#NothingElseMatters

After pitching a tent in a grove of Eucalyptus Trees along the Elkhorn Slough of the Pacific Coast Highway just outside of Moss Landing - there's a video somewhere about it- , a song got caught in my head and like some things on our journey, I didn't understand its significance at that moment.  

Invariably life is reduced down to one step, one song, one mile, one moment, and even just a snuggle, all of which inspire us.  To keep going.  

Nothing Else Matters  

The more ironical thing is - I'm not sure if I ever heard this song before the slough so why did it resound relentlessly in my tent that night?   

Maybe the love of a child never needs a rationalization no matter the kind and that's the message.

Does Anything Else Matter?

We Made It Murphy

At 11;30 PST, in the shadows of the Laguna mountains we walked the length of Coronado Island to the edge of Oneonta slough and Hudson, Indiana and I completed our border to border West Coast walk.  

And like most of our Southern  California days, it was sunny and 70.  Indeed, it was a glorious day.  

And like all great endings one not without its comedic twists, cosmic ironies, and poignant moments. 

The morning began with a seven mile hike to the meeting place for our Final Mile which Ginger joined us though I'd quickly learn less for the honor and privilege of partaking in such a powerful experience but more for showing off her new kilt.  Really Ginger???  There can be only One Who Rocks The Kilt...

A couple dozen friends met us to walk the final mile, some we had met along our travels, some were new.  But to my utter shock and surprise, two of my oldest and dearest friends were there:  Jim and Renee with Tripawds.  Man was that way awesome.  And it made a circle round.  You see, they were in Austin to launch our first walk and now at the ending of our second.  Yep I got all choked up. Thanks for the avocados guys - only noticed yesterday you put them in a poop bag.  Hee hee.

Inspired by another of our friends, John Stalls, who walked from Delaware to San  Francisco, I had hoped to jump into the Pacific Ocean to punctuate our tremendous accomplishment but was greeted by this sign.  Apparently Tijuana thinks the slough is a dumping ground for their sewage sludge.  Precise opposite of the pristine Canadian border where began our adventure but the two constants throughout all of it were mountains to east and the ocean at our west.  And my companions by my side.  And that includes not only Indiana who made the entire trek but Hudson who made it to the California border and Malcolm and Murphy in spirit.  

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There are so many people to extend great thanks to - the friends we made along our path, kind and courteous strangers, and even the idiot drivers who although from no lack of trying, didn't kill us on the PCH.  Walking through and across 19 states now, I know of no more treacherous stretch of road.

Thanks to my team and all of the volunteers who helped out in various capacities to ensure our safe passage and make this experience matter, to those who walked the virtual final mile with us, and to our sponsors.  

I have lots of thanking and reflecting to do in the coming weeks but without a moment's rest, I leave now for Texas to catch up on a lot of work, rest a bit, and spend a week with family....

#GoFuzzybuttsGo

Twelve days til touchdown in San Diego.  We made it to LA and ironically, we've had only four rains days the entire West Coast walk, through Washington, Oregon, and Northern California and the week we arrive in LA, we're greeted by a monsoon.  

Completely drenched in Malibu and now navigating around mudslides and flooding, we're making our way through the 75 mile swath that is the LA area.  

Still, we've been trudging onward in the dreary drizzly, record breaking rainstorm sharing the message and spreading holiday cheer, the nearby pic was walking on Rodeo Drive, 

We're on schedule to walk the final mile to the Mexico border Sunday December 14th and our friends are making final plans for the day's events.  Between now and then we have a couple of events planned leading up to the final mile:  

Saturday Dec 6th.  4-6PM.  The Shore Break Hotel. For details, 714-465-4528.  

Tuesday Dec 9th. 2-4PM. VMSG. 31896 Plaza Dr. San Juan Capistrano.  

