#OnTheRoad 2 Point 0 (P1)

Getting back into the groove of the life in the U.S. isn't all it's cracked up to be with gas expenses, car fixings and planning on the next stop. Plus living out of one's car doesn't always give way for regular schedule. Between sleep, finding healthy food, and working in free exercise on top of the journalist ventures of getting the story, the contacts, the pictures and pawning it off to a willing news organization..it's not a glorious ride. 

BUT along the way, there's the road trip and the moments when you breathe fresh air with the windows down, the wind in your hair, music by day and NPR or BBC radio by night, there's a world of fresh perspective and a few moments to catch the culture of America. 

So I made my first real stop in Memphis, TN and took time to visit a park on Riverside, near the Arkansas border. 

It was a picturesque little place, cruise boats coming in and downtown Memphis overlooking the park's bridges. But it was only a 20 minute stop and then on I went, heading for Kansas City, on my way to my first real destination, the raging Colorado Fires. 

 As I approached the night lights of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, the air was hot and sticky. I headed for an old-timey diner on the back side of the city and let my friend know I was on the way. We had known each other for some time, our friendship over the phone, on social media and by email in the last few years, as she lives smack dab in the middle of America. 

Nonetheless, I needed the a break from the road and a few greasy fries to boot, 10pm already, I had lasted longer than I thought I would coming from Memphis. 

I pulled into Chubby's, the red lights lured me in for a second rate meal and friendly staffers who were over the top enthusiastic hooked us up with a little nighttime breakfast and I munched on an egg and cheese sandwich. The pickles were questionable and the fries, obviously, doused in ol' fashioned Ketchup. We scarfed down the greasy eats and I grabbed my camera for a few photos around the diner. 

Inside, outside, juke box, checkered walls and dim lighting. For a couple of hours, we joked, laughed and even snuck a photo of the kitchen staff. But before long, it was getting late and I headed out again, to finish the last leg of the trip and make it to the Rocky Mountains.

Arriving at the base of Pikes Peak, I was already set on a mission, Kansas was far behind me and with 65 miles to go from the Colorado border, there were only two things I could muster through my mind, a long nap and what needed to be done to get the story in. 

Connections, social media and church-goers, I would have a long haul and hopefully get an opportunity to shoot photos in Black Forest, which I would find out would take nearly a week. But for the being, I was looking forward to a pit stop, mostly for the sake of exhaustion. Still to come was the ultimate destination: California Dreamin'.