Welcome to California!!

We did it!! Today we arrived in beautiful California and stepped foot in the frigid yet delightful Pacific Ocean at Newport Beach.

After pulling over at a park and ride somewhere on the side of 15 last night, we arose ready and excited to conquer the day. We packed the van quickly and set out towards Newport Beach, our first destination of the day. 2 hours later, after struggling mightily to find a parking space, we walked onto the beach under the warm mid-may sun. It felt great to finally arrive in California and get a few days to rest, relax, and catch our wind before more exciting adventures. We only spent a few hours on the beach before we all decided we should head out to our host home for the rest of the day.

Merlin Marlin (the wizard) Riegsecker, a trustee of Messiah College was gracious enough to offer his home for us three scavengers. I must admit that staying with a random 75 year old man was a bit worrisome to me and I did not know what to expect. At the very least we knew we would have a roof over our head and that was good enough for me. As it turns out, the wizard is our consensus favorite person of the trip. He is an absolute crack up and acts as if he is still young (which he is of course.) No more than 30 minutes after arriving to his house, hearing his life story, and telling him ours, we were whisked away away for a brief Mexican lunch down the road. When Marlin was asked what the name of the place was he responded "I dont know...I keep going there but I dont remember the name. As long as I have my wallet and I show up we can usually work something out."

Once we got back, the three of us took the time to dejunk the van and get everything back in order for the days ahead. While the van has stayed fairly clean considering the time we spend in it, it was time to reorganize. In the evening we were privileged enough to be invited to Marlin's church with him. His church is a small group of about 20 who meet in a home, have dinner, and then conduct a service. It was a new experience for all of us but one we were eager to be a part of. The dinner was delightful and the service was really enjoyable. The only problem JD,Derek, and I experienced was that every person in the room was brilliant and had more knowledge than we can hope to gain in a lifetime. Most were college professors with doctorates and those who werent were just really, really intelligent. One guy has written 30 books and is currently working on a novel about Rembrandt for fun. (Not my idea of fun).

So there we, sat contently on the couch, listening as the group talked through the last few chapters of Luke using big words we didnt know and coming up with ideas we had never even thought about. It was really fun actually. Although I think we all felt too stupid to be in the room, it was extremely intellectually stimulating. Even the songs they sang were done well. (I guess thats to be expected when 2 of the people in the room studied music and composition.)

Nope, the night is not over yet. At the demand of one of the members of the church, Marlin took us out to In N' Out burger for some double cheesburgers and fries. Apparently this is a southern california specialty. It was as good as advertised. All the ingredients were extremely fresh and as unhealthy as one could hope for. We then headed back to his house to blog, plan out the next day, and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow will be another day in LA lounging around the pool, maybe going for a run, and hanging out with our main man Marlin (the wizard).

Quote of the day: Marlin referring to a guy from church- "oh you mean that little old guy that kind of looks like Mr. Peepers?"

Random fact of the day: JD wore the same pants for 7 days straight on this trip. Im a firm believer in reusing pants but that is just a new high...or low, im not sure.

Big news: We saw an Alaskan license plate today. I think it was Palin but Im not sure. After all, I dont know anyone else from Alaska, other than the Into the Wild guy but yeah, I dont think it was him.

Thought of the day: Maybe tomorrow

Brett