The Thirteen Tales

At the present date and time, I'm sitting at a computer, in Rochester, Mn, in a home that I and my bank own.

My mind constantly wonders into the past, into the philosophical mode-constantly. These days it rests on places I have been, lived a part of my life for a period of time; places that either changed me, or I changed them. Odd Places.

I'm still paying on two solo-backpacking trips, I took in 2002 and 2003. Once paid off, the interest alone, will have doubled the orginal expense. This debt hangs over my head-not of a black cloud of doom, one of fluffy white goodness. I don't regret a second of the choice to do these excursions.

I found myself in Florence on a rainy day, met up with some other travlers and we frantically looked for a hostel. After 2 hours of looking, I decided it best to hit the road, jumped on a train and landed in Pisa, Italy. I walked, with my backpack, alone into the dark of night, on a desserted road, to find a hostel. The road turned into the country side, the light and the stars as my guide. Here I am, alone with limited Italian vocabulary, lost on a country road, in a foriegn country. How long I walked, is unknown. I came into a town, where 2 people in a car pulled over. They were american transplants (if memory is serving) and they directed me to where the hostel was. The feeling of being on that road, alone, about 9 o'clock at night, in the darkness, lacks any description. That feeling is unique.

I think back to that period of time, and other experiences of the trip with a great big smile. I MADE it. I survived to live the tale. And it warms my heart to have somewhat the same experience with my parents in Luxembourg this past year. Being in a car, with some realitives that don't speak english, at midnight, where we don't know exactly where we are at, highly intoxicated-- and feeling very at peace with the world.

Watching my latest crack-attack of Amazing Race, stirs these feelings of adventure. Of being totally thrown into a reality where one lacks control of the situation. How I long to sell everything and become this traveling bag-a-bong. Oh the places we go....