Day Fourty-Seven

The long way home endured, today I arrived.

First and foremost I would like to thank everyone who helped me along on this trip. Your thoughts, food, shelter, conversations will always remain something special in my heart, and I am very grateful. Leaving Tacoma six weeks ago almost seems like a lifetime ago. Montana, Yellowstone, even Minneapolis seems so far back. People have been asking me, "Where's the one place that stands out?" "What did you learn?" or "What are you going to do now?" The single most rewarding experience of this trip is having a better understanding of who I am. I made some ambitious goals when I left Tacoma, one being that I would figure out what I wanted to do with my life. But for a long time on the road I struggled in my inner dialog and found the difficulty was in not even knowing what really excites me, or what I love to do, or things I really believe. And so I daily challenged myself to find these things, and I now have a list of things I will do. All along this journey I have found inspiration: the man walking across America, in watching the landscape change in front of my very eyes, in feeling the weather, in feeling confident in my self-sufficiency. It has been an amazing transformational journey that I will always hold onto and will reflect back on for a long time. Thank you all for reading and being a part of this. I have enjoyed the comments, phone calls, text messages, emails, and am truly lucky to live in such a diverse circle of great loving people.

Happy Trails,
Kelly Totten

Day Fourty-Six

Alright, you just try and beat this day. I went down to the beach today where I spent about three hours. The waves were awesome so I had to do some body surfing. I caught some big ones and out rode some surfers. I think resting for the last two days was what I needed because I saw Journey at the Cricket Amphitheater in San Diego and rocked out the whole time. I am surprised I have any voice left. Cheap Trick and Heart opened up and then Journey brought the house down. They have this new lead singer who does not look Journeyish by any means, but the guy sounds exactly like Steve Perry. I was with a group of fun people and we had an awesome time. The only disappointment was during "Lights" (my favorite Journey song) which I spent in the bathroom line yelling at some dude for cutting.


Kelly's elemental waters.


Air guitar at the Journey concert.


Journey concert group pic: Brittany, Kelly, Melanie, Mike

Day Fourty-Five

I think this trip is starting to catch up with me as evident from my day of doing absolutely nothing. I am reminded of my time backpacking in Europe and my last days in Paris. After a month of haphazard living, my friends and I found ourselves in one of the coolest cities in the world, but only able to muster the energy to change channels. Today I laid by the pool where I did some reading and writing and am finding myself in a different mindset. The rush is over, home is a quick two hour drive, the end is near and my body knows it. The furthest I traveled was down the street to get a latte.

Day Fourty-Four

I arrived in San Diego for the final leg of my trip. I met up with my friend Melanie and she took me down to the beach on Coronado island where we hung out and later ate dinner at a place called Miguel's which has bomb Mexican food. At this point of the trip I am beat tired and apparently am pretty worthless without a large dosage of caffeine. San Diego should be a very relaxing part of this trip full of beaching.




This is me asleep on a park bench.

Day Fourty-Three

After my usual scrumptrulescent breakfast of yogurt and granola bars Retta and I headed to the Salt River to do a five hour float. We heard rumor of the price to float and gathered the little cash we had and found out we were mistaken. In our best effort to be prepared, I think we walked back and forth from the car to the tube rental place like 5 times, had to drive 8 miles into town to find an ATM, and we're lucky we didn't lose her keys or for something else ridiculous to happen. On Saturdays, floating the Salt is the only thing to do because everyone in Phoenix was there, plus some guys from Oregon we met and some 'necks from 'Bama. The whole thing had a spring break feel to it... everything from drunks, to cliff jumpers, to drugs, to naked people, and I think that about covers it.

Day Fourty-Two

I enjoyed my hotel room until they kicked me out and I made my way towards Phoenix, AZ. I can tell I am getting closer to home because the Mexican food is getting better. My first stop was at a Men's Wearhouse where I think George Zimmer fitted me for a tux himself. This dude looked just like him. I eventually met up with my friend Retta from PLU who just moved back home to Phoenix post graduation and we did a self guided tour of the Totten Tubes Phoenix branch which I don't think I had ever seen. Her mom made dinner and later we walked around Arizona State University to find some nightlife at Border's bookstore followed by the worst margarita in the world ever at a place called "Margaritas". One would have higher expectation from a place named that.

