"My boss first asked if he could come along."

"For months I didn't feel like even thinking about this trip."

Yum September 9, 2003 Chimanimani National Park, Manicaland, Zimbabwe

I'm as guilty as anyone of enjoying the comfort and predictability of a nice paycheck, but it's also a surefire way to make life blow by without your noticing.

I've been in Cincinnati for four years, more than four times longer than I've lived anywhere else, and I was definitely in a routine... even a rut. I would arrive home at night not able to remember a single thing I did that day. When your life is so routine that your unconscious mind can get through the day without ever asking you for help, it's time for a change.

"Deliberately Getting Lost Somewhere Scary"
I enjoy turning my life completely on its head occasionally and just seeing what happens. Moving to a new city, quitting a job, or just deliberately getting myself lost somewhere a little scary. I think I come by that tendency honestly. My Mom's an offensive line-woman for a full contact women's football team. She just bought a Harley, and Dad just got back from an extended solo cross-country road trip.

I can tell you almost the exact day I decided to really turn my life on its head. It was sometime in August of 2000, just before I moved to a new apartment here in Cincinnati.

I'd just reluctantly signed a new contract to stay at my job for at least a third year, and I was feeling a little trapped. I'd spent the summer planning to leave Cincinnati, but then stuck around when my employer asked me to re-up my contract. It had always been in my mind one day to try to take a month or two off so I could travel, but until that day it never occurred to me that there was another way.

In a erueka-like moment of clarity I realized that as often as I change jobs, instead of jumping straight from Cincinnati to my next gig, I could throw in as long a trip as I want in between... then look for a new job when I get back.

"I Was About to Start Learning"
I laid awake almost all night thinking about where I'd go, when I'd leave, and what I'd need to do to get ready. I knew almost nothing about the world outside North America and Western Europe but was about to start learning.

I immediately stopped spending money. Like really not spending any money. And after about four months of paying off credit cards, with about a year to go till my planned departure, I was ready to start socking cash away for the trip.

The next hurdle was my employer. I'd decided I wanted to leave in March of 2002. The contract I'd signed gave me an out during a two month window in the summer of 2001. But if I didn't exercise that option at that time, I was locked in till the following summer. I hoped the fact that I was not leaving for another TV job and was giving a year's notice would make up for the pesky contractual obligations. And it did. My boss first asked if he could come along, then said it should be no problem to leave at that time.

"They Tie You Down However They Can"
With that out of the way, all that was left was to make plans and figure out how to make everything work. Our market economy and those corporations have a way of punishing the minions who don't play along with their game. Apartment leases, car payments, employment contracts. They tie you down however they can and make it very expensive to break out. I finally managed to trade my Jeep lease and make a deal with my landlord to stay month-to-month for a while.

"If Only..."
Then September 11 rolled around and changed my plans radically. I should be careful here. If only the worst thing that happened that day was that my travel plans were shot to hell, we'd all be a lot better off. I know my inconvenience is inconsequential in a broad context, but it's part of this story.

For months I didn't feel like even thinking about this trip. My friends and coworkers asked all the time if I still planned to go. My official line was that I was waiting till the first of the year when I would re-evaluate everything. Truth was I really didn't think I would go. It wasn't fear for my safety. Part was uncertainty about the economy and whether it'd be impossible to find a job when I got back. Part was uncertainty that there'd be a world to see.

Although I gradually returned to the idea of this trip, I've never completely invested myself in these plans. I keep the mindset that it's a plan; it's what I hope to do. But you never know what will happen, and everything's subject to change any minute.

As of July, 2002 I'm finishing the final pieces of this website, along with hirejohn.com, a site to help me find a job when I'm back. I'm also starting to figure out the logistics of getting started. Final day at work, how to move my stuff, plans for seeing friends and family in those first days off.