Day 1, Saturday, 5.16.09

(This is from last night [Sat] but I only got to posting today)

Friends! My journey (sorry, makes it sound more dramatic) has begun! I left at 12 noon today (Saturday, May the 16th), which was later than desired due to my postponing the majority of packing til this morning and needing to make quadruple checks on everything - “thorough” is the choice word for that need of mine ;). I have a headache right now, which I’m pretty sure is due to this being a very long day. Though I only covered 219.47 miles today, it felt like double (by the way, my first leg of the trip was from LBC to San Luis Obispo, where I’m staying with Jason). In the first 2 hours of my drive I had only gotten to Camarillo - that’s approximately 65 miles. Do the math: works out to me driving the fwy speed limit for the first hour then going ZERO mph for the second hour. Not fun. The drive was a little less than 5 hours, so not super terrible in the end. I stopped at an old podunk gas station somewhere in the middle of nowhere (I forgot to get the town’s name), took a couple photos just to warm myself up, since it’s been a while since I last shot really. I liked one or two of them.



At the beginning of the drive I thought carefully about what music I wanted to listen to, kinda to inaugurate the trip (don’t worry, I’m really not making a big deal of it, I just thought it’d be fun to note the little things like that for later)... I ended up choosing a song called “Welcome Home Son” by a band called Radical Face. It’s a really really cool song, just got me pumped for the trip. Listen to it here: http://www.box.net/shared/26ou18ivvc

After I settled here in SLO, Jason and I went on a bike ride. Rode all throughout campus, then downtown, then to the bike shop to get Jason a tire b/c his old ones were failing. He bought only the rear one (comes into play later). We rode to Peet’s from there b/c it sounded really good. We sat down outside and just caught up for a little, which was really nice. 5 minutes into the conversation, “BAM!” goes the explosion of Jason’s front tire tube, making everyone in the immediate 40ft vicinity jump, then stare our way. Apparently the lining of the front tire had gotten so worn that it cut into the tube. It happened at 5:50, so we sprinted with our bikes alongside us back about 7 blocks to see if the guys at the shop would help us out (they closed at 6). Jason got a new tube and tire, and the guy didn’t charge him for labor, but hinted that he has a liking of expensive beer, so Jason gave him the $5 he had in cash to go toward his beer fund. This happened to be the second time we’ve been on a ride together and had his tube pop while we were just sitting and talking... the first time was exponentially more epic, I actually have it documented. If you wanna read it I’ll post it, just say somethin.

We went to dinner at Firestone, I had a tri-tip steak sandwich... a necessary part of any trip through San Luis Obispo. After a bit more riding we ended up back at his house, played some cards, watched “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, and now I’m heading to bed. Real quick, I wanted to document this before I just got into regular postings, a couple quick things about the trip:

- I’m going to have my phone on silent for the majority of the trip - not that I want to completely isolate myself, but I think an important part of this is making myself less available to the normal means of quick communication and more available to the voice of God.

- I’m going to do my best to spend as little money as I can - kind of an obvious one, but important for sure.

- I’m going to read an hour or two a day, for t’ exercise the brain.

- I’m going to take photos every day, just to keep me sharp and so I don’t miss any captures that could be waiting for me.

- One of my goals in Seattle is to become a regular at one of the coffee shops - I’m going to pick a drink and stay with it, and try to go in at around the same time each day. I’ll know I’ve achieved my goal if they either know my name or can get my drink before I order it :)

While I’m not gonna be really talking to all of you that often, please feel free to drop me a line via email or facebook, I’ll be glad to respond when I can and would love to hear from home (just trying to cut back on the phone the most).

Thanks for reading, thanks for caring, thanks for praying, I need it and really appreciate it. Pray that God would speak loud and clear to me, and that I would be very intentional with making myself available to that voice, and even further that’d I’d actively seek it. Pray for rest too, that I’d let myself just exhale for a bit, and enjoy the moment. I love you and miss you all. I’ll write again at the next destination (Livermore, CA). Over and out.