CROSSING THE COUNTRY

At the beginning of this month I got to drive and run across America. All in only 3 days. From Idaho to North Carolina by way of Alabama and Georgia. Long, long days.

( Each pin point on the map represents places we have been over the past month. From Portland, Oregon, to Yellowstone National Park to Georgia to North Carolina and back again.)

Our son, Daniel got married in North Carolina and we decided it would be more fun to drive across the U.S. instead of fly. It would give us a chance to see places we have never seen and also to stop by and see our daughter, Rachael, and our two grand-daughters, Maddie and Zoey, in Georgia.

Somewhere in the planning stages I thought it would be fun to try and run in each state we drove through. After all, how many chances will I have to do something like that. So I decided I would try to run at least 5k (3.1 miles) in each state, But knowing we would only have three days to drive nearly 3,000 miles I knew that would be tough. Plus the second day of driving we would hit 6 states. That would mean driving a thousand miles and running 21 miles all in 15 hours.

A pretty ambitious plan. One thing I didn't figure on was how cold it would be in the first few states we passed through. It's been six months since we moved here from Hawaii and I still don't have cold-weather running clothes.

I can say I didn't hit my 5k goal in every state and I did skip running when we passed through Tennessee, our sixth state in one day. It was dark, cold and I was tired.

Nonetheless, we had a blast. There were a lot of firsts for me. The first time driving across America. First time being in most of the states we've been in. First time in the eastern time zone. First time I've ran in 5 states in one day. (How many people can say that?) And my first time to see the Atlantic Ocean. Not bad for a couch potato.

So get off the couch fellow couch potatoes and get out there and do something. Have fun, get healthy. Life is calling ...

(Maddie and me making faces for the camera)

(Daniel and I at the beach at Camp Lejeune)

(Running in Georgia)

(Karen and Rebecca at the beach)

Karen and I at the beach)

(Maddie)

(I got the chance to shoot with some Marines at the shooting range.)

(Running next to the Atlantic Ocean)

(Echo Canyon in Utah)

(Daniel and Dawn's wedding)

(Running in Utah)

(Running at sunrise in Iowa)

Maddie and I shopping

Zoey.

(Running in Missouri)

The Atlantic ocean

(Stepping into the Atlantic)

(Rebecca at the beach)

ROAD TRIP

Athens, Alabama ... That's where we are tonight. Karen, Rebecca and I are traveling cross country from Idaho to North Carolina for our son, Daniel's wedding next Saturday.

We left Monday morning around 5 a.m. and made it to York, Nebraska by about 10 p.m. One of my goals is to stop in each state we travel through and run just enough to say I ran in that state. Its been fun. So far I've run in Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky. I missed Tennessee just because it was dark and frankly I was tired. I'll catch it on our way back. 

As I said we are in Alabama tonight (Tuesday) and I plan on running here in the morning. Tomorrow we head down to Tuscaloosa where we are stopping by to say hi to a friend from Hawaii who lives there now, then we are off to Georgia to see our daughter Rachael and our two granddaughters. 

The next day we head off to the East Coast and North Carolina to See Daniel and his bride-to-be, Dawn and attend their wedding Saturday. 

Come Sunday we do it all again and drive three days back to Idaho and running in whatever states we go through that I haven't run in yet. 

Running in Iowa at Sunrise. 

Running in Utah on Monday just after sunrise.

So there you have it. This is a first for me. I've never been to most of these states and running in them is a blast and makes for some interesting conversations. It's mostly been cold however. That's why I'm wearing jeans in the Utah photo. I don't have any cold-weather clothes since this is my first fall/winter

on the mainland since we moved from Hawaii. hmmm ... maybe I can get some clothing and shoe sponsors out of this ... lol 

See you out there.