By . Jonathan Block . On April 2, Mikel McLaughlin, 35, started his journey in a rented red Volkswagen Beetle. He made his first stop in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he met his friend known as 'J.' 'I’m not an extremely social person and I don’t have a lot of close friends, so with most of these people I’m meeting, it’s more common than not this is the first time we’ve spent time alone,' McLaughlin said according to elitedaily.com. Mikel McLaughlin, an Army vet, is making a trip across the country to visit his more than 300 Facebook friends . McLaughlin is making his Facebook journey in this rented red Volkswagen Beetle . McLaughlin with one of his Facebook friends he has met on his venture . 'I like to be with them while they’re doing whatever they enjoy doing,' he added. 'With one guy, we went out to fly remote control planes for instance. With most people though, it’s food or drinks. I’ve never drank as much coffee as I have in the past month,' McLaughlin has been chronicling his venture through a blog titled 'We're Friends, Right?', which includes both updates and pictures. Some of the people he is visiting, it is the first time they are meeting each other. His latest blog entry was on May 5, or day 34 of his journey. 'I am really enjoying this journey that I'm on,' McLaughlin wrote. 'I'm not only talking about this recent quest to have more meaningful relationships with my Facebook friends, but also the longer journey sometimes referred to as life.  It's been an incredible existence filled with some odd and amazing people, things, experiences, and adventures. McLaughlin says he has met about one-third of his 377 Facebook friends so far since he began his journey on April 2 . That day, he met his friend 'K,' who is about to graduate from law school, and  did lunch  with 'L,' a law school graduate, whom he ate falafel with for the first time. McLaughlin was also trained as a lawyer. McLaughlin said he was motivated to meet all his friends after other people told him they were deleting friends from their profile they had never met before. 'I had noticed people doing what's referred to as a "spring cleaning" on their Facebook accounts. One of my thoughts was, "Is there an alternative to that,"' he told 9News. 'Instead of deleting Facebook friends I haven’t spoken to recently, maybe I could speak to them.' McLaughlin told Yahoo he's visited about a third of his Facebook friends. He also estimated that about a quarter of his Facebook friends were real-life friends before he set out in his VW Beetle. 'I have this idealistic view of the world, and I think if I can meet up with these people, I know spending time with them makes you more likely to be compassionate,' McLaughlin said. 'I thought if I could be a little better perhaps everybody could be the same.'
Mikel McLaughlin decided to make the journey since people he knew were deleting friends from Facebook they never met before .
He is chronicling his venture through a blog that is updated with pictures of the friends he meets .
McLaughlin so far has met about one-third of his Facebook friends .
By . Jonathan Block . On April 2, Mikel McLaughlin, 35, started his journey in a rented red Volkswagen Beetle. He made his first stop in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where he met his friend known as 'J.' 'I’m not an extremely social person and I don’t have a lot of close friends, so with most of these people I’m meeting, it’s more common than not this is the first time we’ve spent time alone,' McLaughlin said according to elitedaily.com. Mikel McLaughlin, an Army vet, is making a trip across the country to visit his more than 300 Facebook friends . McLaughlin is making his Facebook journey in this rented red Volkswagen Beetle . McLaughlin with one of his Facebook friends he has met on his venture . 'I like to be with them while they’re doing whatever they enjoy doing,' he added. 'With one guy, we went out to fly remote control planes for instance. With most people though, it’s food or drinks. I’ve never drank as much coffee as I have in the past month,' McLaughlin has been chronicling his venture through a blog titled 'We're Friends, Right?', which includes both updates and pictures. Some of the people he is visiting, it is the first time they are meeting each other. His latest blog entry was on May 5, or day 34 of his journey. 'I am really enjoying this journey that I'm on,' McLaughlin wrote. 'I'm not only talking about this recent quest to have more meaningful relationships with my Facebook friends, but also the longer journey sometimes referred to as life.  It's been an incredible existence filled with some odd and amazing people, things, experiences, and adventures. McLaughlin says he has met about one-third of his 377 Facebook friends so far since he began his journey on April 2 . That day, he met his friend 'K,' who is about to graduate from law school, and  did lunch  with 'L,' a law school graduate, whom he ate falafel with for the first time. McLaughlin was also trained as a lawyer. McLaughlin said he was motivated to meet all his friends after other people told him they were deleting friends from their profile they had never met before. 'I had noticed people doing what's referred to as a "spring cleaning" on their Facebook accounts. One of my thoughts was, "Is there an alternative to that,"' he told 9News. 'Instead of deleting Facebook friends I haven’t spoken to recently, maybe I could speak to them.' McLaughlin told Yahoo he's visited about a third of his Facebook friends. He also estimated that about a quarter of his Facebook friends were real-life friends before he set out in his VW Beetle. 'I have this idealistic view of the world, and I think if I can meet up with these people, I know spending time with them makes you more likely to be compassionate,' McLaughlin said. 'I thought if I could be a little better perhaps everybody could be the same.'
chronicling his venture through a blog titled updates and pictures. Some of the people he is McLaughlin says he has met about one-third of his 377 Facebook friends so far since he began his deleting friends from their profile they had never met before. 'I had noticed people doing