Everywhere I've been is where I had to go to get to where I am.: The paths, road, and intersections that shaped my Life.

Like many travelers I’ve known I’ve seen more than I can possibly remember, and tend to remember more than I’ve actually seen.

My life is based on a true story.

I am from the post-war generation, a Boomer, and I was unsettled and always on the move. As I grow older my once-perfect eyesight has faded into a worrisome loss of acuity. What I hope is that this loss is replaced with a clearer vision of who I am. A perceptiveness. I often close my eyes to visualize something better. Clearer. We all do. I close my eyes to remember the eye-opening experiences travel has afforded me. I have a clearer vision of where I came from but still have no idea of where I’m going. I have no intention of arriving, not that I have the complete say in that. I still want to see new landscapes, with new eyes.

Because I travel I get homesick for places I’ve never been yet yearn for the past. I see how small I am in a much bigger world. I remember who I was and walk toward who I will become. I embrace the unexpected, except at tax time. My surroundings no matter how foreign feel comfortable. I stand in the past of others and look to the future of myself.

I look back on the stupid things I did in the name of adventure, and I’ve slowly come to realize that the attraction of sleeping on a foreign dirt floor surrounded by locals and a few other down-and-out travelers just doesn’t hold the same romance for my aching joints anymore. My only fear now is the risk of spending a minute of my life not doing what I want to do. Hesitation and old age may have set in, but the memories are still alive, maybe that’s the reason for my need to write these stories, to remember them all over again.

The best education I have received came from the street, beaches, and alleyways of California, Afghanistan, Nepal, Australia and Europe, long after any formal education took hold. I’ve never wanted to view the world from the grandstands. I enjoy the participation. A backpack and the open road is my calling. This life has certainly left marks on me—and hopefully I’ve left a few marks on the world in return.