Aaron's Last Wish$500 Tips for Waiters and Waitresses

The cross country road trip rolls on, and yesterday it led me to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Gretyl and I wandered downtown and found our way to Gas Light Company’s Pizza Pub. I’d never left a $500 tip for a server at a buffet, so it seemed high time to do so. After a few slices…

The 32nd stop on the road trip was the other Portland, where it’s snowing. Melissa joined me (as well as a few sneaky members of the media) and we braved the weather to visit Flatbread Company, a regional pizza joint. There, we sent Emily into silent shock by surprising her with a $500 tip.

My mom’s friend, Rita, lives in Springfield and was kind enough to host me so that was my stop in Vermont. Many of her family and friends joined us as did one of our longtime supporters, Joie. We all met up at Friendly’s where we surprised Julie with the 81st $500 tip! Also, a special…

Little Rock was the last stop before taking a Thanksgiving break at home in Lexington. Jonathan was kind enough to give me a place to stay, so on Thursday we went to Gusano’s and surprised Brittany with a $500 tip!

One of the supporters of our Indiegogo campaign asked that I stop in Moore on my road trip. After the tornadoes that came through the town, she thought they could use some good news there. So I rolled in to town, gathered some people to come with me, and surprised Jessica at Hollie’s with a…

I spent the weekend in Austin with my friend, Tyler. On Friday we went out to 24 Diner to surprise a waiter or waitress with a $500 tip. Whitley was the lucky server that day, and her reaction made it quite clear just how moved she was by the experience.

New Mexico! In Santa Fe I visited The Pantry and surprised Annabelle with a $500 tip. I brought along a group of people with me — Joel, who I was staying with, as well as Esmé and Pedro, who I met while they were performing in town.They even contributed the music.

The most recent stop on the trip was Arizona. Tony suggested we go to one of his favorite restaurants, Rio Mirage Cafe, so we did. There we surprised Omar with a $500 tip and he had an absolutely wonderful reaction.

I still had my friend, Dave, along with me in Las Vegas. We spent some time checking out the city, but I wanted to get away from The Strip to leave the tip. Eventually we found our way to Chicago Brewing Company. When we walked in and saw that our waiter’s name was Aaron we…

Aaron and his wife, Monica, were sponsors of our road trip. We caught up with each other Saturday night in Valencia, California at Lazy Doge Cafe. My friend, Dave, was also with me while we surprised Linh with a $500 tip!