It's been great having folks coming out and walking with us on our final stretch. To find out where you can join us for a mile or a day on our historic trek, the following sites will be posting our locations: 

www.facebook.com/PuppyUpFoundation

www.2dogsAgainstCancer.com

Or on my Instagram - 2dogs2000miles.  And on Twitter hashtag #GoFuzzybuttsGo

Scenes From the Roadside

We've encountered many curiosities on the road and these are just some of them:

I'll start out with the crazy and curiously artistic:

L
Longview WA.  Is this an homage to Daisy Duke?  

Off the Old PCH, we saw this curious crammed down version of the statue of Liberty but even though it overlooks the Pacific rather than the Atlantic it's still so inspirational.

The Bizarro 

(Left) Brony Pony?

(Right)  Sculpture in Vancouver WA

Decorative Truck in Milwaukee WA

466km

That's 300 miles darlin.  

Tomorrow is the 10th of June and our one month anniversary on the road.  We've zigged and zagged through mountains, farmland, swampland, sea ports, and urban sprawl and Oregon is now in our sights.  

This Saturday, the 14th, join Hudson, Indiana, and Yer Big Dog at the Esther Short Park at 12 noon for our crossing into Portland, the second state on our historic cross country trek.   There will be a meet and greet at the park and then we'll walk across the I-5 bridge into Oregon.  

For more information, contact ginger@2milliondogs.org  

Photo Album I

Every few weeks I'm gonna try to post random pics from the road for those that aren't on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram.  I've already taken about 2,000 photos thus far and we're not even out of Washington State yet.

The Chaos Before the Calm - our Super 8 Hotel Room prior to launch.


I'm guessin that's Hudsy's way of saying goodbye to Red or ordaining her to a higher office or something.




That's Confucia and Super Cooper we met while walking thru Bellingham WA.




Polar opposites - even posing for photos in our tent.

An evening of R&R at the Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham.



Waterfalls find their way down the westside of Chuckanut mountain.

Don't even know what to say about this other than the the photo was taken in Edison WA and it appears to be a flamingo headed dude with a cryptic and misspelled message nearby.


Hudson and the mini-donkey farm.

Fields of purple irises in Mt. Vernon WA.

Perhaps the most surprising and unbelievable fact about our travels thus far is that we've only had 2 rain days since we launched May 10th and had to break out the fuzzybutt ponchos.  No one up here believes it but it's true.  Fair winds and following seas keep with us.



Spring seems eternal here as the dogwood trees and rhododendrons continue to bloom in unabashed beauty.

The Journey Begins

“There is no greater glory than a good piece of wood in hand, the path underfoot, your companions at your side and the call of the wild leading you on…”

- Yer Big Dog

T Minus 4

Murphy's Rain

Back when Murphy was undergoing his second round of radiation at CSU, I witnessed a rainbow from a sunshower and wrote about the Japanese expression 'Mono no aware' in a blog in 2010.  Down south we call that phenomenon the Devil's Rain a phrase I renamed as to describe the hopefulness I felt beneath my tears.    

As Hudson, Indiana and I drove through the Cascades Tuesday morning and approached the Snoqualmie Pass on I-90 to Seattle, I was welcomed once again by Murphy's Rain (top left photo).  That's all I needed.  

The Drive 

After a tiresome 2,800 mile 40 hour drive, the Fuzzybutts and I made it from Memphis yesterday to make final preparations and get a lil R&R&Romping prior to our launch from the Canadian Border.  That's a pic of lil' Nana committing the cardinal sin of trespassing on Hudzer's Altar.  Yeh, you can tell how well that went by his expression.  

Peace Arch Park

One of the first tasks on my list once we got there was scoping out the park where we're having our launch this Saturday, high noon.  Never been this far north and west before and the only border crossing I've ever made on land was from Brownsville TX to Matamoros Mexico.  

There it's all chaos with rows and rows of sputtering cars, a smoggy haze, and the incessant rapping on the window by Chiclet peddlers.  

Here it's, well, peaceful and I found the inscriptions on both sides inspiring. Facing Canada, it reads, 'Children of a Common Mother', and facing the US, 'Brethren Dwelling in Unity'.  

