Overview

States: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, & Arizona.

Miles Luke and Nate traveled from NC to AZ: 3228.4
Luke since OR: 7728.6

Cost:
Gas and camping: 543.54
Divided by two: 271.77

Hosts:
Charlotte, North Carolina: Kristi Lanning
Columbia, South Carolina: Gayle Harris
Savannah, Georgia: Skidaway Island State Park Camp Ground
Birmingham, Alabama: Mindy Lipsitz
Pascagula, Mississippi: Jeff, Kelley, and Emma
New Orleans, Louisiana: Becca Parker
Houston, Texas: Monroe Moore
Junction, Texas: green blue river
Carlsbad Cavern Highway: A Farmers cow field
Holbrook, Arizona: KOA Campground
Grand Canyon National Park: Mathers Campground
Sedona, Arizona: Cave Springs Campground
Phoenix, AZ: Emily, Alleah, Kevin, Wendy, Tyler, & Meadow

Times Pulled Over: 1
Tickets: 0

Quotes:
I’m in my underwear (southern accent) –guy outside Anna’s bedroom window.

Hey Anna nice bullet hole -Luke (about the bullet hole in her window)

You’re looking a little shady –William about Brantley holding a lamp

Hey Luke Let’s watch Free Willy in every state –Nate

I went to a bisexual high school -William
You mean co-ed? -Luke
Yeah –William

This place is southern as Shit! –Nate

I love watching the climate change –Nate
I can’t believe you love global climate change you’re such an asshole –Luke

I’m too hungry to blog –nate

(outside Roswell, NM)
What is that smell? -Luke
Alien poop dick –Nate

That guy was straight Muggin’ Luke

The Grand Canyon is so big! I’ll bet you could almost fit a football field inside it. -Nate

Sept 6, 2009
Phoenix, AZ-Los Angeles, CA
Miles: 396.8

Josiah, Nate & I woke up at 5 and took Nate to the airport! We were sad, but it’s ok because we’ll se him again in Portland. The drive was fairly uneventful and desert-like. Josiah was commissioned as the Executive Officer In Charge of Joint Systems Interdepartmental Operations Command. This meant Navigation, Music Control, Photography, Driver Warnings, etc. Josiah and I got a chance to catch up and talk about life.

Went immediately to the airport and picked up the darling Rachel Eirich! She worked at camp with us too.

After that we headed to Santa Monica Pier to meet, Brenna, Val, Tara, and Sam on the pier! I can’t believe how crazy people drive in Southern California! Holy crap it’s nuts. I ran a red light in front of four cops on motorcycles and they just kept driving. I finally found a parking space and we had our mini-camp reunion. Josiah, Sam and I swam in the Pacific. As of then I swam in the, Pacific, Atlantic, Mississippi, and the gulf of Mexico. (all in one summer)

we raced. i won.

We went for lunch, then headed to Malibu for the sunset. The sunset was amazing and we really enjoyed sitting on the beach, catching up, talking about camp and making plans.

i love my brenna.

Sadly enough, we then drove Tara to the airport to go home to Australia. Rachel wasn’t feeling well so she slept like a baby in my car. After the second airport run, we went to Val’s house and just crashed – we were beat.

Love,
Luke, Rachel, & Josiah

Day 14: Sedona, AZ-Phoenix, AZ

September 5, 2009
Day 14: Sedona, AZ-Phoenix, AZ
Miles:115.6

Nate left after we had a breakfast in town to go meet his friend Tara. Emily and I took Meadow on a super awesome hike through a Sedona Canyon.

Left for Phoenix and drove though the pouring rain. Had a great time at Emily’s girlfriends, family’s house. We picked up Josiah before we went! We did some laundry, and cleaned up after about a week of camping. Went to Sushi in town and got ice cream. Josiah had his first dairy queen experience. We went back home and swan in the awesome pool. This leg of the journey s now over because tomorrow Josiah and I take Nate to the airport and head to LA!



