La Jolla to San Diego

I was really excited about today’s route – it promised to be SO scenic. La Jolla Cove, Pacific Beach, the Mission Bay area, small craft harbors with glimpses of the San Diego skyline… but the fog never quite lifted.

Spotlights This Week:
Always: Hope Chapel Missions
Charity Spotlight: Desire Street Ministries
Church Spotlight:Gold Beach Foursquare Church – Gold Beach, OR

Even so, it was a memorable day. I started on something called the Coastal Walk – I heard people laughing, yelling, cheering. Where were they? I couldn’t see anything but sea birds and fog. Nesting cormorants, preening pelicans, and a few sea lions thrown in for good measure. All the people I encountered on the trail were far more subdued than what I was hearing.  It sounded like it was coming from offshore.

The fog was ebbing and flowing, and at one point it lifted just enough for me to see a half dozen or more heads bobbing – playing water polo a hundred yards offshore in the mist!

I met a few interesting characters today. There was a barefoot ‘free spirit’ with a skateboard, a backpack, a few palm fronds and a dog. He didn’t tell me his name, but the dog was “my best friend, Mary Jane”. It was only a few months ago that I would have thought the name was cute – now I’m not at all surprised… (Though it wasn’t until a considerable time later that I slapped my head and said “duuuuh!”)

Before I started this trek I didn’t know what the stuff smelled like. Now I smell it almost daily – often wafting from cars passing me by…

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In Pacific Beach there was a van painted top to tires with Jesus messages. At first I walked on by, but somehow I felt drawn to go back…Good call, God!

It was then that I met Dance-Cellah. A woman in a pink cowboy hat with a Masters degree and a snowman doll as her co-pilot – her mission is to spread the gospel to the homeless.  An accident left her with a missing foot and part of a leg, but she ‘dances’ in a wheelchair to the delight of everyone who sees her.

I didn’t know what to expect when I walked up to the van and said “hello”, but the conversation was incredibly easy – sweet, sweet lady.  We ended it with prayer, and I’m just sorry I didn’t get to see her dance.

…and when the fog lifted a bit, here’s one of my favorites – though I couldn’t quite catch any of the surfers in the background catching a wave…

2 days & 20 miles to go!

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God is my strength and power and he makes my way secure. ~ 2 Samuel 22:33