Many of you have been itching to find out where I am on my journey. Well, let me tell you...
...I'm stuck in Anaheim.
Now, I don't mean to suggest that Anaheim is a bad place to be stuck in. Quite the contrary. What I mean is that I should be in Alaska by now, but I'm not, and it's frustrating.
I've had several delays that have postponed my progression through the states. In May and June, I passed my time between the Freightliner service center and La Mesa RV while they fixed problems on the motor coach. And, the entire month of July has been spent in the parking lot of BusWraps.com while we prepare the coach for its image wrap.
(Here's a shot of what is should look like when completed.)Once the wrap is finished, I'll head up to Redding for the vegetable oil conversion on the coach.
During this time while I've been working out snags in SoCal, Shane at Rover Hybrids has been working on the conversion of my Land Rover Defender.
He's swapped out the stock V8 gasoline engine for a Cummins diesel, and he's replaced the stock Land Rover transmission with a New Ventures 4500 5-speed that mates up perfectly with the Cummins.These delays have not only allowed Shane the time he needs to complete the Defender's conversion, but they have allowed me some fantastic opportunities as well...
Certainly these delays have caused me to miss some seasonal windows in certain parts of the country, and as a result I've had to modify my route and itinerary, but some fantastic doors have opened up for me because I was in the right place at the right time, because I was "stuck" somewhere I hadn't intended.
Perfect example:
I had been in Anaheim, CA for two weeks trying to put together the images necessary for the wrap on the RV. I had driven a few miles away in the rental car to go get one of my favorite sandwiches -- Chick-Fil-A -- and decided it was time to stop for a haircut. I wandered into the nearest salon, and that's where I met Lilly. Not only did Lilly do a great job on my hair, but she set me up with a gentleman named Tom Tice, who is in charge of the restoration of the Historic Fox Theatre in Fullerton, CA. And, Tom has allowed me full access to photograph the restoration of the theatre while I am in town. It's a project that fits perfectly into my Una Nuova Vita series that began on Christmas of 2005 with San Diego's North Park Theatre.
Call it Fate, call it coincidence, but had I not been delayed, I wouldn't have met Lilly, and I might never have known of the theatre's restoration.
It's events like this that have changed my outlook on my circumstances. I truly believe that old adage, "when one door closes, another one opens."
I'll keep updating these pages as my journey progresses. And, remember, if you want to subscribe to this blog, just click on the orange "feed" link in the right-hand column. And, if you want to email it to a friend, just click on the little envelope icon at the bottom of the post.
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