After our trip across the country, I love hearing about other people doing similar adventures.  Today I heard about a young man who plans to walk from my hometown of Long Beach, CA to Maine!  You can read about him at hitchcockwalks.com

For those of you who don’t already know, Ryan was in a pretty gnarly motorcycle accident yesterday afternoon.  We don’t know a whole lot about what happened, other than that he t-boned an SUV and went flying over it landing on the street 15-20 feet away.  He broke both of his legs, fractured his jaw, and had a lot of scrapes and cuts.  He is pretty hurt, but the doctors say he will be fine.  He just needs to rest and heal for a while.

We tried to visit him last night, but he had just gotten out of surgery, and so we couldn’t.  I went back today with our friend Ron and said hello.  They didn’t want us in there very long, just because he needs to rest a lot.  He wanted to pose for a picture to show everyone he is in good spirits.  Just a warning these pictures may be a little graphic.

Here is a picture of his helmet

And his backpack, that is not paint.

If you know Ryan, then you know why he is more than OK with me posting these pictures.

Last night I was riding home and noticed my odometer was about to switch over to 30,000 miles.  I pulled over and snapped a picture real quick.  Sometimes, a lot of times actually, I miss my old life on the road.

I did some math, since that is what I do now, and if I rode those 30,000 miles at an average of 50 mph that means I spent about 600 hours on that bike.  Just to give you an idea that would be the equivalent to 24 days straight on a motorcycle.  Which means in the last 30 months of my life, one whole month was spent on a motorcycle.  I am pretty proud of that.

Hey guys I just wanted to let you all know that this morning a friend of the trip, Jesse Permann, passed away from cancer.  Jesse was a fun guy, and a great poker player, and we got to hang out with him a few times while we were on the trip.  He was the kind of guy that you just didn’t get sick of, super nice, welcoming, and knew how to have a good time.  He was only 29.

For now it would be great if you guys could just pray for his family and friends, and especially for his wife Rochelle.  They just recently celebrated their one year anniversary.  Sad news, but please keep them in your prayers.

I don’t know who reads these posts, but I thought I would let people who are looking for updates know that I have been doing my personal writing and blogging on my own site since I got home.  If you are interested in keeping track of my life and writings, you can find me at NathanaelRowe.com.

I will still be updating this site with any relevant information pertaining to the trip, like events in the news or possible book updates, but other than that, you now know where to find me.

Well I have been home for about 3 and half weeks now, and a lot has changed in that time.

The first things I did when I got home was I started to work out daily, and cut fast food out of my diet.  We both ate a lot of unhealthy food on the trip, and gained a bunch of weight, so I am trying to cut a few pounds.  My goal is to have lost 25 pounds by my sister’s wedding this December, I have already lost about 12.

I have also landed three different jobs, thats right 3.  I have 5 hours as a video/graphic producer at Parkcrest Christian Church, I am running a skate park at Westside Christian Church on Fridays, and I am a substitute teacher.

It is weird doing normal things like going to work, and not wearing the same clothes everyday.  I have become especially fond of making food at home, something that was never a habit before the trip.

We were featured in the Press Telegram again shortly after I got back, and are actually working on maybe getting a TV spot with a Christian Network.  I will let you guys know more about that if it comes to fruition.

As for the book, I have been slowly working on putting our story together.  Writing is complicated, and not one of my best skills, but I keep telling myself that my only goal is to write a bad book, and then hopefully I can give it to someone else who knows how to make it into a good book.

Lastly, Aaron Caluza and I have had a great time with our new podcast at RealLBC.com, so if your a local, you should tune in some time and tell us what you think.

I think that is it for now, but I will keep you all updated.

After over 6 months of traveling and living off of only what I could fit on my bike, I am finally home.  It feels so weird, but very very good.  I loved my travels, and wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I am pleased to be home with family and friends.  When I got home today, to my grandparents house, my grandparents had made my room up for me.  When I was living here before, I had all of their furniture, and even their decorations up, I basically just stayed in a fully furnished room that was not really my own.  So when I cam home today and walked into my room, I felt like I was one of the people on the home makeover shows.  There was the cut out of my newspaper article framed on top of my dresser, and many other pictures of mine up.  I kind of hate to admit this, but I teared up a little, cause this was the first time in over 6 months that I had my own place, besides that cursed tent of mine.  I didn’t think I would be so emotional about it, but I was, and I can’t tell you how good it feels to have a home.  Don’t get me wrong, so many of you guys opened your home to Ryan and I, and we did feel at home in so many different places, but this is such a calming thing, to know that I finally have my own place, even if it is just a room in my grandparents house.

Tomorrow I start the job search, and what will hopefully become a daily workout.  On top of that, I am starting a new local podcast with my buddy Aaron Caluza for all those people in the greater Long Beach area. It is called realLBC.com, and the first episode airs this Friday!