Monday, October 14, 2013 - Hermosa back to Yuma, CA

We spent a couple of great days in Hermosa relaxing and drinking in what we'd done. Lots of people make cross country trips and they are usually special journeys, but when you're like I am, the challenge is pretty unimaginable for the regular person. I know the demands and effort required from this trip has strengthened me in ways routine physical therapy never would have. Gotta credit my mom with a lot of the success. She's so important to me and nobody knows how to keep me alive better than she does.

It was kind of kicking and screaming that I got back in the car for the second leg of the trip home. Our new crew arrived Sunday to Hermosa and brought a lot of new energy with them. New adventures lay ahead, and I'm back on the road to see my little one again. Wagons roll!

Friday, October 11 - Calexico to Hermosa, CA

Yippeeeee! We made it! Coast to actual coast!

The photos are important, but it's hard to describe the feeling of having accomplished what I started talking about more than a year ago.

The smell of the air down by the water, the feeling of the sand on my feet, between my toes. Rejuvenating and magical.

That's my cousin Greg who's a soccer coach, and he was my coach in the hospital when this whole thing began four years ago. A pretty special dude.

Calexico was nice, but I think we left ahead of schedule to get to Starbucks and start our final leg.

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013 - Tucson, AZ to Calexico, CA

California! We made it! One more day of driving and we will have officially made it Coast to Coast. Really looking forward to seeing my friends and the new crew in Hermosa.

Calexico, CA is about as close as you can get to the Mexican border without crossing over. Felt like we crossed over. We all put together our high school Spanish and were able to order some dinner. Most authentico!

More amazing skies and terrain. Couldn't believe the differences from state to state.

Wednesday, Oct 9 - El Paso, TX to Tucson, AZ

We have made it through 2 days of desert driving. 2 more days of driving to go until we get to Hermosa Beach.

Great skies. Wide open spaces. Fresh air. Good stuff. We had another great day.

I can't wait to see these films. I did some color and some black and white, so it should be interesting.

Tuesday, October 8 - Odessa to El Paso, TX

Long drive out of Odessa. Long stretches of nothing far as you could see and oil rigs and windmills. Great for photography. The most memorable thing about Odessa was that we were in an economy hotel where a lot of oil/fracking workers were also staying. We were a little frightened to ask questions. I don't think we had either the right accent or license plates.

Part of the drive across what seemed like desert took us up to 4500 feet. I now know that's my limit. We've been hugging the coast to stay pretty close to sea level, and this was both an experiment and a challenge. I did start to feel weird at the top but it didn't last very long and I was able to recover which was good to find out.

We drove 300 miles before seeing signs of civilization. We missed lunch because along the route was a National Park where we might have stopped, but it was shut down on account of the shut down. Another place along the way was open Wednesday through Sunday. It was Tuesday. We couldn't believe it. Met some bikers from Buffalo, New York! Go figure. We did take a break by the Salt Flats which were really cool. Looking forward to seeing the shots from this day.

Today, our driving will take us to Tucson, AZ. Can't believe it's been 3 days to get across Texas! Stay tuned.