I really believed that I would be better at maintaining a blog this time around.  But obviously, that has not been the case.  To be perfectly honest, I’ve just been having such an incredible time that I haven’t wanted to waste a minute of it typing.  This is the first time I’ve turned on my computer in more than a week.  Oops.

I am writing to you today from San Francisco, signaling the completion of the first half of my journey.  I have ventured clear across Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, and I feel the change it has made in my heart.  My body and spirit have been pushed to new limits (not to mention my car- those of you who know anything about my driving record can imagine the challenge this trip has presented to my skills behind the wheel), and I am grateful.  Today I will plot my return route as I hide from the dreary skies of the Pacific Northwest.  I’m trying to decide what new lands I want to see next, and what places to deserve a second look.  For now, I will share with you some of the highlights of the trip thus far.

-Sad skeleton trees dotting the ochre fields of Oklahoma

-Having my first tumbleweed (that was about the size of a Smart Car) nearly run me off the road as I crossed the state line from Oklahoma into Texas

-Tyler’s Barbecue in Amarillo, TX, which forced me to open my mind to the potential of beef barbecue

-seeing the earth change from red to pink as I rolled into the desert

-getting lost in Bandelier National Forest

-Climbing 200 feet of sheer vertical rock face into an Anasazi cliff dwelling

-Horseback riding at sunrise in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains

-Scoring my first custom made cowboy hat

-Seeing the Grand Canyon

-Driving through the mountains and mesas in Arizona, and feeling as though the land could swallow me whole

-Watching as enormous cacti replace the trees un the landscape as I made my way deeper into the desert

-Being a beach bum in Malibu

-Finding Marilyn Monroe’s handprints in Hollywood (same size as mine)

-Seeing friends long loved and missed

This trip is undoubtedly the greatest gift I’ve ever given myself.  I can’t wait to see what is waiting around the next bend in the road.