The trip is on hold temporarily.  I flew from San Francisco to Rapid City, SD on August 3 due to a family emergency.  Sam is parked at a friend’s house in the Bay area.

It is unclear exactly when I’ll be back in California to resume the journey, but it probably won’t be until sometime next week.

Update August 9, 2011: Sadly, my cousin did not survive.  With a heavy heart, I am back in California and will be resuming the trip.

In case you’re wondering why there haven’t been many updates lately, I attribute it to three things:

1. Things have been going well, so there haven’t been many problems or sources of conflict.  Stories are driven by conflict and challenge; ergo, there hasn’t been much in the way of compelling source material.
2. I averaged something like a post every other day during the first month, a total of roughly 12,000 words.  I don’t think that’s a sustainable rate, neither for me nor for you, dear reader.
3. Most of my time over the past week has been occupied by driving. After concentrating on twisty roads (namely, Highway 1) for the entire day, I’m left mentally exhausted.

The good news is that while I haven’t been doing much writing lately, I have still been taking photos.  Check out my Flickr stream for a visual recap of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and northern California.