For everyone that has been following my progress and may not have heard yet, I have arrived safely in San Diego and started my life here. So much has been going on, but after my cross country trip, I have a back log of stories and ideas. Having so much to share feels tremendous. For now, I think I will have a new format to what I write. First, I will let you know briefly where I am and how I am doing. Next, I will continue to tell the chronological story of my cross country trip and my introduction to Amor.
Where I Am and How I Am Doing
I'm in San Diego, and I'm doing fine, thank you. You could have figured that out from the previous paragraph.
Continuation of My Story
After Sarah left, I figured I would spend a day at most in Colorado Springs with Jill and IS's family. One of the big objectives of my trip was to ride my bikes in some awesome places, and I had not had much of a chance to do that in the Springs, but I still had three more major stops on my list: Moab, UT, Lake Tahoe, CA, and San Luis Obispo, CA. I also mentioned that I seemed to have a computer issue. This issue would start to slowly derail my plans, but create new opportunities for me as well.
The Computer Issue
The issue that I was having with my computer and subsequently shared with IS was that it did not seem to want to boot up. Late night on Monday, he got a chance to take a good, hard look at it. After watching it refuse to respond to any of his efforts for roughly an hour, he was able to come to a pretty solid conclusion: The hard drive had failed. Prognosis: Not very good.
IS informed me that the computer would surely need a new hard drive and estimated the odds of recovering any of the information from my broken hard drive at about 30%. Perhaps if this has never happened to you, it might be tough to understand what I was going through, but this is kind of a big deal. I had failed to back up all of the information on my laptop and it contained so much that I needed. Sponsor lists, a sponsor letter, job applications, resumes and roughly 20GB of music and movies all stood to be lost. Those that know me well know I love music and pride my wide-ranging catalog, so that was a huge struggle for me. I completely bugged out on the inside, but did my best to keep calm with IS because he was extremely graceful in spending his time and resources on my computer. IS rebuilt my computer with a new hard drive he had laying around the house, but was still very skeptical at the likelihood of recovering any of my information. In the end, he was able to recover every bit of what was on my hard drive as well. Now I still have some organizing and cataloging to do to get everything to where it was, but I have everything I need and my computer is running faster. IS spent hours of his time and provided me with a free hard drive to get my computer back to form. While it was a huge bummer that this had to happen, it clearly could not have happened in a better place. I hate to consider the prospect of losing everything on my computer or the bill if I had taken my computer to a repair man. Thanks so much Craig, I really can't express my appreciation, so I owe you Big Time.
The Opportunities I Was Afforded.
It was not until Tuesday night that my computer was ready, so I got to spend a little more time in the Springs. This turned out to be wonderful for me. On Tuesday, got out on my road bike and tried to find a good route out of town. Unfortunately, I failed miserably. After an embarrassing spill on a sidewalk at a busy intersection, I decided to call it a day. If you want details, you'll have to call me. The following day, I got out on my mountain bike and ran into a local cyclist. He pointed me toward some absolutely awesome trails. I was able to ride through downtown Colorado Springs and past Young Life headquarters, then I headed up into the mountains above the Springs for some excellent riding and breathtaking views. Pictures will most certainly follow once I am able to nail down all my picture issues. For now, use your imagination: I was riding a mountain bike on a mountain with beautiful views of the city and snow capped mountains around me.
Even better than the riding was the additional fellowship I got to experience with the Evans family. They were amazing hosts as they continued to offer me a bed, anything in their pantry, anything they cooked and one of the vehicles (You saw the subie in road warrior mode, this is not a vehicle you want to be driving if you don't have to). The Evans are also preparing for a move as they are soon headed back to Virginia from Colorado Springs. The boys are dealing with it really well, despite the fact that the only home they have ever known is the Springs. I was able to see some of the impact they have left on their community and it has clearly been profound. IS, Jill and the boys have all given a lot to the people around them and maintained am impeccable reputation, I was greatly impressed. Finally, my time with the Evans helped give me a bit of a buffer on my trip. If I had left directly after Sarah did, I would have undoubtedly felt incredibly lonely as I traveled down the highway (I know this because it turned out I felt pretty lonely anyway). The Evans made me feel comfortable and at home and sent me out with a better feeling than I would have otherwise had. I am deeply appreciative for everything they did with and for me during my stay.
Wednesday morning, I left for Moab, UT, a place I will not soon forget and you will soon learn about.
I've learned a new word during my first few days with Amor, which I have decided to use as my sign off, at least for a time.
Adelante!
-Clint
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