Recon

Task 2 began at 5:30 AM as I went to scout our route on the first stretch of our trek:  The Border to Everett WA.  Driving up Interstate 5 yesterday I became a bit concerned about the road conditions we'd be confronted with but after reconning this morning, most of my fears have been allayed.  There are some tough spots sure; shoulderless backroads lined with water-filled trenches as well as long spanning narrow bridges but all doable and we've seen this many times before on our first 2 Dogs adventure.

However, there's a 10 mile track on Route 11 that presents considerable risk to our safety. Pic nearby.  High reaching cliffs on the left and a 50-80 foot drop off on the right with little to no room for negotiation.

This has me slightly worried but two things are in our favor.  First, sunrise is 4:30 AM on the west coast this time of year and when driving this stretch this morning, it was relatively desolate so we'll have a few hours to get through it before morning school and commute traffic gets underway.  Second, it is not only perilous to pedestrians but cars as well so if there we do encounter traffic, it will be slow moving.  

But there's a saying on the road, as in life I suppose.  Don't walk 10 miles until you walk the first.  Or maybe that's my saying.  I recall meeting a Marine on the trail and I always liked his perspective as we shared our many challenges on our travels.  'Impossible is just a degree of difficulty.'  

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Yer Big Dog's Notes 1:  For the next six months, this blog is my journal of our journey from Canada to Mexico and this is where it'll be posted first and from the road.  I'll have limited time and energy to proof, re-read, edit, or even re-think its content. 

YBD's Notes 2:  In 2010, Seattle was our last stopping point on the lecture circuit after the Austin to Boston walk and it was right before Murphy was due for his second CT scan back at CSU where we would ultimately learn that not only did his first radiation fail but a new sarcoma had developed on his nasopharynx.  

It's bittersweet to be back here again and I couldn't help but find a subtle irony in that to return here, we had to cross through the Bitterroot Mountains and the flowers that they're named for.  Nearby is a photo, not mine, as they were not in bloom yet. 

What I love about the Bitterroot is it's stubbornness to survive even in the harshest of all conditions.  It can live up to a year without water...

Is This Thing On?

Over the course of the next three weeks I'll be road testing some new technologies to incorporate and use to maximize interactivity with Walk 2: The West Coast.

This is our walk, all of our walk, and we'll broadcast it to as many and as loudly we can...
CANCER.TOUCHES.EVERYONE.

WALK 2: Fluid Dynamics

Now that we're out of the forest and training on the Memphis Greenline, our focus this week has shifted towards pacing.  So why is that important?  

With my average stride, I can walk 3.5 to 3.75 miles per hour bearing weight, a fairly fast pace for the fuzzybutts... almost a trot for them really.  But one of the rules of the road is one must walk their walk.  Which basically means, you must abide by nature's design of you.  

So since I cannot quicken nor slow my pace for extended periods, nor they, me, most of our training comes down to figuring out how a Man-Pyr (that's YBD), a French poet and existentialist (that's Hudson), and a Moose (that's, well, Moosey) reach a rhythm on the road.  

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The Problem is Pyrs

I always thought it was god's greatest joke on me that I choose to go on great journeys with one the most notoriously "independent" breeds. That's how wonderful rescues like the  National Great Pyrenees Rescue characterizes them anyway.  I have my own sobriquet for Pyrs, crasser and truer to my southern roots, and one that could and should equally apply to me, too.      

Such as it is, pacing is a partnership and that's why it's of paramount importance at this stage of training.  

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A Matter of Metrics

To attain our 25 week West Coast Walk, we must average a little over 12 miles per day. From our work last week and this, I now know that 6 miles per two hours is a comfortable pace for us.  That includes a 15-20 minute break halfway and a few 'stop and sniffs'.  

But with a laggard and a leader... I'll let you guess which is which... the science isn't always that exact.  

A partnership presupposes many things, but what's most important to its success is fluidity and I feel like Hudson-Indiana-Luke, our little Industrial Puppy Complex is making great strides towards...

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Yer Big Dog's (YBD's) Notes 1:  I am pleased with our progress and preparation over these past few weeks, although we've had a few hiccups throughout... More on that later.

