Mike & Kris - Enjoying The Ride

It has been one year since Matt’s accident, almost to the day, and here we are celebrating his graduation from Cal Poly!  Thanks for the help with the props to my friends, Ida and Tsu-Hei!!  Mike and I packed up the trailer, gathered all our stuff, and hit the road Friday morning.  We had my mom with us and Hannah and John in the car behind us.  Annett, John, and Mike’s mom were in another vehicle.  We all converged at Morro Strand campground for hamburgers at the beach before the big celebration.  Mom even made us a homemade apple pie that went over big for dessert.  The weather was perfect out at the coast but we knew we were in for a scorcher on Saturday.  Matt received a surprise invite from the President of the University to attend a breakfast reception before the ceremony.  Of course we went and enjoyed sharing a bit of his moment and the delicious breakfast.  The graduation itself was almost unbearable because of the heat and it started at 9:00 AM.  Annett and John got the two grandmas to an inside location that had a fan and a tv with the ceremony streaming.  The rest of us tried to stay hydrated by drinking a combined 18-20 bottles of water (we couldn’t drink the last two because they were just too hot), and holding large pieces of cardboard to shield us from the sun.  We were not happy.  And to make it worse, we had made Matthew promise to get in line early so he could be one of the first to cross the stage (at least in the first hour or so) but then in a cruel twist they had the graduates from the back of the line go first, so they rewarded the students who arrived late by letting them go first.  Grrrrrrrrrrrr………we all, especially Matt, were super irritated.  But, in the end, he walked and we were all there cheering him on and that was all that mattered.  

This morning started with a wonderful, cool walk along the beach with Hannah and John, and then a late breakfast with Matt joining us before everyone went their separate ways.  Matt to pack up before moving his stuff back to Fremont before he leaves for a trip to Europe.  Hannah and John back to celebrate Father’s day with John’s family before heading back to Michigan.  Mike and I straighten up a bit, bought a few more supplies, and are ready to set off for our two month adventure.  We are leaving early tomorrow morning for Williams, AZ.  It is close to Flagstaff and promises temperatures in the low 90’s.  We are on our way to our first leg which is Denver and our original first day destination was Needles, CA but its temperature forecast was 124 and that did not appeal to us at all and thus the change in plans.  We will be blogging as we go so look for our updates but we couldn’t be more proud of Matthew and wanted to let you see how our trip began here in at Cal Poly.  Special thanks to Hannah, John, Grandmas, and aunt and uncle, Annett and John for making the trip down. We sure appreciate the effort.