I made an important connection the evening after the WordPress conference. There was a little post-conference WordPress party which was held in a fun old warehouse down on one of the piers by the waterfront. Rebecca and I went to the party to meet and socialize with members of the blogging community.

Rebecca is pictured with Seth Masow (bearded guy on the right) and another guy (name unknown).

Seth works for a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) called Interplast. Interplast facilitates plastic surgery operations in Third World countries. Seth and I spent the better part of an hour discussing the role of NPOs in improving living conditions in the World. This is a complicated topic because some NPOs are beaurocratic and innefficient, which gives a bad name to other NPOs.

Additionally, Interplast experiences a moral dilemna in addressing fundraising needs. Some NPOs spend enormous amounts of time and money on fundraising efforts, which can seem like a waste. The money spent on marketing and fundraising could instead be contributed to charitable efforts. The couterpoint, of course, is that fundraising helps to increase the overall impact of an NPO by making more total funds available.

Nontheless, Interplast does not spend money on fundraising or marketing. Instead this organization relies on word-of-mouth and social networking to gain support.

One of the problems Interplast experiences in its efforts is in capturing dramatic “Before and After” photos of patients. For example, a six-year-old child with a cleft palette, from a remote village in Nicaragua, may come to an Interplast-funded facility for surgery. Interplast takes a photo of the child prior to the surgery, showing the area needing repair. Then a photo is taken after the surgery, showing the child in bandages with a swollen face. But Interplast has a difficult time capturing photos of patients after scars have healed, because the patients go back to the villages, where they have little access to telephone, internet, or other means of communication. Therefore, the “Before and After” documentation is incomplete.

As a result of this, Seth and I agreed that when I am in Nicaragua, he will help me find Interplast patients. I will drive out to their villages in my 4Runner, and take photos showing the significant changes in their health and appearance. Visit my site in November or December to see if I am successful in finding these patients.

I had all kinds of fun while I was in San Francisco!

I stayed with my friends Rebecca and Betsy for a couple of days. Rebecca and Bestsy are these two super cool girls. They live in this cool apartment. They keep a blog with photos of social events and situations, which you can visit here.

I really liked the neighborhood around Rebecca and Betsy’s apartment.

There were all kinds of neat buildings and people in San Francisco. The street performers have upgraded their costumes since the last time I was in this city.

San Francisco is is similar to Rebecca and Betsy in that it is full of grace, style, and charm.

See what I mean?

Would you believe that while I was in San Francisco I sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge?!

When it happened, I kept saying, “Oh my gosh, I am sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge, I cannot believe this!”

My sailing experience is really just a testament to the power of social networking. I got to go sailing becuase my friend Rebecca knows this really important lady named Sharon, who has all kinds of connections.

Sharon and I really hit it off as friends. I even sensed a little bit of romantic tension between us.

Here’s an example of why it’s good to be friends with Sharon: since I am friends with Sharon they let me steer the boat for a while. Most people never get to do this.

I’ve had so much good luck since I started my trip. I didn’t know when I first planned my trip that I would just coincidentally be in San Francisco the weekend of the WordPress Developers’ Conference. WordPress is the software that powers my website. Ironically, I have no idea how to use it. That’s why I was really excited to go to this conference and learn about WordPress.

I was very tired the morning of the conference because I arrived in San Francisco at four that morning. But as luck would have it, the conference was held at a place right around the corner from Rebecca and Betsy’s apartment. I was all starry-eyed when I met the guy who created WordPress. Coincidentally, his name is Matt, just like mine.

I told WordPress Matt all about my trip plans. For some reason I always use lots of hand gestures when I’m explaining things to people.

I made some new friends at the conference.

I met an amusing young man named Doug.

This conference had the best vibe. It was very cool, and very nerdy.

My favorite part of the conference was a seminar given by Om Malik, of GigaOm.com fame. Om discussed the differences between traditional journalism and common blogging practices. The problem with many blogs, he explained, is that the authors write purely from the heart, without developing strong research and interview skills. While many members of the audience took offense at Om’s message, I found his ideas to be timely and relevant. You can check out Om’s website here.

. .

Overall I had a fantastic time in San Francisco. We ate some crab down by the piers. I had some pizza at a little pizza place.

There are some things which I don’t even know how to describe.

I can’t wait to tell you more about it next time. Thanks for visiting!

After months of preparation I was ready to start my trip.

The date was August 4th, 2006.

I made myself a sandwich before leaving.

It was delicious.

I hugged my brother and kissed my mom.

We waved our goodbyes.

I drove North on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway).

It was a lovely drive.

I stopped in Santa Barbara to snap some photos.

Palm trees have the most fascinating shape.

As I drove inland I saw some great scenery.

I stopped in San Luis Obispo to visit my Grandma Lemmon. I had the pleasure of enjoying my Grandma’s home cooking.

It was delicious!

