do something about it.

Luda heads straight to the local hip hop station and gets on the air to tell his fans to bring in their junk mail so that he can win. When Tommy finds out he runs down to the rock station to get some love from his fans. On the way in he pulls a prank on Luda that leaves him unable to rollout.

While the teams wait to see who's got more fans with free time and lots of junk mail, Tommy and Luda take on another challenge. They spend a few hours in a senior citizens' home trying to convince sweet little old ladies to let them inside their apartments so they can install low flow showerheads.

Given the severe drought conditions in Georgia and the large amount of water we use showering (40 gallons for a 10 minute shower), low flow showerheads are a great idea to help save water. It's pure comedy, though, to see the shock and fear on the faces of older people who open their doors to see a tattooed rocker like Tommy at their door. The ladies do love their homegrown Ludacris, though. They may not be familiar with his career but when they see his smile and pinchable cheeks they are in love.

Before completing the mail challenge Luda has another stop to make. He goes by his old high school and plants a tree with some friends. You can tell how proud the school and the students are of Luda, their very own rap star, actor, restauranteur and philanthropist.

You may not have known that Luda is a philanthropist. He created the Ludacris Foundation, which helps youth help themselves. While we are in town we all attend his Foundation's annual fundraiser and rub elbows with Magic Johnson, Ciara, Big Boi and many more people who are helping out Atlanta's young people. It was an inspiring and fun night. Tommy was there too as a friend showing his support for Ludacris' cause.

There was one last thing we had to do while in Atlanta. Luda had a big opening for his new restaurant, Straits. It's a Singaporean fusion cuisine restaurant and the food we got to taste was so good. I could have hung out there snacking on Chef Yeo's delicacies all night long. That was it for our adventures in Atlanta. You may be wondering how the junk mail challenge ended up but I can't tell you everything. You have to watch and see. It's better seeing it in person on screen anyway.

Till the next city,

~Roadie T