Tick....Tick...Tick...

48 hours left of this here job...wow...is it reality? I'm not 100% sure what to think. I look at the road as my best friend and worse enemy. Sitting in London, ON and wondering when is the next time I'll visit this area? Will it snow tomorrow? Something tells me I'll be back. The world is shrinking day by day. With the Internet, cell phones, youtube.com, and whatever else form of medium you can be secure. I still have to look back at this point. Why look forward? I have to thank from the bottom of my heart my old man and his best friend in the world Bob for allowing me to grow and live these last 10 years. No, it's not visiting DIS, building forts and mazes out of the empty boxes from the last move with the Brim kids. It's more than that. It's easy to dismiss them as I've had to earn my own keep. But as a child and an adult I've learned to love them and appreciate them more than they would know. I might be turning tricks for them on the road, but they've given me the opportunity to show a little leg these last few years of my life. Sure it's -6 degree Celsius, sure it's another hotel and crappy road food. But they both know as I do, the love for travel and the secrets of the road will always keep you warm. I'm moving to China...yes...China. Sure my Mom is pissed off that her baby is leaving the nest. Sure I will miss my family and my friends more than they will know. But it is a higher calling that wants me to go East young man. I'm not religious (sorry Mom again), but I am spiritual. It is funny that I sit here and my only real concern about China is nothing. Yeah...nothing. I thought I'd be worried sick about leaving, I thought I'd be a wreck about giving up everything I've got. But in all reality...I'm not worried about a thing. Outside of friends and family, everything I'm giving up is just a piece of furniture, or some materialistic thing that I can live without. When I got divorced I spilt up the knives and forks, the tv's and furniture, the wedding China, the books, and all the other crap my ex-bride and I had collected over the years. Sure, some of the stuff was worth keeping around. Most of it not. When I departed from my wife I felt definite Melancholy...but as I depart from Uncle Sam I feel none of those emotions. Maybe it's because in my mind I've found an area of the world where mortgage payments and jewelry don't mean a thing. Where the superficial is Yao Ming and his 7 foot frame. Last time I was in China they were trying to sell the "next" generation as being the next Yao. Good luck China...I hope you grow to be 7'4" so you can be the next Yao. Sure China can be as unrealistic as America...who can't? But what I look forward to the most, is the Innocent and pageantry that will be presented to me. Who wants to go to the great wall? Who wants to visit the Ming tombs? Who wants to go to the Olympics? I just raised my hand after all of those things. But deep down I know those and these things are just places and events. You'd be crazy to ignore them, but you'd be an even bigger fool to not understand them. If you're reading this...you are one of my people. Big or small, close or far, you are my people. I appreciate that fully...but tick, tick, tick, my fiends. The DIS career is coming to an end, but life itself is just starting. Tick.....tick...tick...tick...tick!!!!!

MY 2ND FAMILY

TUNNEL 7...DAWG DAY AFTERNOON

FAMILY

Asian Adventures

Last Hooray

As I stare out the window of my hotel room in Prince George, BC, the snow drifts calmly settle outside my room. As the temperature drops well below the freezing point, it's easy to sit here and not miss this stuff already. My wonderful company has sent me up to the great white north to complete my second to last install. Why am I blogging instead of working? Great question!!! Since my company is based out of Bellingham, WA and I'm working in Canada. All my equipment must pass through the great world of customs. Even though we have NAFTA and all those other wonderful...World without boarders elements, the Canadian government decided that they would hold up the paperwork and not release my goods. I was in theory supposed to start this installation on Tuesday. Looks like it will be Thursday now!!! I wouldn't call this a common occurrence, but the inevitable shock of not having my equipment wore off about 8 years ago. The dull thud, that is reality, leaves me wanting to begin my new adventure in China even more so today.
What ever possessed me to continue to travel the last 10 years sacrificing normalcy for chaos? Some people would say I'm an action junky, other people would say I'm crazy, while others would want to trade places with me. Sure the road is SEXY. It has its unparalleled itch. Leaving a road warrior like myself constantly looking for a place to scratch that traveling psoriasis. The truth of the matter is, I wouldn't trade a minute of my time spent on the road for any other exalted life experience. But now it seems to be the end of this road!!!
Ten years of Priority points, rental car stations, eating in restaurants three times a day, HBO or Showtime, Rural Routes, multi-state journeys, climate changes, people watching, Platinum status, Airline strikes, 9-11, dropped laptops, dial up to high speed, ATM fees, adult beverages, adult encounters, Madison Square Garden, Goodland Kansas High School Gym, European vacations, Domestic adventures, Per Diems, crowded planes, overgrown children, fifty states, not enough Provinces, Marriage, Divorce, Reverend Chief, Friends, Family, driving tractors, bootless errands, sky caps, thunderstruck, truck stops, budget hotels, calling cards, cell phones, hotel comforter to the floor, space shuttle launches, The Green Monster, air shows, car shows, toy shows, Mennonites, Mormons, Catholics, Southern People, Corn feed beef, Tennessee firework stands, Panhandlers and hustlers, straight and crooked people, caffeine free, burnt out weekends, burnt up weekends, coin laundry, Douglas, Lenexa, Ferndale, Corliss, I-5 corridor, BLI, SEA, MCI, long days, long nights, security gates, unlock able gates, hog farmers, contractors, Parts pads, FedEx, UPS, pretzels, peanuts, G&T's, Captain & 7, micro brews, Miller Park, Arrowhead Stadium, Phog Allen Field house, the Rose Bowl, Iron Bowl, historic sites, ground zero, Washington monuments, California beaches, Appalachian Mountains, Chattahoochee River, Kudzu, red clay, Michigan DOT, Ohio State patrol, tolls, recycling deposits, thermostats, alarm clocks, missed flights, cancelled flights, pissed off patrons, happy campers, truckers, parts people, the Mississippi Delta, Tunica, Las Vegas, Jersey Shore, sadness, happiness, and finally Maine!!!! These things aren't the only things that make up the past 10 years of my life but they have definitely been my Enlightenment!!!!

Reverend Chief