Well folks, I tried to get a good picture of this little fellow who was one of #TheTravelingMac’s best friends at #StovepipeWellsVillage…. I had never heard of a #ChickenHawk before… And for good reason, they are very difficult to locate… This guy above used to greet me every night after I was done with work… He would hang out at the horseshoe pits… He loves the lights there, which attract a lot of moths and other bugs… I wouldn’t even have noticed this guy if I didn’t walk by the pit every night… Many other workers were not even aware he was there every single night…

The Chicken Hawk would just sit there, blending in with the sand, waiting for his opportune moment… The reason I was able to get a picture of him was because he sat up on a block of wood, which really brought out his colors… When he is sitting on the sand, you can barely notice him… He would wait patiently on that block of wood for his perfect moment…

And then bang… He would shoot up in the air and grab a bug… I caught him in mid air here but with the lack of light and the speed of this little creature, it was extremely difficult to get a usable image… I tried all year and finally got one that was pretty decent… I will miss him…

So #TheMillenniumFalcon was ready to go… I have been talking about this trip ever since I started my #adventure on the road… The Traveling Mac was finally making that challenging drive up the coast to #Alaska!!! That’s right folks!!!

The week before we left, Tracey and I got the Millennium Falcon a needed wash…

And boy did she need it!!!

We went gambling… Saw some mermaids at #TheSilverton,LasVegas…

Which was pretty damn cool…

We said goodbye to our new and old friends in #DeathValley…

Had a #campfire…

Tracey decided to make the challenging trek with me… Two travelers taking on one of the most dreamed about treks in the world by asphalt adventurists… The drive up the ALCAN! But we have plenty of time to talk about that on the way up there..

Tracey went home to visit family for a week… I myself, made my way over to #Pahrump,NV to get the Millennium Falcon looked at before the huge, dangerous trek up the #ALCAN…

We were ready to navigate this post apocalyptic world, full of indecency and lies…

I planned on going out into the desert for a couple of days to unwind… There was also this pretty damn cool concert over in #Balarat,DeathValley that I wanted to check out… It was this exclusive #hippie event a couple of girls who visited my bar invited me to… It attracts a lot of those weird Manson enthusiasts and extreme hippie types…

But then the bad news started piling in… The Millennium Falcon was grinding a little when I reached Pahrump… I had lost the brakes a few times going down mountains and now they were grinding… The last time the brakes were replaced on the #RV was when I bought it…

Well, just as I thought, the brakes were shot… The mechanic told me I was riding them down hill too much… I always thought preserving your transmission was more important than your brakes on these things but I was sorely wrong… I had to get them overhauled with new calipers, pads and rotors…

The Mechanic told me it was very important to down-shift down hills no matter how much of a bog it sounds like it is putting on your engine and transmission…

He said there was evidence that the brake fluid in the master cylinder had reached boiling levels numerous times… A sure sign you are hugging the pedal way too much… A lesson I have been taught before but obviously I had to relearn… I was really angry at myself for letting such a simple rule slip by me… Then I thought about all of the rules and lessons I have to navigate on a daily basis and stopped being so hard on myself…

Through out life you have to relearn and sometimes the lessons change… Just apart of life… You just have to try and keep up with it…

So, I never got to go out into the desert to take a few days to relax… No biggie… I’m used to it by now… lol!

I headed straight into Los Angeles where Tracey planned to meet me in her car… We dropped her car off at a friends house for the season, just so we could travel to Alaska together… We figured it wasn’t worth the cost and aggravation to bring a car all the way up there… We can figure out how to get around in a small town without a car… The Millennium Falcon is a mighty vehicle but she’s too old to tow a car… So that option was out of the question… especially considering I had to replace her engine not too long ago…

When Tracey finally arrived, we had breakfast with friends of mine in L.A. and then we hit the road…

We heading to #DisneyLand first… We figured it was the perfect place to unwind before a long, crazy adventure… Just to get the last few months of work out of our heads…

Then after all of that fun, we start our journey to the #LastFrontierState folks! We head to Alaska!!!

I couldn’t stop bragging to customers and coworkers about this trip we were going on! I have never been so excited to take a journey in my life…

If you remember, this was the first big journey The Traveling Mac was going to take in the summer of 2015… But as life goes, it takes you in different directions…

So now, almost 2 1/2 years later, The Millennium Falcon was on the eve of this amazing trip! It would be a day of #StarWars tomorrow with the magic of Disney, then The Traveling Mac, Tracey and TheMillenniumFalcon will hit the road for Alaska!

Life is amazing folks!!! There are many adventures that wait for you out there! You just have to get out there to experience them!!!