At my request, my grandma pulled out a book with information about my geneology. I studied the faces of my ancestors, and wondered to myself whether they shared my quirky behaviors. I wonder if my Great Great Grandfather, Alfred Lemmon, liked to challenge people to wrestle. I wonder if Washington Lemmon had too many hobbies to keep up on. Did Lafayette Lemmon collect books, like I do? Things to ponder…

Before leaving town I had one more stop to make.

I paid my respects to the late Don Curtis. I could tell that Grandma Lemmon had been there recently because of the flowers.

I almost didn’t notice this little guy.

I named the frog Grandpa. I picked him up and played with him a while before letting him go. I felt that this frog was a good omen for my trip. I don’t believe really believe in omens, but that little frog warmed my heart.

As I was leaving town, I decided to document the milage on my odometer. How many miles will this car have on it when I reach Argentina?! When I left Thousand Oaks earlier that day my odometer had read 167,404.

I had planned on driving up the coast to San Francisco so I could see the coastline and the ocean. However, it was dark already, so I took the inland route.

I headed North on the 101 toward San Francisco…

My mother has contributed substantially to my trip. She helped me pack and organize, she helped get supplies, she was even the first person to post a comment on my website. Well she also bought the first accessory for my Teddy Bear. At my birthday party, one of the gifts she gave me was a pair of child-sized sunglasses, for Teddy.

They were a perfect fit!

Teddy used to be ‘kind of’ cool… But now he is totally cool!

Now all Teddy needs is better name. I would like to hear people’s suggestions for names for the Bear. So far the list of possible names includes: Dare Bear, Ernesto, The Tempest, Kobe Bryant… Cast your vote and offer suggestions by leaving comments under this post.

Thank you for visiting MyAmericanJourney.com.  I have received a tremendous amount of support from friends, family, and strangers as I have prepared for a year-long trip around North and South America. Preparations have been extensive, spanning four months, and including everything from website development to vehicle modifications.

I drew a picture of my vehcile layout several months ago. Then I finally purchased a used 4Runner a few weeks ago.

I have spent the past two weeks working with my brother, Scott, to modify the vehicle for travel. We installed drawers, a bookshelf, storage units, and sleeping accomodations.

For general information about my trip and what it entails, you can check the “About” section. In short, I decided to drive up to Alaska and then down to Argentina over the course of a year.

I plotted a rough course on a map.

The red lines represent my expected course. I will travel clockwise around North America, then south through Central America, and then clockwise through South America.

I will be studying poverty and economic development throughout the course of my trip.

MyAmericanJourney.com was the official sponsor of Salt Lake City’s first annual Poverty Awareness Concert, which was held on July 7th. The event was organized in conjuction with local members of the ONE Poverty Awareness Campaign. To see a larger version of the photo, click on the photo.

To see more photos from the Poverty Awareness Concert, click the link to my Flickr account. The link is at the righthand side of this page. I am working hard to get my Flickr page organized into searchable albums and tag-groupings. I really like Flickr. It is the best internet resource for sharing photos. It is far superior to Snapfish and other photo sharing sites I have visited. It is even better than Google’s photo-sharing product, Picasa. Sorry Google, I love you but you’re not as good as Flickr. I will be using Flickr extensively to organize and share photos from my trip. I will share photos of friends and family.

I was planning to start my trip on August 2nd, which was also my 29th birthday. However, I still had some packing to do, and so my actual departure date is August 4th. This was okay though, because I got to celebrate my birthday in Thousand Oaks, and we had a great little party. My mom asked me what I wanted to eat for dinner on my birthday, so I told her I wanted my two favorite types of food, which are 1) candied yams, and 2) Fiesta Salad.

My best friend from high school, Max Holzer, even made it to the party with Reina, his fiance. Reina LOVED the Fiesta Salad and the candied yams, both of which were prepared from some really great recipes. Within the next week or two I will get my mom to share the recipes for these delicious entrees. The recipe for the Fiesta Salad was invented by a girl named KereAna. KereAna holds a special place in my heart.

Max and I both loved the meal.

The birthday party was so much fun! There was a cake and presents…

.

...and a tresure hunt…

The treasure was a pinata!!

My brother had to sneak the pinata into the house earlier in the day, to keep it a surprise!

Jon was eager to start swinging, even though he wasn’t facing the right direction!

I am making a documentary about my trip, which I will release when I return. I will post video content on the site as often as possible, so you can see not only the still photos, but some dialogue and interviews. This will especially be helpful in conveying some of my ideas about economic development and poverty. I haven’t posted any video content yet, but be patient, it is coming soon.

I am so excited to get on the road and meet up with old friends and relatives, as well as making lots of new friends. I am very interested to learn what people think of this trip and what kinds of visits and interviews people think I should set up. So please leave comments and suggestions. I’ll do my very best to take your opinions into consideration as I make plans throughout my trip.

I plan to post new content at least twice per week. The first couple of weeks may be a little sporadic, but by September all updates will be very consistent. Of course, once I get into South America it will become more of a challenge to get reliable internet access, but I’ll cross that threshold when I come to it. Thanks again for visiting, I hope you’ll come back soon!

-Matt