Day Fourty-One

Today I left Los Cruces, NM and made my way over to Tucson, AZ. Monsoon season has made travel a little slower than I would prefer but arriving safely is worth it. I pretty much just made the drive and only stopped to refill on coffee. I made it to Tucson and got a motel room where I spent the rest of the day reading, writing, getting some work done, hot tubbing, and a Real World marathon. Pretty laid back in comparison to other days but restful.

Day Fourty

Yup, definitely went to Mexico today. I drove the 4 hours to El Paso from the spot in the middle of the desert where I camped last night. I walked across the border into Juarez where I ate lunch in a little restaurant. I was there for about 2 hours because the rain came out of no where and I didn’t think I would get too far if I went outside. I had some tacos, read some of my book, failed at speaking Spanish and then headed back to the border. The roads were so flooded from the rain it made getting back a little more damp in the shoe than I had expected, also unexpected was the large suburban that skidded to the stop in front of me and the dude that jumped out and yelled at me. This was the border patrol’s reaction to me leaving Mexico on the wrong side of the street and totally skipping the immigration checkpoint. Juarez should work on better signage. I eventually got out of the country and drove to Los Cruces, NM where I am staying with my 2nd cousin Nancy and her husband Ed. I had never met them before and it was fun getting to know them. Tomorrow morning I am off to Tucson, AZ.


Welcome to Mexico.


Here is my lunch.


Here I am stoked about my lunch.


Here are some flooded Juarez roads.

Day Thirty-Nine

Today I visited the Alamo in San Antonio with Lauren. Seeing the Alamo has been a lifelong dream since 2 years ago when my college house mates and I created a game called “Alamo” in the backyard. It all started in a hot tub conversation where we realized we were not utilizing our yard as much as we could, and needed to create some sort of game. We created a rulebook and glossary and opened Alamo season with the traditional firing of the projectile at the livewall towards the scout in effort to breach the opponent’s stronghold. Keith, Tyler, and Dan I hope you read all this. Visiting the real Alamo was cool too. After some considerable time in the gift shop searching for the perfect Alamo postcard, we made our way over to the famous River Walk in San Antonio where there were tons of restaurants and quirky shops all along the river; it’s a very cool area. I finally bought a Texas belt buckle, however Lauren talked me out of one that would make John Wayne jealous.



You can clearly see here that I am yelling "ALAMO!!!" Lauren is not yelling Alamo.


Davey Crockett's vest... pretty cool.


Texas was gorgeous so I had to pull over and take some pics.

Day Thirty-Eight

I was on the road at 7am and drove the 3 hours to Austin to meet my good buddy Mike from high school. Mike is in his final semester at the University of Texas and played on the football team the last few years. He gave me a tour of all the football facilities which was totally ridiculous... the locker room, position rooms, players lounge, the stadium, training rooms, nothing really seemed off limits. After lunch we parted ways until I see him again in Arcadia next month. I then drove south for about two hours and reached Boerne, Texas which is just a little north of San Antonio. I am staying with my friend Lauren and her family, whom I have not seen in roughly five years. They live in the "Texas Hill Country" which is pretty different from the Texas I have seen thus far, because it's like green and hilly and stuff. I am absolutely stuffed after my first home cooked meal since Minnesota and it should carry me through my visit to the Alamo tomorrow.

Lauren said to improve the blog I should include pirate jokes...
-Did you hear about the pirate who took up boxing?
-He had a killer left hook!


Mike and I at his apartment in Austin, TX


These kinda speak for themselves.


Mike trying to look tough.


My view in the stadium today at the University of Texas.

Day Thirty-Seven

Last nights motel stay was a fascinating Alabama study. I'll leave it at that.

I drove into New Orleans this Sunday morning around 10am to find the bars in the French Quarter already open on Bourbon street, and some were actually kinda full which leaves me to believe maybe they didn't close last night. I made sure to find a restaurant in the quarter where for breakfast I had an alligator and crawfish omelet which was so good, not even joking. It is going on my list of favorite meals. One gator omelet later I made a friend at the restaurant over a cup of coffee and continued my walk around town. New Orleans is a pretty neat town but seems really dirty, I am not sure if it is all Katrina related or if it's just been like that. I wasn't really around long enough to ask. It would be fun to go back one day and check out the live jazz scene and eat some more gator. To Houston!


Here is the Mississippi River in New Orleans, LA


Before you judge this plate, I want you to know this was the best omelet I have ever eaten. Alligator and crawfish with a cream sauce. So Tasty.


What I find more impressive is "to go"


Here is some French Quarter on Bourbon St.