YBD's Notes 2:  This week is gear training and filming the Trailer.  

The Road

Is a curious thing.
It forgives and forgets

It punishes and at times,
Demands pay

Whether footsteps towards
Or footsteps away

No certainty
Not on any day

Those that step
Must accept

There are no manmade laws
Just the awe

Of living on The Road

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YBD's Notes 1:  Happy Saint Patrick's Day.  This poem was inspired by the Irish saying, 'May the road rise to meet you.".  

YBD's Notes 2:  Bollocks.  

YBD's Notes 3: The Road represents the path in life you take.  May YOU rise to meet The Road.    

WALK 2: The Route

WEST COAST WALK ROUTE

Launch Date:  May 10th, 2014

Launch Location:  Peace Arch Park Vancouver BC

Vancouver BC to Everett WA:

Route: 543 to Portal Way

            Vista to Hovander

            West Smith to Pacific Highway

            Northwest Ave to Samish Way

            Hwy 99 to Cedardale Rd

            Pacific Hwy to Hwy 99

Distance: 90 miles.  Estimated Week of Arrival (WOA): May 18th

Everett WA to Seattle WA

Route: Hwy 99

Distance: 30 miles.  Estimated WOA: May 18th

Seattle WA to Tacoma WA

Route: Hwy 99

Distance: 35 miles.  Estimated WOA: May 25th

Route Tacoma WA to Portland OR

Route: Hwy 7 to Hwy 507

Distance:  155 miles .  Estimated WOA: June 8th

Portland OR to Otis OR

Route: Hwy 99 W

Distance: 85 miles.  Estimated WOA: June 15th

Otis OR to Gardiner OR

Routes for Remainder of the Walk: Hwy 101 and Hwy 1

Distance:  100 miles.  Estimated WOA: June 22nd

Gardiner OR to North Bend OR

Distance 30 miles.  Estimated WOA: June 29th

North Bend to Brookings OR

Distance: 110 miles.  Estimated WOA: July 6th

Brookings OR to Eureka CA

Distance: 115 miles.  Estimated WOA: July 20th

Eureka CA to Loleta CA*

Distance: 15 miles.  Estimated WOA: July 27th

Loleta CA to Garberville CA*

Distance: 65 miles. Estimated WOA: August 3rd

Garberville CA to Fort Bragg CA*

Distance: 70 miles. Estimated WOA: August 10th

Fort Bragg CA to San Francisco

Distance: 175 miles. Estimated WOA: September 1st

San Francisco to Carmel

Distance: 120 miles. Estimated WOA: September 14th

Carmel to Santa Barbara CA

Distance: 230 miles. Estimated WOA: October 1st**

Santa Barbara CA to LA

Distance: 110 miles. Estimated WOA: October 12th**

LA to San Diego CA

Distance: 125 miles. Estimated WOA: October 26th

San Diego CA to Border

Distance: 15 miles.  Estimated Date for Arrival Party:  Weekend of November 1st

TOTAL ESTIMATED MILEAGE: 1,675 miles

*Some areas of Hwy 101 don't seem to be open to pedestrians. Alternative route may be necessary

WALK 2: Chickasaw

A Hudson and Indiana Joint

Finally after bringing the bitter and brutal weather down south from one of the snowiest and coldest Northeastern winters I've been in, we got a break in the weather and took advantage of it at Chickasaw State Park.

Hudson and Indiana and I spent the past half week there training and they did great.  We've been hiking in all sorts of conditions and terrains but the working relationships will be markedly different  than with Hudson and Murphy and me.   More on that later...

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We're Back in the Tent Again (Cue Aerosmith)

The fuzzybutts and I have spent a night or two in our tent now and then but now we're ramping up to the six or seven nights per week for our West Coast Walk.  

When camping out, our world is framed within 7'x9' ripstop nylon walls and that's all we really need.  Base camp is our sanctuary and the official Offices of Snuggles and Snuggles no matter where we're at.  

