TechZati

March 11, 1997

Visa’s were no problem. Egypt took one morning and Saudi Arabia took one day. Clearly it’s not as big a problem to go north as it is to come south. This stopover in Asmara turned out to be the exact therapy and R&R I needed to recuperate. I could easily. Sound a couple more days lounging around, but I must press on to Keren tomorrow. Fortunately from Asmara all the distances are short.

Thinking about how fast time slips through your fingers; I can’t believe it’s the middle of March.  I’ll be in London in what, a month? Still seems far away. But, as quickly as everything else, time will come to pass.

I think more about how I’m going to acculturate back into e Western swing than I think about being in Africa. Have I become that removed? Perhaps not, maybe it’s something to do with my habit of thinking ahead-with. No plan at all.
I think is head cold was my body and brain working together saying “you MUST chill.” in doing so, I’m forcing myself to eat. Not that it’s difficult here-pasta salad everywhere. All part of the therapy.

People in Eritrea definitely have more money than those in Ethiopia. For only being 5 years old, this country is exploding with progress. The president is a good man, which is why everything is going so well. I’ve been talking to the guard and he thinks what’s going on here is good. Speaking of the economy, prices here are more expensive than Ethiopia – a strong sign of a good growing economy.

Everyone between 18-40 years old must do 2 years of “national service” for the country.  Basically manual labor – planting eucalyptus trees and such, but after a war things must get done.
It seems my most interesting conversations occur with the most random people. Now there’s a thought for a film. Adventures in talking with people, not just staring at them.

As I finished transcribing the first volume of my travel journals, it occured to me that the art of the handwritten journal may be dead.  All of the adventure and mystery stories, clues and revelations from ancestors and beyond were forever hidden until discovered by an explorer.  Saying that you stumbled across a hidden file in an old computer sort of kills the romantic idea of tying an advernture to any historical context.

One has to think that in 10 years a “blog” may be as outdated concept as a handwritten journal.

A couple images of the first journal below. I’m catching up on journal 2.

October 14, 1995

I’ve been in Wisconsin a little over a week and I’ve had a fantastic time. The first night, I drove into Hudson and gave Chad a call, got his phone number in Stout – Menomonie, WI so I cruised over and he took me out.

Then I spent the weekend in Hudson, I drove in with Chad.  I spent the night at his parents.  They have a gorgeous house and they raise Arabians.  I can’t believe I’ve been here this long.

Anyway, the next night I spent at the Blaise’s. Everyone here is extremely friendly. I can’t believe how genuinely nice and generous people are.  Chad’s a little OCD I think. All these guys are pissed because he doesn’t drop by anymore.

I watched Mark’s brother Matt motor cross race, he crashed a couple time and end-oed once, a little scary.

I’ve actually been spending more time with Doug and Mark’s roommates than I have with them.  They took me mountain biking and too me down some serious hills (I think).  We ended up jumping off a trail into a creek.  Then we rode across a couple railroad bridges.  Olaf is a neat guy.  I know he thinks what I’m doing by traveling is pretty cool.

But the winds of change are blowing me, and I guess it’s time to move on.

October 6, 1995

So i WAS in Seward.  Wrong vibes so now I’m in Hudson, Wisconsin – actually, Menomonie, WI. I’m visiting the cheeseheads I met in Alaska at Trans Aqua.

Seward was not worth it.  I went there in hopes of a JOB!?  Not anything.  I applied for an accounting and waitstaff job. The waitstaff position I got denied hardcore.  The owner basically told me to not come back.  Well, not that it really bothered me that much.  Actually, not at all. I think my mind was made up to leave Alaska a long time before I even went down to Seward.

I spent a day down there and took off.  I stopped by and said goodbye to Per and Carrie.  I started a book of “The Other Side” where I have other people write stories and musing in it.  Then I got my ear pierced and left Alaska.  It took me 6 1/2 days to drive across Canada.

Note – the Edmonton mall was tremendous – roller coaster and everything.

September 26, 1995

I’ve come to the conclusion that I hate driving.  Perhaps it has got to do with the fact I’ve driven 14,000 miles in 4 months! Coincidence?  Definitely.  I’ve been giving much thought to the precise reason I want to stay in Alaska.  I’ve done much tossing and turning and I think the conclusion is that I don’t want to make excuses for coming back early.  I’ve been agonizing over the decision to stay, and last night I almost had myself talked out of it.  But today, I’m in Valdez and have had a wonderful day.  The weather’s beautiful (perhaps a sign I should stay – taken with a pound of salt, of course).

