Project Save Our Surf Eastbound deliver for Sandy Victims

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http://projectsaveoursurf.org/wordpress/

 

 

Day 1: The Journey Begins

Our journey began in Santa Barbara, California. Karon Pardue (VP of PSOS) and myself head to south to pick up shoes at Olukai in Orange County. Olukai was kind enough to donate over 700 pairs of shoes, which was over $85K in shoes and several boxes of supplies. The entire company joined us as we  loaded up the 26ft Uhaul. Unfortunately, we were so loaded and still had one more stop in Flagstaff, Arizona that we decided to leave some boxes behind (they will be shipped) and start our journey East.

Karon and I original goal was to make a pit stop in Flagstaff, AR and head directly to Albuquerque, NM. As hours passed by on the endless highway, we started getting very sleepy and our bodies ached from loading the truck.  After spending 10 hours on the road,  we decided Flagstaff would be our final destination to rest our eyes and bodies.

Our Uhaul new nickname has become, “The Beast.”  The Beast is strong, sexy, fast and stable. She hasn’t let us down, yet,  in over 600 miles. We are beginning to understand her quarks and buttons. It’s going to be a long haul to NYC and our trust is in the Beast.

Special thank you to everyone who has contributed their time, efforts, donations, thoughts and prayers. We are overwhelmed at the huge response from people all over the United States.

More to come…

 

Day 2: Arizona

“It’s not an adventure until something goes wrong.”

This has been the motto for Arizona. We are only in our first state and we decided Arizona is not our favorite place to be.  Day two in Arizona started off with a visit to the  Urgent Care. Unfortunately, for the last three days I have been struggling with achy pains, massive fever attacks and painful headaches. I wasn’t sure if I picked up a strange bug on my previous trip out of the country, but I realized after another rough night I had to see a doctor. Long story short, I found a Urgent Care, got some antibiotics and, after another late morning start, Karon and I were off.

The Beast was cruising so nicely on route 66 until suddenly a giant “bang” scared the heck out of us. Tire pieces flooded the freeway and luckily no other vehicles were around us. We blew our first tire….  We are completely over traveling in Arizona and ready for New Mexico…  Uhual donated our truck we are completely insured and covered. When Karon called to have someone come help us out, the operator knew exactly who were were and sent a service to us in 30 minutes. Before we knew it, the Beast was up and running again, we were singing and laughing out load on the 66 highway and New Mexico was almost in site.

Let the adventure begin….

11pm: Pit stopped in a Casino  (we didnt win)

130am: Arrived at Holiday Inn Express and rested our eyes Tucumcari, NM

Departing TUCUMCARI, NM at 9am…

 

 

Day 3: Making up for time

We really needed to make up for some lost time so today was the day. We spent what felt like a zillion hours in the Beast with only three pit stops. If you were a fly inside our car you would be laughing out loud at the hilarious conversations we have while on the road. Everything and anything goes when you are spending endless hours together in the middle of nowhere. You get to know a person really quick and their little quarks (I have a zillion of them…poor Karen). At each state line we party and dance. Our new game is, “How  many states can we go thru in one day).

New Mexico: Pretty reddish soil, tumble weeds, Indian reservation trading posts, lots of empty land.

Texas: Tumble weeds, saw one coyboy riding crazy, pit stop at Hooters to have a beer for our friend Jon Steele (he lives in Texas but is out of the country)

Oklahoma: Pit stop at Indian trading post to pet a  buffalo.. Karon almost lost her hand while petting the massive animal…..We accidently left our mascot “Dino” on the counter while taking pictures….Found the closest thing to the ocean, an amazing seafood dinner and a fish tank….

Springfield, Missouri: 1230pm checked into a random Best Western with our fellow trucking  road warrior friends

 

 

 

 DAY 4: Keep on Trucking

Once again, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone reading. We are super blessed, honored to be working with so many great people and can’t wait to arrive in NYC. It has been an another extremely long day for both of us. We traveled thru Missouri, Illinois and stopped off in Dayton, Ohio.  We plan on arriving in Jersey or NY late Friday or early Saturday morning. We will be dropping the Uhual off at wharehouse on Long Island and meeting up with our ground crew from Surfrider NY Chapter and Patagonia Bowery store.  Thank you again to everyone who has been following us, texting us while we are in the car and cheering us along. Every little bit of your support makes us smile and continue to move forward.

 

Let the journey continue…

 

Karon driving strong…

 

Random pit stop

 

Winter time

Illinois

 

License plates..so many different ones

 

Vino-2-go

 

“Rhino”  our new mascot since “Dino” was left behind

 

 

PRESS:
Transworld
http://business.transworld.net/116019/news/olukai-gives-back-to-hurricane-sandy-relief/

The Daily Pilot:
http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-bbr-fundraiser-update-20121121,0,2014445.story

Olukai:
http://www.olukai.com/NewsEvents.aspx