Hit the 1.5 million view mark on Flickr today. Woohoo!

I remember in October or November of last year when I hit the 1 million mark (after roughly a year on Flickr), a friend asked me what my goal was then. I wasn’t really sure. Hadn’t thought about it. I think I said something about hoping that maybe by the same time next year, I’d hit the three million views mark.

It’s probably still possible to hit that mark by year end. I think so. Now that I’m off the road and things are slightly less complicated than before, I’m going to be really active again on Flickr (not that I wasn’t while I was on my trip, but it was different). For now, though, I’m pretty happy about the milestone.

Another milestone I’ve hit since returning home to the beach… 5,000 uploads on Flickr now. That’s kinda cool.

I would celebrate all of this except, well, it’s not that big a deal. But still neat, nonetheless.

I’ve decided that Club Meridian is fascinating. I’ve decided that if a real realty story about South Beach life were to be told, it could be told from here.

This place has everything!!! We’ve got drama, public breakups, backstabbing, a small enough cast allowing room for those fringe personalities, guest characters coming in all of the time, either from out of town (complete with backstory) or locals with love interest stories abounding. The social part of South Beach is just outside of the gates.

Beautiful people which will work out for selling visually. Struggling people to whom people can relate.

I’m hungry. I’m waiting on a cheeseburger. The overnight guest has left on rollerblades, heading for McDonald’s. I hope it has pickles. I like pickles on a cheeseburger.

On Monday night, I spent the last night of my trip in Palm Beach before driving the final stretch to arrive home in South Beach. And what better way to start my entrance back into South Florida than to wake up Tuesday morning and shoot one of my all-time favorite models, Anastasia. God, I love that girl.

I’ll be going through the photos for a while (there are a TON) but all of the photos from the shoot will be found here.

home.

In Daytona. Leaving momentarily. Will be in South Beach Tuesday afternoon. Yes!!!!!!!!

A little bummed, though. I spent a week at the beach in North Carolina, working off the farmer’s tan I had developed riding from east coast to west and back again. It was nearly normal, my tan. Three days on the scooter and I’m back to sporting the same tan. Doh! Even worse, I have motorcycle tan.

Motorcycle tan (which, I’m not sure if it’s been documented yet or not, but I’ve got it) is where you ride all day and, because of the way your hands grip, the top half of your fingers are tan while the bottom part (from the middle joint down to your fingernails) remains pale. I look like I’m a member of some weird cult. Possibly their leader.

I took a crapload of photos of my youngest son surfing at the beach. Then I made him pose. Because dads with cameras are like that. It’s a genetic thing, apparently.

All of the photos of my youngest son that I took at the beach are here. He’s so handsome. Yes? Yes. See that smirk? That’s the smirk of “You’re a dork, dad.”

I’m back on the road, finishing this journey. It was three months ago yesterday when I left Miami on my 50cc Scooter.

I left Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina yesterday morning. 210 miles and 11 hours later, and I landed in Beaufort, South Carolina. They shot a bit of Forrest Gump here. I’m tempted to go find the house since he and I have so much in common. Unlike Forrest, though, I’m not doing this more than twice. Driving once across the country on a scooter was plenty. Twice was just insane. And I’m probably the only person in the world that’s done it twice. If not, there can’t be but a handful of others.

There is still so much to write about the trip. Most recently, though, when I first got back into the southeast, I really wasn’t enjoying the drive at all. It was countryside I knew and I just wanted to reach my destination. However, when I left Charlotte, NC and drove to the beach, I got to do something I haven’t done in a while: visit one of my childhood homes.

When I was a kid in Saudi Arabia, the schools ran on a trimester system. During the breaks, my parents would sometimes return on vacation to South Carolina to visit family. I think I was the only kid in Saudi who actually went to school while he was on vacation (thanks, mom and pops). Then I managed to spend my sophomore year in Dillon, living with my grandmother, returning home to Saudi that year during the breaks (had the company had a high school, I’m sure the ‘rents would’ve put me in then, too! I kid, you two. But I know you would have.)

Anyway, I drove through that town. That year I spent there was, unquestionably, one of my worst as a kid. Man, I hated that place. It’s just a small town in South Carolina, seven miles from South of the Border, and nothing about it that’s different than really any other rural hamlet across the land. But I’ve always been left with such a distaste in my mouth from that place, that I had a hard time even tagging the photos I took with the name of the town. I don’t want to be associated with it. I feel like I am by photographing it. By tagging it.

Still, it played a part in my life. I think the biggest part it played was sealing up the fact that I could never, ever live there.

Since leaving Dillon, I’ve been to two other places I’ve called home: Ocean Isle Beach and Charleston. I have much better memories there, OIB always feeling like home in the states to me. Well, up until I moved to South Beach. Now, no place feels more like home to me.

Photos here.

Alright, so I’ve been lounging around a while now. I’m at the beach in NC. I drove the scooter here sans backpack and crate. (I had a support vehicle called the ‘rents, woohoo!!) Here with the younger boy. Sooo very pleasant. We’re actually sitting on the porch right now, about to head to the beach.

Life is good.

I’m leaving on Friday to finish the trip back to South Beach. I expect to be there within 10 days from now.

In other news, I’ve had some time on my hands. I’ve been trying to organize things here on the site. I still have a lot to do. But it’ll get done. All part of a master plan. Because I’m good with master plans. Some of the changes you’ll note, some of them you won’t. (Admin type things for me.)

Additionally, when I embarked on this trip nearly three months ago now, I brought one external hard-drive with me containing a limited set of photos. I was pleased to discover a few days ago – man, I wish I had found this earlier in the trip – that I’ve actually had a lot of files stored on my website for backup purposes. So I’m sort of going through those now, too, and putting the occasional photo in the galleries, most notably in The Model Shoots. Neato!

I don’t think I need to add something about that gallery being not safe for work. But it pretty much isn’t. Sorry.

Were it not for a certain website (I’d mention which one except I don’t want Rick to think I’m looking for free hits – wait, yes I am: it’s SFDB!!!), I’d be completely outside of the political loop. Two examples: 1) in 1988, I didn’t know who our president was until four days after the election, and (more recently) 2) I had never heard Obama’s voice until the day of his inauguration when I realized, “Oh hey, I think today’s the inauguration” at which point I cut on the tv for a few minutes.

Point being, I read over there the latest scandal about Obama. It reminded me that I’ve managed to take a number of similar photos in South Beach. You’ll find those scandalous photos tagged in the Street +/ Life gallery under The Eyes Have It.

(Not so scandalous, really. Just all the every day in South Beach.)