We are officially back from our trip. 186 days went by and we were back in mainland USA. But, that was two months ago. In that time we have spent one week in LA, three in San Francisco, one in Humboldt, two in Portland, one in Seattle, with various camping stops in between. If you count that with the rest of the six months we traveled, we have been gone for eight months – crazy! We’ll be living in Oakland through August, and come September will hopefully have an apartment in San Francisco. Claire is job hunting and I am starting a production company, while doing various video jobs in the meantime.

The past month was a blast. We’ve seen friends and family all up and down the West Coast, playing ultimate, going to barbeques, watching 4th of July Fireworks, and most recently a camping trip with my family for me, and a baby/bridal shower for Claire (she’s not getting married or having a baby, she just went to one).

We have been posting photos along the way, and some videos are in the making. We’ll continue posting and updating our photos as time goes on, but I think the 186 Days may need a name change. I hear by open the blog up to you all for suggestions of new names. We’ll be keeping www.drewd.com/clairenwhit for the time being. The site has treated us well, and hopefully will continue to be viewed by all of our friends and family (and fans?) Stay posted… like I said, more videos to come.
-Whit

PS – This is Claire now, I just have to tell a quick story about the bizarre night we had last night. We came into San Francisco from Oakland so Whit could pick up a hard drive from Hilary’s place. Sounds like an easy errand, right? Around 10:30 we walked out to the car to go back to Oakland, only to find Ted, a neighborhood guy, looking under our car with a flashlight. He said that he heard a cat meowing from under or in the hood, so we popped it open to take a look. By that time, Whit and I had heard the meowing as well, but it took a good ten minutes to actually see the tiny face of a kitten nestled in the engine. How it got there will remain a mystery to us. Coaxing it out with a can of tuna failed, as did jacking up the car to try to get the kitten out from underneath. That’s when we called Animal Care & Control, who responded pretty quickly with some serious tools. The ACC worker proceeded to poke around under the hood for fifteen minutes before getting the kitty out, who was covered in fleas but otherwise uninjured. Ted and his girlfriend adopted the calico kitten and left with the ACC worker to the animal clinic, debating between Jetta and Volkswagon for names. Whit and I got in the car to go back to Oakland, at which point it was 12:45am. Four blocks down the road on California Street, the clutch went out – literally dropping all the way to the floor. We got the car off the road and called AAA, who towed the car to a 76 Station. This morning, Whit went back and figured out the problem with the help of a Honda Parts Store employee, and Wendall from the 76. Turns out a bracket that holds a shaft for the clutch had broken off completely, and was all that needed to be fixed (or so we think). And thank goodness for that! Also, thanks to Hilary for letting us crash at her place after going through these two ordeals in one night.