Background. Check. Now Where?

I can't believe this is actually about to begin.  Thanks to all who have checked in to take a look, I hope you follow me throughout all of South America.  The plan is to spend eight months backpacking through every country I can get to,  get involved with the culture and basically live a more freeing life that I think we all deserve.  I have sold my house, traded my car, removed myself of almost all possessions except what I will take on the road and received, in return, a freedom and chance for self-exploration that few people ever get the opportunity to indulge in.


My final days work will end on September 29th, 2009 at about 11pm.  By then I will have everything packed and ready to drive over to Palm Springs and then on to Bend, Oregon where I will leave my car and books.  October 22nd is the day I fly out for Lima, Peru and then over to Cuzco to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and one of the Seven Wonders of The World.  My good friend Linda Batista will be along for the first five weeks.  We'll head south into Bolivia, Argentina and Chili and then to Santiago where she will fly out and I'll be solo.


Where does this traveling bug come from?  Why from such an early age did I relate so much with Jack London and Thereau?  For what reasons was I so entranced by the biographies of  Ernest Shackleton or the fragmented journals of Alexander Supertramp?  I know my father played a part in the One Act play that will be my life.  He took me hiking, climbing, rafting, skiing, sailing, cave dwelling and exploring as far back as I can remember.  He took me on the road and got me fascinated with pavement and the dotted yellow lines of America's highways.  Little did he know it would be a phase I would never grow out of.  Instead I would work, go to school and seek out a profession that would be lucrative and add stability to my life.  For a time I was happy with that.  But there was always something missing when I came home from work and marveled at all the neat things I had accumulated with my paychecks.  It nagged at me while I watched the National Geographic Channel.  I felt as though I was missing out somehow even though I had Anthony Bourdain there to tell me how wonderful the world was while I grew fat and complacent on my new luxury sofa.  As my friends eventually all got married and began having children I wondered to myself, sometimes aloud, "should I just stay on the couch?
       "I will need all 'this stuff' when I get married."  But I never did.  And I mean that in the dual sense.  I never got married and I never needed the stuff.  In fact it seemed to make me angry.  "Why should anyone in there right mind spend $5000 on a couch or TV when that money could take them half way across the globe for months on the proper budget?"  Brave thoughts for someone sitting on a couch and watching a TV with an accumulated value of $9000! 
       At the end of No Reservations, Mr. Bourdain always gives a little monologue weaving in philosophy, humanity, desire and adventure.  It is just enough to keep us happily on our ass's waiting for the next episode.  By the way, that is our fault, not his.  But he got me thinking scared sober one night in 2007, "Why not me?"
        Why am I spending all this time watching so much crap, letting this man define my expectation of a place, culture or food, when I could do it myself?  I may not have a television show or camera crew but I could sell this couch and my new 55 inch TV and probably get pretty far!"
       That's a frightening thought.  Sobering.  Full of mythology and logic that is counter-intuitive to our up bringing.  But let me say from experience, once you go down that road there is an adrenaline rush that is like no other.  I held garage sales, posted listings on Craigslist, sold things to friends and coworkers for pennies on the dollar.  I'm still not sure if my goal was to make vagabonding money or just get rid of the things that hindered my travels!  I was off running but to where, I did not know.
I am fairly certain of one fact.  In America we have but 70 or 80 beautiful years on this planet and it is up to us to decide how we are going to spend it.  The first quarter is spent on education and development, years where we have little say.  We are but observers in the Grande Comedy.  Sadly we often spend the second and third quarter doing nothing else but accumulating wealth so that we can live the fourth quarter in some sort of comfort.  When we are older, wiser and full of thought then we rest our heads on the pillow of our dreams.  But by then it is to late.  The fancy of youth and the wisdom of age seldom collide together at the same moment in time and space.  We are left with memories and dreams.  And really nice couches in front of huge TV's!
       I know this is not an original thought but what if we were to redefine the confines our our own existence?  Bend the bars; devil give chase to our own tail!  Can we not work and play in the manner so expected of youth and still retire happy in the end?  We all face the same specter at our door-step lacking manners.  I would rather greet Him on a bed of straw with stories to enchant than lined with silk ready to bore Him with my greatness.  He has come to take us either way.  I say grab your youth by its own ass and God willing, hurt yourself in the process, because then you can stand on equal ground facing the ultimate unknown with defiance and smirk.  Laughter is the only song I suppose Death can enjoy.  Don't let Him down.  Be a good house guest as you have for all those whose presence you could barely tolerate.  We must take it in stride when that stride is our last.  
       It appears to me from what I have observed (and felt in myself) that we spend our lives preparing for an illusion that we will never obtain.  We chase happiness like a sun dipping over the horizon.  When we finally figure out that the world is not flat we feel like the hamster in the plastic wheel.  But by then we have used up all our energy, and at such a frantic pace, that the heart has slowed and silently prepares for its long sleep and separation from the soul.
        I can't speak for other countries but in America, I believe credit has become the modern demon from which so much misery has been born.  We are enticed by it's ability to produce an immediate outcome, one which we would otherwise have to wait and earn and plan for.  Credit replaces long term satisfaction with immediate gratification.  It allows us to live, for a short time, outside our means.  And with the American Dream pressuring us to buy, buy, buy it is no wonder we give in.  How can I possibly be happy in life without German auto-engineering?  Doesn't everyone deserve a four bedroom house with a pool and gated yard?  Aren't we all supposed to wear $200 dollar jeans?  I swear it's an inherent right built into our constitution!  Seinfeld never spoke of money problems.  He just did stand-up and bought his parents Cadallacs.  And Rachel and Ross never squabbled over bills while raising a child out of wedlock.  They were able to spend countless hours at their favorite coffee bar and leisure time with friends.
       Get the point?  Life just doesn't work like that.  Who would watch a TV show about people who worked hard all day at a job they hated just to come home, prepare a substandard meal full of artificial every-things and plopped down on the sofa to escape the their own dull existence.  No one.  Because it's boring, pathetic and drowning in atrophy.  But this is the path so many of us choose.  We are kept afloat only by escape and the illusion that tomorrow will bring a better day.  Perhaps a Lotto ticket.  If we're really depressed we can just go buy the latest surround sound system or maybe some new rims for the sports-car that won't be paid off for six years!
       Credit is a demon.  We would be better off to work in trade.  At least trade requires that you bring a talent to the table.  Look at the economic climate of the US today.  We are in the dregs of the worst downfall since the Great Depression yet the upturn  is only measured by the amount that Americans are spending!  'Summer spending is down, back to school spending is down, Christmas spending is forecasted to be less...Americans just aren't spending what they used to.'  We must be in a recession!  Three years ago all we heard was 'the US family must learn to budget.  Don't follow in the footsteps of our government with a trillion dollar deficit.  Invest in real-estate...land is the only thing they won't make more of.'
       When money is tight the government and media seem to tell us that the only way out of this mess is to start spending again.  'Lets get progress back on track.  Get stock prices back up and inuities flowing again.'  Shouldn't we be spending our money on food and fuel rather than the rising cost of COX Cable or True Religion jeans?
       The truth is they want us in debt!  They want us so high in debt that the only payment we can afford is the minimum one.  That's the only way they make money.   Lucky for them debt is transferable.  At least after you pay the death tax.  The economy no longer runs on money but rather the transfer there of.  
       I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist.  I can hear the criticism from friends shouting Capitalism and Freedom from every mountain top.  All I'm saying is that I have yet to meet a friend without money problems.  Poor or rich.  But I have an abundance of friends with cool cars, fancy clothes and dollars to spread at a bars, concerts, festivals and hi-tech gadgets.