On the shelf of a house in Cross Roads, Texas sits a dust filled atlas. The atlas is full of check marks and x marks along interstates across the United States with each mark representing a stage in the journey that led to an inseparable bond between a father and his daughter.

The journey begins at a YMCA in Athens, Texas. A young Anna Cross dominates her competition in the pool.

"She had so many medals that if she sat in the swimming pool, she would have drowned," laughed John Cross.

John sits poolside cheering on his daughter. This scene would become a staple in the duo's relationship.

While Anna's days in the pool were short-lived, her softball days were just kicking off and would take the two on an unforgettable journey from diamond to diamond across the country.

John and two other parents created a travel softball team, the Mean Green, with a vision; give each girl an opportunity to play collegiate softball.

With that end goal in mind, John and Anna hit the road.

"There were a lot of fights, but a lot of really getting to know each other," Anna said. "When I was little, we did not have the phones, the maps and GPS like we do now. He texted me a couple of months ago and said, 'I found the map that we used to use.' We would make X's all the way up to where we were going. The road trips brought us together."

But the journey was never easy. Anna sacrificed many times to excel at the game she loved, but she was never forced to continue. Anna developed a love for softball that was worth every sacrifice she was forced to make. Quitting was never even considered.

"I told Anna her entire life, 'Whenever you are tired of playing, all you have to do is tell me and we will stop,'" John said. "Anna may have been frustrated from time to time, but she never wanted to stop."

Kansas City, Miami and Chattanooga are just a few of the stops the Mean Green made and John never missed a game. The team was even invited to compete in the Amateur Softball Association Nationals in Augusta, Georgia, but in the end it was a tournament in Houston that made the difference.

As Anna prepared to enter her senior season, the Mean Green took part in the Triple Crown Sports Ronald McDonald Tournament in Houston and Anna was spotted by then Louisiana Tech head coach Sarah Dawson.

In the coming weeks, Anna received a scholarship offer from Louisiana Tech, but she still had a year of softball remaining at Cross Roads High School.

During the fall Anna's Friday nights were spent on the sidelines, cheering on Cross Roads High Schools. As you might expect, John was there in the bleachers every Friday night.

One Friday night Anna received one of the worst calls a child can received; she was the second one on the scene. On his way home from the game, a pickup truck had pulled out in front of John, who T-boned the truck with his motorcycle.

"The ambulance drivers told Anna that she could not ride with me to the hospital," John said. "Anna's response was, 'Yes, I am. You can't make me get out.'"

John wasn't released from the hospital until 5 a.m. the next morning. Less than three hours later, Anna was warming up for a volleyball game when the gym doors swung open; in the doorway stood her father.

"I can remember walking in the gym with a walker," John recalled. "It took me more than 30 minutes to get from the parking lot into the gym. The entire team had already made a card and signed it. When they saw the door open and me come in, they all ran down to me. She was shocked, but I have surprised her many times when she did not think I was going to be able to make it."

Family means everything to Anna, an ideal she learned from her father. As her senior year came to a close, it was time for her to make a decision on where she would continue her softball career.

"I wanted to find a place to call home," Anna said. "I did not want to go too big or too small. I also did not want to it be where I did not know my teammates. I really wanted to go somewhere where I was treated like family and if anything went wrong my teammates were going to be there."

Anna found a home in Louisiana Tech.

As a young softball player, Anna dreamed of playing at the collegiate level. It was a dream shared between her and her father. The countless hours of hard work, sweat and even tears had come to fruition.

"I have a little booklet that is still in my memories box from around fourth grade," Anna said. "We had to finish a sentence and draw a picture. It said, 'One day I dream …,' and mine was to be a college softball player. It has always been my dream and he wanted me to do what I wanted to do."

Over the past three years, Anna Cross has played in 152 games for the Lady Techsters. Of those 152 games, Anna says her dad has missed approximately 10 games.

That includes an 18-hour drive to the 2015 Conference USA Tournament in Miami, Florida and a 16-hour drive to Huntington, West Virginia when the Lady Techsters faced off with Marshall.

"Wherever she is playing," John said, "I have never missed any of my kids' events. I have hardly missed any of her games. I have always tried to make it to everything. I support my children. I support her 100 percent."

That support means the world to Anna and something she never takes for granted.

"He is the reason I am here," she said. "I would not be anywhere near the person I am, or the player I am without him by my side."

In three short weeks, Louisiana Tech will open the 2016 campaign in Gulf Shores, Alabama. While he may not use an atlas to get there, John Cross will be in those bleachers for the first pitch of the season, but until he arrives at the stadium Anna Cross will be scanning the crowd looking for the man who helped put her where she is today.