mikehedge.com

We then picked up Jackie at the OC airport and started the most epic PCH road trip ever. I have never done the PCH, so I figured I would take the opportunity to head up the coast on my way to the Sacramento Film Fest and the Ashland Film Fest for the premiere of Wake Up You’re Sleeping.

After saying hi to Bryn, we headed north and visited with Randy Carranza, and his daughter Alexis, then stayed at Markus Sandy’s house, the Digital Dojo. The next morning we met up with Scott London and his daughter Gabriela in Santa Barbara and visited with them. We then met up with Trevor Carpenter and camped on the beach at Pismo Beach.

In the morning we had breakfast with Steve Gibby, then headed to Cal Poly SLO to visit with Katharina, then to Bubble Gum Alley, past the seals, up through Big Sur, past the Bixby Bridge, to meet up with Miles and Elise, then stayed with my friend Robin Beck and her daughter Allison. The next morning we had breakfast with Jessica Zylker who I hadn’t seen for 20 years, then drove out to Lake Tahoe, NV to drop Nathan off. We stayed that night with my Primal Quest friend, Aja Cook. The next morning, we got to shoot with Lauren Rosenbaum, Karen Strolia, and Diyosa, all super inspiring flickr friends. That same day, while we were doing the epic road trip, the film I edited, America’s Phoneless, screened at the Lake Havasu Film Fest and won the Final Cut Award!!!

We then headed to SF and went photowalking with Thomas Hawk at the SF MOMA, then met up with Tristan Savatier and talked about Burning Man and photography. We then headed to Startup Weekend (which was created by my friend, Andrew Hyde.) Tyler Willis and Jeremy Tanner organized the SF Weekend which went really well! Many of the startups won’t end up sticking, but some do, like my friend Paul Stamatiou’s project from Atlanta Startup Weekend 2007, Skribit.com. Anyways, I had a fun time shooting photos and video I hope to edit some day. I also finally got to meet Daniel Brusilovsky, one of my inspiring internet friends.

We stayed that night with my friend Jerry Paffendorf at The Dragon Drop and headed to the Burning Man BBQ where we met up with fellow Burners and met with Marian Goodell, Heather Gallagher (Camera girl), and Andie Grace (Actiongrl) !!! And I finally got to meet Michael Michael (Danger Ranger), one of the original Burning Man co-founders and a huge inspiration for my documentary As The Dust Settles.

We then said hi to Cindy and Zack Gainsforth and stayed with Leslie’s parents in Sacramento. We then headed to the Sacramento Film Fest screening 11am on Sun. It was fun to see the team all together. Brette Way, who plays Emma in the film, and her husband Evan (both in an awesome LA band called The Parson Red Heads) came up for the film fest.

After the fest, we headed north to Redding and hung out with Tracy Evans and her family, then up to Ashland, OR for the premiere of Wake Up You’re Sleeping! It was a sold out screening of over 200 people! Nathanial Bennett, the director, gave a great Q&A. Many people were excited to get the DVD or find out where they could see the film again.

We then headed down to Redding to hang out with team SOAR which is one of the adventure race teams I met while shooting Primal Quest in Montana. We went snow shoeing for the day in Lassen National Forest with Betty and Tom Thomas. Crazy fun!!! I also got to shoot some RED footage of the team bike riding.

We then traveled south to Alex Rich’s house. Alex is the genius musician who did the music for the SXSW video I did last year. He has several projects going, including his new project Tonight’s the Night. We then headed to Reno, NV with out hitting any deer!!! or getting cought in the snow storm, and met up with Lauren Randolph!!!!! (jumpshot photographer extraordinaire, and member of the ATDS team) We got to hang out with her for the day and shot some jumpshots. Yes this photo hit Flickr Explore!!!!!

Jackie and I then headed down to Fairfield, CA to do the Jelly Belly Factory Tour, which I had never done, but always wanted to do. Yes my favorite flavor is Juicy Pear. We ended up back in LA finally, and since it was Jackie’s birthday, we headed to Disneyland where you get a free admission for your birthday. We had a grand old time with all the rides and activities. We even got to watch fireworks! On April 14th Jackie left for Washington on her next adventure.

Thank you Jackie for all the adventures we shared. I guess life will go on…