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For the Love of Loblolly's 

The Chickasaw Forest has acres and acres of pine trees and when we had a moment to rest, my favorite place to repose was in a grove of Loblolly's.  

When there's a decent wind, there's nothing like lying on your back watching and listening as they sway in legato like the lilt of an Indian flute.  

Yer Big Dog's Notes 1: I've been here before on Walk 1.  The stretch from Memphis to Nashville TN was treacherous and rife with challenges from 64 to Whiteville, 100 to Mousetail, and 412 on to Columbia and 31.  

YBD's Notes 2:  And there's a wonderful Mennonite bakery off of 64 that we stopped at on Walk 1.   I was so hungry and I bought a pound of their roasted garlic cheese but alas, they no longer sell it.  

Heisenberg's Uncertainty

"Natural science, does not simply describe and explain nature; it is part of the interplay between nature and ourselves."

Damnit Yer Big Dog!

Not that Heisenberg....

This one!

Way back in college when I was pre-med, I took several physics courses which pretty much kicked me in the arse... but I loved it.

I could wikipedia a link to Werner Heisenberg's Principle for you to read and understand about how it was one of the tectonic shifts from Newtonian physics to Quantum Mechanics.

But in my best and most humble attempts over the years, I've reduced it down to this:  "There are things unseen, there are things known, but can we see the things unknown?"  

'Hizzy's P' as it's known in the 'biz', has become a much larger metaphor for me, an intersection at which I oftentimes find myself lost and without direction.  And yet unafraid.  

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Integrative Manual Therapy

Late last year our Baltimore walk organizer, Chris, turned me onto IMT and I visited their Institute back in January after her dog, Blake was DX'd with menigioma.  I spent a day with the founders and thought leaders of Integrative Manual Therapy, Tom and Sharon.  

I must admit, watching them work on Blake was bumfuzzling especially since I was raised in a 'Western medicine' environment as my father was a nephrologist.  Even after a lengthy conversation with Tom, I still couldn't reach my mind around IMT.  

I tried to blog about the experience but I felt like a vegan writing a review about a Bobby Flay burger joint. But I've seen things on my travels most people wouldn't believe so I've learned to keep an open mind.  I mean, after all, Western medicine has been around for hundreds of years; Eastern medicine thousands.  

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I Got Yer Back

Chris, ever so resolute and firm in her belief of IMT, and a whole host of others too, convinced me to get treatment on my L5 herniated disc.  I've written in previous posts about a work injury and subsequent car wreck that left me with, at times, crippling chronic pain that I had learned to live with and compensate for.  

The Thursday before I left New England, I went up to Hartford CT in part because of a promise I made to Chris and, perhaps, in part out of desperate hopefulness for some sort of relief.  I don't and won't take pain meds and have a general aversion to pharmaceuticals of all flavors.    

Following a thorough history and assessment, Tom's conclusion was that my back's range of motion was about 1/6th of its normal flexibility and utility and my leg muscles had been doing most of its work as a result. I kinda already knew that but what happened next is still head scratching to me.  

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On Barb's Butt, Sweet N'Low, and Green Tea

I have to be honest, I was pretty skeptical going into my IMT treatment since my only prior experience was watching Blake, who couldn't speak openly about it, and Chris' friend, Barb, who had a packet of sugar substitute placed on her backside to see how her body reacted.  

I called Mommy G after that in an attempt to explain IMT to her and said, "Well, I thought I understood it until the sugar butt thing."  

Trust me, you put any form of food or spirits anywhere near me and my body will say, "Yes, please."   Maybe that's because I'm a dog or from TX...  Still, Tom and Sharon make a mean cup of green tea and having spent time in Japan, I know a cup of tea, and I made an appointment to see them. 

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Yoga Makes You Fart

That's what I've heard anyway.  

And when I was on the IMT table for the first time, that's all I could think about as admittedly I was nervous about the experience.  

And then Tom put his hands on me.  Not like a massage therapist or chiropractor working out or through the tension, Tom was trying to find the source of it I've ascertained.  It's like unwinding a clock back to zero hour.  Back before the pain.  

