First Week on the Road

What can I say? The West Coast has, so far, proven itself to be the Best Coast (sorry Brenda, but it's the truth). We have met some of the most amazing people, from San Diego to Phoenix to Tucson to Phoenix to Los Alamos to Tucson! They have fed us delicious food, given us comfortable places to sleep, taken us around town, been interested in what we have to say & in what we are doing, and have overall just been amazing.

In Phoenix, we met some super inspired kids who were so interested in our cause. They know what's up, and they can relate because they know people in very similar situations (minus the refugee part-- but they know the "economic migrant" part).

Tucson was also exciting. Our screening at U of A was crazy! The room that was originally reserved for our screening ended up being given away to another group for a seminar... so 10 minutes before our screening was supposed to start, we found another room to utilize. Our contacts there were so great, being flexible & helping us out as much as possible! After the screening we ate ate eegee's in Tucson (a local restaurant chain)-- they serve the best drinks! It is basically a mix between a slushie and an icee. Wow. So delicious. Shaina (our host) tried to take us to Seguaro National Park (with the GIANT cacti), but the park was closed by the time we got there. So instead, we laid on a bench and looked at the stars (For you Californians & other City Folk, stars are bright, burning balls of gas in the sky that are absolutely amazing).

We headed up to Los Alamos, NM after we finished up in Tucson and Phoenix, arriving at 1:30am at my parents house. They were so sweet-- all of us had sheets on our beds (or the couch), and in the morning, my mom baked us Company French Toast, which is bascially the best breakfast that has ever been made in the history of the world (I'm not biased or anything, I promise... haha). LAHS was super cool. I am so proud of my former high school. The kids were so attentive & many of them were extremely inspired (in fact, some of them inspired US because they were so cool). My home church was also super cool. They know their stuff up in Los Alamos, and knew the questions to ask and the things to say. It was nice to know that they now understand what I'm doing & what LiNK is all about. I'm glad we were able to share my passion with the people that I know and care about.

I was also invited to do a radio interview for a christian radio station in Santa Fe/Albuquerque (KKIM). It was basically like an intense 15 minute Q & A session. It was really great to be able to get the word out throughout New Mexico about what we are doing! We have another radio interview when we are in Idaho... and maybe a few more will come through (?)

We are just arriving in Tucson for another screening tomorrow. Valerie (our host) has already made herself identifiable as an awesome person! She is so prepared for us to come already, and has thought out every minute detail, even what we want to do tomorrow afternoon (hiking, sight seeing, other fun activities). She is such a sweet lady & we haven't even met her yet!

Even though this is just the first week, I'm pretty sure this tour is going to be amazing (at least I'm hoping so!) Things I'm looking forward to: Camping on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, visiting Vancouver, and having (so far) 15 screenings in one week in LA (and it's not fully booked yet), and meeting lots of awesome & inspired new people! Crazy & fun times! :)