Here is my drive into New Orleans.

Day Thirty-Six

I write from Pensacola, FL where for the second time of my life, weather was scared me off the road. I take refuge at Denny’s with other travelers, a warm plate of Nachos comfort me. Roughly four years ago, there was a fog in Northern California on one of my commutes from school to home where I had to open my driver’s side door and look down for the yellow line, just to be sure I was not heading into oncoming traffic. The second time and the reason for nachos, is now and because it has been raining so hard that 70 mph traffic slowed to 5 mph with emergency blinkers and thunder & lightning aren’t playing tag, but are hitting at the same time and apparently are hungry for Grand Slams or something. I am going to sit this one out because whatever the odds of getting hit by lightning are, I imagine the chances of losing are higher than usual because the Denny’s workers are currently huddled around a coffee pot discussing going home to be with their families, and they told me storms were “routine.” It’s a motel night. Thanks Earth.


Here is a break in the weather.

Day Thirty-Five

Much similar to yesterday’s plans, I did nothing until about 4pm. Check that, I watched Jaws 2, which I’ll define as productive as all is relevant. For the 4th celebration, we headed to the Epcot Center at Disney World for some rides and explosions. The fireworks were placed on barges on this big lake and the show went something like this… patriotic music, about 100 feet of billowing flames, followed by real fireworks, lasers, and probably the craziest loudest grand finally my stomach ever felt. Disney World does Independence Day well; perhaps something they do not do well is walking traffic logistics. My 200,000 closest friends and I mooed all the way to parking lot.


This is me happy to have my phone back.

Day Thirty-Four

The day started with some morning reading of “Crossing the Unknown Sea,” a new book of mine that I’ve been excited to get going on. So far I am very much enjoying it, Thanks MaryAnn!!! Kristine was called into work at the last minute which totally disrupted our plans of doing nothing today, so I had to go on without her. First I laid by the pool, then went for a run, did some more reading, and then headed to Disney World intent on recovering my cell phone, which I did. The phone was right where I left it on “Mickey Mouse’s Fantastic Pick Pocketing Adventure Through Outer Space Ride” and needless to say, I was pretty stoked to find it. It took some work to get the phone back with a lot of looping and redirecting, but being connected again to my world was well worth the 12 minutes of inconvenience. Later in the day we assembled a small group to see Hancock, the new Will Smith movie. As quotable as predictable, but a lot of fun and I totally recommend it.


The giant monkey is actually one of Kristine's roommates.


Here is me looking really excited.

Day Thirty-Three

I am currently in Orlando, Florida. I spent today at Disney World where I learned a valuable lesson about cell phones and g-forces. My phone is somewhere on the Space Mission ride at Epcot. So if any body in the near future is going to be on that ride, maybe take a look around for a black LG Chocolate. I would like to get that back, considering that I am about 3,000 miles from home and I use it all day. Disney world was sweet (minus the cell phone mishap). I hit up most of the rides and enjoyed the ones that somehow involved air conditioning. Highlights of the day: hitting a guy with my car door, almost getting ran over by a tram, stepping on Kristine's sandals all day, the Tiki room, losing my cell phone, and the monorail.

Day Thirty-Two

I woke up today at the hotel with my parents and enjoyed continental breakfast in a real hotel! My dad and I went for a swim and then headed to Best Buy to pick up a James Taylor CD. While on our quest we encountered Rock Band and the big guy wailed like there was no tomorrow. "Should I Stay or Should I Go Now" will never be the same again, nor will the middle school kids who watched a 55 year old guy mop the floor with The Clash. In the video he hits every note. RockOn BigGuy!


Tracy Totten performing "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash.


Reunited at Smokey Bones BBQ Grill in Lakeland, FL. Who woulda guessed this would ever work out?

Day Thirty-One

I arrived in St. Augustine and met my friend Lisa that I met once in Paris. Lisa was roommates for 6 months with my friend Jocelyn while they were studying abroad in 2007. While they were studying French, my friends and I were gallivanting Western Europe and we planned to meet up at the Eiffel Tower, and that's how Lisa and I know each other. So over a year and a half later I end up in Florida and we hung out. St. Augustine is a sweet little town on the coast with a cool mix of tourists, college students, locals, and reggae music. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera out with us so you will just have to take my word for it. The day consisted of eating at this cool beach burrito place and hanging out at some local dives where there was live reggae music. If you ever visit St. Augustine, Florida look up Lisa cause she gives bomb tours.