CBS’s David Price is on an interesting seven day adventure across America with only $50 and an arsenal of hand-held technology to connect to every form of social media which he’ll use to find rides and lodging as he goes. I should make for an interesting week, and of course because mainstream media loves social media – hours of television.

Call me old fashioned though, but it seems like it would be a much cooler challenge to do that trip without the social media help and the notoriety of being on TV. Just hitching and couchsurfing your way across the country. Not that the social media way of doing it isn’t cool, It’d be a great trip and a cool way to involve other people in the journey. But perhaps a bit selfishly, I think it would a cooler trip just talking to folks along the way and seeing how far you can get.

To follow along with David’s trip, you can check out his page on CBS, Twitter, or Qik.

I use Flickr to share my pictures, but I’ve never explored all of the fun features that Flickr offers. Poking around today, I found a couple of features that rival Google Earth in both their ability to make me want to travel and to waste my time.

Places: lets you drill down into a certain area and explore what it has to offer.

Maps: will take you whipping around the world to see some of the most interesting pictures on Flickr and recent uploads.

Start playing with these two fun toys and you’ll quickly find that you’ve burned away your Sunday afternoon. Trust me, happened to me.