Love,
Luke, Nate, & Josiah

Nate’s final words of his journey:
This has been an incredible journey. A journey too many people don’t take and thanks to a friend like Luke I was able to enjoy.
Thanks to everyone who was kind enough to let us stay and spoil us with showers, washer/dryers, food, drinks, hospitality and most importantly friendship. Thank you (In chronological order) Gayle, William, Mindy, Jeff, Kelly, Emma, Becca, Maya (hope that’s spelled right), Monroe, Emily, Alleah, Meadow, Tara, and Josiah. You were all awesome and the trip wouldn’t have been as great without you.
Thank you, Ashley and Ben, I know I didn’t see you on the trip but you guys are more important to me then you may ever know. I love you.

Most importantly:
Thank you so much, Luke, for being my oldest friend and still encouraging me to be the best person I can be. To travel and not let trivial things stop me from that. It’s because of you I will continue to travel and make friends everywhere. To repay you, I promise to inspire someone in the way you inspire me. Thank you so much. Here’s to many more adventures. I love you. Friends!!!!

The most important thing this trip has taught me:
I was watching a Michael Franti concert and he was telling a story that he heard. A lady was telling him about a time she met a country legend (who I can’t remember the name of). He said “If you ever see a turtle on a fencepost, it didn’t get there by itself.” What he meant is, no one got to where they are, by themselves. Thank you to all my new and old friends who got me to where I am. I’ve always considered myself to be lucky, but now I really know it. I love you all!

Love, Nate

Day 13: Sedona

September 4, 2009
Day 13: Sedona
Miles: hiked no driving yay!

Hiked around Sedona again after taking care of some business-phone stuff. I booked a wedding to photograph next summer (yay!) Went back to camp and waited patiently for Emily to come.



She came and it was so awesome to see her and catch up with such a great old friend. Emil had her dog with her named Meadow! She was a cool dog. We hiked to a nice part of the creek and jumped off a cliff into the freezing water. Went back to camp, made hotdogs, and had a fire. Spent the night drinking around the fire and watching Meadow steal Nate’s seat right out from under him.



Nate has run out of ways to introduce his part of the blog:
Sedona is f-ing beautiful. Had an awesome hike, and for the first time on our adventure, Luke and I just relaxed and read some books. Emily showed up in the afternoon and it was awesome to meet her and Meadow. She is one of my new best friends. We all shared the tent and I spooned with Meadow. Nice.

Day 12: Grand Canyon, AZ-Sedona, AZ

September 3, 2009
Grand Canyon, AZ-Sedona, AZ
Miles: 114.1

We woke up pretty early and went to the rim of the grand canyon to take the best photo of all time…..

Story time!!!!

Nate just got pulled over while driving my car for the second time in one year. Jeez what an idiot. Once when we were driving from Arcata, CA to Portland, OR, Nate got pulled over for speeding and following too close in a rain storm. Just this morning a nice cop pulled us over for following too close! I really need to stop letting this guy drive my car. In all seriousness, Nate’s a good driver. The best part of the story is that both times the cop asked Nate if we had anything illegal in the car because we seemed so nervous. Nate tends to over-explain himself because we obviously are good guys and not cocaine smugglers with machine guns in the trunk.



Anyways we got to Cave Springs campground, set up camp, and headed into Sedona. It is one of the coolest cities we have seen so far. The red rocks are on every horizon. We checked out Red Rocks State Park and hiked the Eagle Crest trail. (We have been hiking machines) It was very hot so we bought food and headed back to camp. We decided we wanted to check out Slide Rock tomorrow because it had the best-looking rock formations we passed so far.

Nate is reading Harry Potter 5 and I cleaned a lot of junk out of my car. Great day and it hasn’t rained yet (fingers crossed)

Nate says like an idiot:
I got pulled over by probably the nicest cop in the world, saw Sedona, and chilled out. Good day.