Hello friends,

Good afternoon to all wherever you call home this Monday Presidents Day, hoping you are all safe and well. It doesn’t feel like a week has gone by since I wrote to you last, the time is just flying by as the months seem to pass like weeks for me. It has been a good week for me for the most part but as the old rhyme goes the rain will not stop from falling in this part of the country. “Rain, rain go away, little Johnny wants to work” is what I’ve been singing for the better part of a month now and the situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better soon.

I have been able to find a secure job as I mentioned last post in nearby Los Gatos for a nice family named Tuck but the constant fall of rain has prevented me from maximizing my time and earning capacity now that I need it the most. There are two flights to purchase along with my regular bills to pay but everyday Mother Nature keeps me on the side lines with her gully washers and road closures it just puts me one day further from my final destination in Arizona, where I now have people lined up waiting for my arrival with projects of their own. I can’t complain too loudly I guess since I’m enduring this in the warmth and comfort of my family instead of a truck stop or library and knowing friends and family back in Tucson can’t wait to see me but the anxious and hurried feeling of completing the journey seem to be growing by the day!

There is tons of work in this area and there will be even more when the weather finally does clears with projects put on hold and storm damage and restoration jobs piling up with every passing system. But for me and my tour the situation is on a different timeline. I don’t need a full time job as I’ve been offered by many folks already; I just need enough to get by for the next three states. No one wants to be done more than I do by this point but I almost feel like I’m robbing Alaska and Hawaii of my fullest attention.

The excitement and joy that I should be anticipating with two of the, if not thee most beautiful states left on the list was left on the snowy slopes of the Cascades mountains of Washington and Oregon. The stress and miles of the past months have left me drained of much of the euphoria I should be feeling right now and I’m fighting hard to recoup those emotions and feeling one would usually be experiencing so close to visiting those amazing destinations. The good news is that I’m determined to finish off no matter what and once I’m on the Alaskan frontier and sandy warm beaches of Oahu all these words will just fade away like all the other bad experiences of the adventure, and only the good and awesome memories will come to mind and carry me all the way to my desert home.   

I also enjoyed a fine afternoon last Thursday with by little sister Ester who lives in the Sunset district across the bay. We haven’t seen each other for over a year and she is one of my followers on this site and biggest supporters of everything I do. A beautiful charismatic woman filled with a joy for life and people, especially her eight grandkids who all live in the area. She treated me to dinner at a great local Italian restaurant in the Mission district called Borgo’s and we sat for hours at her sea side apartment chatting about our kids, family and my journey. It was great to see her and escape for a while from my ongoing project.

Unfortunately I don’t have a picture to share with you of the many I took that day due to the fact that my one year old grandson grabbed my phone as I was sitting on the couch relaxing this weekend and slammed it on the wood floors like one of his toys! Its ironic folks that my precious phone that I have been guarding and protecting these last nine and a half months with all my strength, my number one tool and source of communication, navigation, picture and video provider finally met its demise at the hands of a 14 month year old toddler. All the dirt, mud, ice, snow and rain along with soda, coffee and ketchup didn’t kill the cellphone after all these miles and states, but in a split second Jayden rendered it useless with a football style spike on the family room floor.  Good thing I had packed my old phone just in case I lost this one and had it reactivated yesterday since the insurance claim thru Verizon is $200 to replace the broken one, out of the question right now. But I still lost some data that will never be recovered, gotta love it!

Well friends that is all for now, I plan to book my first flight tomorrow but at this point I’m not sure if Alaska or the Hawaiian Islands will come first due to affordability and availability but they will get done. I greatly appreciate your support and interest all these months and hope you continue to check in with my progress. I thank you and bid you a good night!    #Yo-Ga-Fla

Juanjohn

Hello friends

 Happy Monday evening to all from Union City in beautiful northern California. I write you this late hour with a lot of effort and difficulty as I fight off the fatigue and exhaustion. The good news is if you read my fifty gig list I completed my California job last week. I am fortunate to be here with my family eating better and resting after months on the road. I also landed another job in Los Gatos helping with a remodeling job since Saturday that I haven’t have the time or energy to sit behind the laptop and check in with you. It will takes weeks for me to get back to a normal physical functioning level I believe, but here in the comfort of my sons home I can at least escape for the elements, truck stops and libraries and catch up on some sleep and protein.

Truth be told friends I was getting so worn out these last few weeks as I continued on that I was at times experiencing sudden black outs and dizzy spells due I believe to the stress, diet and road miles. I knew that once I arrived here that the worse of the tour would be over; knock on wood of course! I planned it this way all along, which is being here with only my flight states remaining. I am working now to save money for my Alaska and Hawaiian tickets and currently working on a plan to fly to complete Nevada in Las Vegas, which I didn’t complete the first time around in May.

Once I complete those trips I will be able to drive south to Arizona stopping only in Los Angeles to visit my L.A. cousins for a couple of days before finally rolling back home to Tucson sometime in March. That is the closest I can calculate my arrival; bear in mind that my predictions have been way off from the start! My plan for Juneau is a four to five day stay, hoping I can pull a rabbit out of the hat with a gig in that short amount of time but realistically I don’t have the resources to hold put for very long there.  Hawaii will be different not just because of the weather but because I have friends there and supplemental work waiting for me, since I’ll need money to get back to the mainland. It will also be hard to leave to sandy warm beaches and cold frozen drinks as well!

I suppose it feels like my journey is sort of winding down at this point and my body surely wants a break from all the fun but this is only part two of three of my plan. Planning of course was the first stage with the research, web building and media buzz six months in the making before I launched in early May. Followed by the past nine and a half months and counting of the actual road tour as you have witnessed. But once I get home and rest a few days then stage three will begin as I compose all the data, pictures and stories complied from the journey and attempt to translate my adventure into a fact filled, personal perspective and excitingly interesting read for you folks, with far more in-depth stories and experiences that I saved for the book. I also will be working hard to find the right publishing company, one that can capture the essence of our journey together. I will keep you abreast with that part of the story as it develops in the coming weeks.

Well friends good night for now I have to get up early for work, so I will depart for the air mattress in the living room for the night, boy I sure am going to miss those truck stop parking lots!

Have a great week and thanks for checking in!  #Yo-Ga-Fla.

Juanjohn