Or are you exaggerating to make a point?
I think it is conceivable that he could fund his trip by bartering for the majority of his food and/or lodging using bitcoins. That is, it is a possibility that there are people in the United States who will accept bitcoins in return for providing food and/or lodging. And presumably as a "digital currency guru" he would be able to identify those people and effect payment with the agreed upon medium.
He even has a fallback option of cash if there is something he cannot acquire through the use of this bitcoins.
(#) Among techies only and even here the discussions about it being a Ponzi scheme are lively.
It's the same process that makes pork bellies exchangeable for bits of German automotive engineering