Category Archives: Musings

Oooh! Aaah!

running down the street looking for a better spot, crowd of people at the end, empty field beyond, BOOM!, purple lights up the sky, neighbors chatting, kids laughing, motorcycle in the distance peels out, headlights behind us and everyone turns to look, movement all around me, glow of a cigarette, beer bottles clinking, CRACK!, aaah!, red white and blue, where did all these people come from?, time flows in slow motion as i look all around me and try to savor this moment, was that the finale?, bottle rockets and firecrackers all over the neighborhood, more rockets red glare, baby crying, dogs howling, smell of bbq briquettes, BANG! yellow and orange and red, oh, THIS is the finale!, laughter and applause, one last explosion, a car starts, people begin walking away, i’m left alone and still standing in the same spot, the show is over, left foot right foot, and now i’m home.

Thank you, City Of Manteca, for an absolutely spectacular fireworks show!

Tales of Adventure

From time to time I lose my mind and become entralled with tales of adventure. I joined the Navy after high school on a whim. I enjoy playing adventure-ish video games entirely too much. I was once *this* close to joining the Peace Corps. Then it was the Long Way Round adventure with Ewan MacGregor and Charlie Boorman. Now it’s the Pacific Crest Trail.

The PCT is a system of hiking trails that stretches from the Mexican border to over 2,600 miles North to the Canadian Border, through California and Oregon and Nevada. Most hikers start the trail in April and finish in September. Some 300 hikers attempt the trip each year–about half will complete the journey.

With the blessings of technology, today’s hikers are more connected than ever. They are able to update their blogs while in range of cell towers, upload pictures, and share waypoints on a map via GPS. Some even share videos.

Here I am, each day, reading the tales of adventure from the PCT. I can see their progress on Google maps and see beautiful scenery that I know that I’ll never see in real life. I’m both happy and sad at the same time. Happy that I’m able to follow along through my web browser, and sad that the web browser is the closest I’m going to get to hiking this trail.

What dedication, what stamina, what… ahhh, I don’t know what… ?

My favorite hiker is a fellow who calls himself Diamond Dave. I particularly like him because he’s a big guy, like me, at 6’4″. He started the trail this year at over 300 pounds, and now, a month later, he’s dropped over 30 pounds. Good luck Dave! Ohhh, I hope you make it all the way.

A charming couple that I’m also pulling for are Cindy and Andy. Andy is a professional gambler (you know, like the World Series of Poker guys you watch on ESPN?) Cindy is a technowiz that maintains their website with journal updates, GPS waypoints, digital photos, and even podcasts. Their entire journey is being chronicled online. And she updates often (thank you sooo much, Cindy!)

Here’s the website of a Kiwi who completed the PCT in 2007. I’ve spent countless hours on his website absorbing every bit of info regarding his trip. I’ve read every blog entry, seen every picture, and watched every video he’s got up there.

These are truly amazing people. I admire them like no others.

Long Way Round

Sometimes you experience something that changes your life forever. Be it big or small, it doesn’t matter. Looking back over the past few years I can think of some things that impacted me greatly: going to Trinity for the first time with Scott, listening to Beck’s ‘Sea Change’, meeting Yum.

And then, a few weeks ago, Yum and I watched Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman’s ‘Long Way Round’ documentary/adventure. And this changed the way I looked at life.

Ewan and Charley are best mates that love to ride motorcycles. They took small trips at first around the UK. And then they started to dream–big. A trip across Europe became a trip across Europe and Asia, and finally a trip from the UK to New York… the long way round, a trip around the world. And except for a short plane ride from northeast Russia to Alaska, they made the entire trip over land on two wheels.

20,000 miles in almost 4 months.

The friendship between Charley and Ewan is quite deep. As you watch them interact over the course of their adventure you can’t help but admire them–and maybe become a bit jealous. Their fraternal bond is magical. Anyone would be very lucky to have what they have.

A camera crew and a support team followed them in 4×4 trucks, usually a day behind. One swiss cameraman rode his own motorbike with Charley and Ewan to record and preserve the experience. So for the most part the guys were on their own, traveling all day long by motorcycle and camping in their tents at night in some of the most serene locations on Earth.

Mongolia was my favorite part of the trip, and for the boys it was the toughest. They almost gave up. But they made it all the way across the country, all the way across Europe Asia North America, and eventually to New York. I don’t want to give too much away, in case you decide to watch it–which you most certainly should.

‘Long Way Round’ is the greatest road trip of our time, and certainly one of the greatest adventures of all time.


Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor with their trusty BMWs