ME…

I am going to do this backwards…

Its 2010 and I am starting a trip that will take me pretty much from the top of North America, to the tip of South America.  I am even hoping for a chance to get to Antarctica.

In 2009 I spent three months doing a coral reef conservation project in Mexico.   It was great experience and I met lots of great people.  It exposed me to the backpacking lifestyle that a lot of my fellow volunteers were living.  At the end of the project I had to go home and back to work, while several of them were to continue on traveling, some for a year or more.  When I got back to work I decided that this was what I wanted to do.  So I sold just about everything I own, paid off all my bills and have been saving up to leave for a year or more.

2006-2008 I took some time off and learned how to sail, scuba dive, rock climb, and several other things I thought would be fun.  I tried a few things that I didn’t like as well.  I moved a few times during these years as well, back to Montana, to Arizona, and back to North Dakota.

1999 – 2006 I was at college getting a degree in Geology.  That’s right I am a geologist. I have been selling my soul for money doing petroleum exploration.   I was married for six years and am still passable friends with my ex-wife.   Took several trips during these years a lot of them for school, going to mostly national parks and areas with interesting geology.  I was also in the ARMY national guard during these years as well. I lived in North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, Texas, and for short periods in Kentucky and Alabama.

1980-1999 I was born and raised in a small town in Northeast Montana.  It is really beautiful up where I grew up, but it is found in the vast expanses of fields and prairie.   Life moved pretty slowly these years I had a good childhood, then I grew up (sorta), not much else to say.  Thanks Dad and Mom. Oh yeah… I have two sisters both younger.  We took family vacations every summer growing up and I think this has a lot to do with why I like to travel. I have been to all but 13 states.  I went to Europe for three weeks when I was 17, it was fun but I barely got a glimpse of a place before I was somewhere else.

I hope you enjoyed where I have been and are more interested in where I am going.