Project 50 developed as a plan to drive through all fifty states before I turned fifty, but in reality, the quest began at the age of eighteen.  Since becoming a legal adult, I added states sporadically, and by 2010 the list of states to visit dwindled to ten.  I embarked on an aggressive campaign to tackle the remaining twenty percent and within one year, all but one had slid to the “Conquored” column.  On September 16, 2015, I landed in Honolulu and fulfilled the quest.  With my bucket list effectively shattered, the reflection and recapping phase began and the collection of stories of the journey began to unfold.

• The Sun Comes With You

  The Beckoning

  Every time I return to southern California, the experience resembles a reabsorbing into the mother ship. It’s less about the oddity of the left coast (my oddity is not unique to one geography) and more about the ease with which I slide into the megalopic routine.  The traffic, the flow, the pace, the places all feel like an extension of my current existence despite having left the region as an infant.  The ebb and flow of the tide are more than a relaxing tap on the shoulder during a beach outing, they tug on my core as if to keep drawing me back to my roots.  I embrace the embryonic yank as a born-again native (see “My Oldest Memory” from April 2012).

  While visiting friends, I insisted they not take time away from work – I could certainly entertain myself with the ambiance of the ocean. Between the eastern edge of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific, and around the radius of their cozy abode, dozens (maybe even hundreds) of adventures of all sizes awaited my open schedule.  Zuma Beach nonetheless beckoned.  The rows of volleyball nets, most of which were vacant, and the lengthy walk from car side to the water’s edge did not deter me any more than the miles of gridlock or June gloom hanging over the Golden State.  The ocean is calling and I must go.

  Stratus

  I left the bulk of the buzzing SoCal hive once I began the drive up and over Newton Canyon cruising narrow lanes and enviable plots of land and one-of-a-kind residences. Topanga Canyon, Coldwater Canyon, pick your favorite, but this particular cozy curvature is mine.  Passing my favorite tasty point of origin (see “Where’s Jack?” from March 2013), the relaxed, live-in-the-moment side of me wants to cling to the pavement reaching from side to side within my lane savoring each curve as a thrill ride through the hills.  The eager, hurry-up-and-get there force pushes me to peek around each curve to determine how much farther until I’m there, reminding the other side of my brain not to rush.  The beach isn’t going anywhere.  Still, when I reach the first vista where the Pacific pops into view, it isn’t there.  The shroud of dense fog and the granite grays of the sunlessness on the road ahead of me instantly alter my vision of a sunny day at the beach.

  Having come this far, I am undeterred. Rather than sit on my blanket, I might need to wrap it around myself.  I won’t have to scurry across the hot sand – it might be frigid.  This won’t change my plans, I insist.  Eventually the sun will burn off this stratus layer, sooner, hopefully, rather than later.  Even though the day appears mildly brighter as I reach the Pacific Coast Highway, the fog persists.  I tap my inner bright side musing the beach won’t be crowded.  And then, at the moment I pull into the lane to pay my fee, Mr. Sunshine conquers the clouds.  Rather than quote me the price of parking the attendant muses, “The sun comes with you.”  Perhaps its gloriously warm rays are part of my DNA, too.

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• The Natchez Trace – Part 2
• The Natchez Trace – Part 1
• Tracing History
• Arches National Park
• Delicate
• Against The Wind
• Computer Guru And Cupcake Godsend
• Hazy Shade Of Summer
• Five Routes Coming and Going
• Volksmarching
• The Maine Bridge
• Penobscot Narrows
• In Service Of Others
• Above The Kootenai River
• Along The Kootenai River
• Could I Conquer The Kootenai?
• A View of Alaskan – Part 2
• A View of Alaskan – Part 1
• A Taste of Alaskan
• The Mystery Of Sage
• Baltimore Nevermore
• 100 Miles And A Couple Centuries
• Honey
• Boca Chita Lighthouse
• The Florida Keys
• A Little Bit of Something Is Better Than A Whole Lot of Nothing
• Bighorn Mountains – Part 2
• Bighorn Mountains – Part 1
• Come Up For Air
• Roadside Attracting
• Sweet Home Alabama
• Mount Rainier National Park
• Change Of Plans
• Curbside
• Sesquicentennial
• Dodging A Bullet
• Besides The Bus To Wal-Mart
• The Bus To Wal-Mart
• Where’s My Luggage?
• Moonlight in Minnesota
• 360° Around Lake Tahoe – Part 2
• 360° Around Lake Tahoe – Part 1
• Circumnavigation
• An Ocean View Spoiled
• Georgia Agritourism
• The Twins
• Donner Pass
• Forty Years On An Airplane
• Cornered On A Hilltop
• Cumbres and Toltec
• Pizza, A Wedding, and Queen
• Setting Scouting
• Joe vs. The Wicker Furniture
• Astronomer’s Inn
• Springtime in Chicago
• Counting The Cars
• Grapes to Wine
• Drink The Wine
• Combing Through My Memories
• The Charm of Fort Clatsop
• Have You Ever Had That Feeling You’ve Been Somewhere Before?
• Bats In The Theater
• Where’s Jack?
• Barren Trees
• Remembrance Day – Part 2
• Remembrance Day – Part 1
• An Education at Gettysburg
• Field of Dreams
• I Owe Oregon
• Ocracoke Nachos
• Just Sitting
• In-Flight Homework
• What Would You Do For The Klondike?
• From A Distance
• The Subway
• Just Passing Through
• In The Shadow Of A Tower
• Guadalupe Mountains National Park – Part 2
• Guadalupe Mountains National Park – Part 1
• El Paso, El Paso
• Crossing The Rivers
• Crossing the Mississippi
• Learning To Drive
• Changes In Rank
• Playing Defense
• The Chicken Coupe
• The Soundtrack
• One-Trip Wonder
• My Muse
• On The Trail Of Family and Friends
• Airborne
• The Night Before
• Forty-Nine
• Forgotten
• Waiting
• O’Boisies
• Four Old Rolls Of Film
• An Old Roll Of Film
• Almost Heaven
• Florida’s Interiors – Part 2

• Florida’s Interior
• The Ice Machine In The River
• The UP
• Through the Ocala National Forest
• You Go, Girl
• Between Here and the Channel Islands
• To Live And Die In A Week
• In The Footsteps Of My Grandfather
• Life Is A Highway
• You Can See Forever
• My Oldest Memory
• On A Clear Day
• Antelope Island
• Chocolate World
• Overnight On The Amtrak
• One Hundred Years
• Trees
• My Dashing Parents
• Spans
• Hidden Beauty
• The 5th Lake
• OMES
• Are You Ready for Some Baseball?
• After the Clock Struck Twelve
• Leap Day
• Beautiful Beasts
• Perceptual Property
• George Washington
• My Son’s Mecca
• Went-to-the-Sun Road
• And the Moon Rose Over an Open Field
• Conan the Hoosier
• Jumping Off Point
• In Bloom
• Ponies and Locomotives
• Brock University
• Shared by Bears and Coeds
• The Progression of a Snowball Fight
• Jacob Lake
• Another Postcard
• A Day’s Lesson
• Souvenirs
• The Mile High Club
• Mulholland Drive
• The Idiot Tree
• The Rivers of Idaho
• Breathing Windmills
• Vapor Trails
• North Dakota on a Napkin
• Outside the Box
• The Next Chapter
• Ad Placement
• Rapid City, Rapid Change
• The Vet
• Traveling with Boys
• Desert Dust
• On The Advice of Friends