Well, it looks like we’ve not only passed our initial funding goal, but we’ve even gone a little over. We didn’t think it was possible to raise so much money so quickly. We are overwhelmed by the outpour of support you’ve all given us. Thanks doesn’t even begin to describe how we feel about your donations and your desire to share our cause with others. Personally, I was touched when we hit our first $1,000. Last week, tears welled when we hit our $10,000 goal. We’ve had many discussions since then about our next step. We debated whether it was right or wrong to increase our funding goal and the sort of message that sends to the people who have already given so generously to our cause.

After days of weighing multiple options, we’ve decided that there is absolutely no way we can simply stop at our initial goal. On July 27th, we depart on the PanAmerica. And this project will reach well beyond our circle of family and friends as it goes national. We’ve seen what the people we know can do to help fight Lou Gehrig’s Disease, now let’s see how the rest of the country can make a difference.

At any given moment, there are roughly 30,000 people diagnosed and living with ALS in the United States. Now that we’ve passed one dollar for every mile that we drive, we’d love to raise one dollar for EVERY ALS PATIENT IN THE UNITED STATES! Fairwell ten grand. You were a sexy fling. Hello $30,000! We can’t wait to see you soon! We know it will be the best $30,000 that everyone involved will have spent this year. If not for the cause, then at least for the adventure. We’ve said it a bunch, and we’ll say it again:

We love each and every one of you. Without you, there is no PanAmerica.

And by the way, I know I’ve been quiet for a little while, but I hope that picture proves that I wasn’t just sitting around doing nothing.

I don’t have much commentary for this because I think it pretty well speaks for itself.
But I would like to say thank you to Anders Yarborough for being an incredible Director and Camera Man, Matt Sutphen for his aerial photography and expertise in dealing with Park Rangers, and Matthew Jensen for editing it all and making it look so damn cool.

First off, congratulations to my cousin Vanessa Tobias, wait, make that Vanessa uhh. . . hmm . . . Vanessa something that starts with an S, and her new husband Phil. . . S. on an awesome and beautiful wedding.

The trip up to the wedding near Kirkwood, CA, which is just outside of South Lake Tahoe, made for the perfect PanAmerica training mission. The 15 hour 900-ish mile round trip gave me a few bits of insight so that I can better prepare for the big event.

I learned that once mosquitoes get in the car with you, they don’t want to leave, so you need to put the windows down for quite a long time to get them out. However, it’s worth putting up with the mosquitoes in order to close the windows when driving past the manure plant.

I also learned that when we are lucky enough to stay in a hotel on our trip, we should make sure they have A/C, fresh batteries in the smoke detector, and at least one f-ing employee on the property after hours (after hours being any time other than about 9:15 am to a little after lunch time). I’m no hotel snob, really. Rob, Trent and I slept on the dirt, in a trailer park, in 29 Palms, in the summer, and it was a thousand times more comfortable than Dante’s 10th Circle of Hell, the Kirkwood Mountain Resort. Seriously, I would like to never stop urinating on this building, unless of course, it was on fire and my stream had a chance of putting the fire out.