Those that know me know I'm not a touchy-feely sort of fellow.  And yet, after a few minutes of Tom's and Sharon's hands on me, I felt comforted.  They didn't exert any force to me physically and yet after the therapy, my lower back was afire.

Now I recall my studies of thermodynamics about time and pressure but all of my erudition and the laws of science I had grown so accustomed to know and love somehow didn't apply anymore. 

Even after therapy was concluded, Tom said I'd feel light headed and I was thinking, "Yeah, right."  And yet I swooned. 

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Postscripts from a Curious Skeptic

My lower back though not healed, the daily hurt I have to contend with has lessened.  And once the West Coast Walk is complete, I will return to the IMT Institute.  

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YBD's Notes 1:  You can see the unknown if you have the courage to.

YBD's Notes 2:  Sorry Barb for using your butt as a learning lesson, but...

YBD's Notes 3:  I can't thank Tom and Sharon and their staff enough for their time and patience throughout this process.  

YBD's Notes 4:  Breaking Bad is one of the best serials ever and I now understand where Vince Gilligan got his inspiration from, philosophically and sartorially.  

The Circle Just

The other day I posted on Facebook about winding things down in New England in preparation for Walk 2 and that moving on isn't the hardest part for an adventurer, it's the leaving behind.  But that's only mostly right.  

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The Shannon Door

Ironically enough this was the first restaurant I ate at in North Conway NH with our dear friends Donna & Larry and it was where we ended up Wednesday night.  

That's them with their niece, Christina, and Jim the ball busting bartender that makes the waitstaff at Dick's Last Resort look like Disney workers. He's a good kid and infinitely entertaining though he makes girly drinks.  

I had hoped to get some exercise up in the White Mountains and man did my wish come true though not like I anticipated.  The accumulation of snow and ice was so steep on their driveway Larry drove his plow into the bank not once but twice and we had to dig it out both times.  

Heck I'm just a simple man from Texas and I started to think this is some strange sport up here.... Some folks down south canoodle catfish, some wrestle gators, but up here drive your truck in the ditch then dig it out.  I was ready to break out the Foreman Grill and the Brats and beer.  

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Sea Glass

When I spent my first week in Newport this past year, Valerie convinced me to go to Fort Adams for what seemed like picking up trash.   I'm all about beautifying the world we live in but it was brutal cold and dowsing wet sand didn't seem like a productive use of my time.  Even after I uncovered a handful or two I still didn't get it.  

Some fellas at a frat party in Australia, say, threw beer bottles in the ocean decades ago and I'm collecting the shards.  Still, there was something storied I found in the sea glass and their ill-lustered beauty.  I made a bracelet for Valerie in memory of her Max out of them to thank her for hosting the fuzzybutts and I this past year.  But it wasn't easy.  

Six drill bits later and two deep puncture wounds to my thumb, I finally figured it out and finished it tonight.  

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We've had a warm and wonderful send off as we start heading down south tomorrow and god willing, the three of us will all be back up here in November. But it's more than just moving on and leaving behind.  It's that you can't travel with.  

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YBD's Notes 1: I've been inviting a few friends and colleagues to come out to the west coast and walk with us if even for a week.  I think it'll make the experience that much fuller and richer...

YBD's Notes 2:  Andre the Frikkin Giant.  Really?  

Form Follows Function

Not known to many, that phrase was coined by Louis Sullivan, the father of modern American architecture and the mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright not Wright himself.  

I've spent the past few days mapping out, to the best of my present abilities, our path from Canada to Mexico.  

Things tend to change on the road but everything begins with a start and a finish and I have that now.  

The walk will start at the Peace Arch Park that straddles the Washington state border.    

From there it continues through the following cities: Everett, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, San Francisco, Monterey, LA and down to San Diego.  

And it will end at the Border Field State Park.  Border to border.  Brother to brother. 

Based on Google calculations, the sum total mileage is roughly 1600 miles.  

Sullivan's full quote was, "It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things superhuman, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law."