Valdez is gorgeous.  This feels like “Alaska” to me.  And here if I were to stay, everything would have worked out great.  Unfortunately my EMT class is in Seward.  At this point I’m hoping there’s going to be a trend of small towns where I can find the same stuff – job/ housing, etc.

But I did come here from Wrangell St. Elias – an obscure national park on the way to Valdez.  By far one of the more beautiful  ones from what I thought.  Yes, I think I could learn to like Valdez.

September 20, 1995

We just got back to Denali from the excursion to the Brooks.  It was very odd.  While we were backpacking, we’d stopped in the middle of the day for lunch. I parted ways with Jim, Rob and the other two in the middle of a valley.  It felt like in a book with a parting wave, we went our different directions.  It struck me as peculiar that meetings with different people can be so transitory. Just like that, they’re out of your life.

September 17, 1995

Well, let’s see – as of today, I’m just driving back from Prudhoe Bay.  It’s as far North as anyone can drive.  You can almost see the Arctic Ocean, but due to oil refineries, they won’t let you go the whole way.  But I must digress.

After Denali, we went on our way to the Brooks Range in Northern Alaska [above the Arctic Circle]. I talked Frank ?? into coming up with me (Go Front Desk – Hey!).  We were supposed to meet Rob, Jim and a couple other guys from the kitchen (Erik and Jason) – never saw them in Fairbanks.  So, Frank and I drove up to the Arctic Circle.  Just out of Fairbanks the road turns to dirt and it’s dirt all the way up to Prudhoe Bay.  At the circle we camped for a night and watched the Northern Lights above us.  They look different than further south, most likely because we were under them.  Across the sky they stretched like rays of light coming from behind the mountain.  Pretty amazing.  There was frost already forming on the ground when we went to sleep.  It was twilight forever, at lest until 11:00PM at night.

The next morning we set off for Atigun Pass in the Brooks.  Didn’t make it.  The road had collapsed and we had to turn around.  We had seen a huge slab of granite on the side of the road and decided to go back and climb it.  Immense.  We hiked around the backside of it to get around to the top.  We scaled through this chimney and split into 2 directions.  I thought we could meet at the peak.  Well, I was wrong.  I reached a point where it flattened out and the ridge went out and way up to the right.  Frank was already walking along the ridge looking down on me.  Well, no way to go but up.  I was going to hike down and around following Frank’s route, but it was so long – at least and hour and a half.  So, I looked up.  To my left, the cliff didn’t seem to be so steep and I decided to go up.  Do or Die was the feeling – literally.  I got up about 20 feet and looked down – WRONG idea!  If I had fallen I would have gone over the saddle and off the cliff – a few hundred feet.  “Do or Die and don’t look down!” I kept climbing up.  Fortunately, I knew how to climb.  The whole face had loose and weak rock.  Every hold I had to test.  Solo climbing.  I can see where the thrill is, but you’re fuc*ed if you mess up.  I went up close to 250 feet and finally made it over the top.  What a relief!

Hiking along the ridgeline was incredible – the ridge was almost concave and very narrow.  The cliffs dropped off into sheer elevation.  I finally caught up with Frank, we could see the whole Brooks Range from the top.  On our way down, we saw the other four guys drive up.  the Subaru Erik and Jason bought was a riot.  No passenger seat and no backseat.  So 1 person drive and three sat in the back.

The road was still out when we drove up to it.  So we turned around and camped in a truckers pull-out.  The [northern] lights were out again and it was beautiful.  It was hilarious to be camped in a truck stop.  It got pretty cold that night.  The next morning we drove on.  Atigun Pass was really not that far away.  The Brooks Range is actually pretty small.  the highest peaks are only in the 8-9000 foot range. Quite large, granted, but not tremendous. Beautiful weather – we stopped to decide exactly what we wanted to do.  Everyone leaned toward driving to Prudhoe Bay.  Thus was it decided.  Prudhoe is definitely an industrial oil refinery.  It was almost like the twilight zone.  Tons of machinery and buildings, but no people.  We finally found a place that directed us toward food and gas.  Food was our main concern.  We ended up going to one of the hotels – and I use that work loosely – and talked to the chef.  Jim and I got a bunch of beans, butter and staples for everyone  He wanted $40 but I was able to get him down to $30. Of course he pocketed the money, but at least he was chill about it.

We ended up camping in an airstrip. What comedy.  Rob was saying “Well, we’ve camped at a truck-stop, now an airstrip in the Arctic – perhaps we should get a little more extreme.”  Quite fitting, I think.  It was a riot camping there with the air tower flashing behind us and a half-moon lighting our dreams, we went to sleep.  The next morning (today) we started the drive back to the Brooks.  I thought I saw a musk-ox and we pulled off to the side. (Be aware of soft [road] shoulders – mental note).  We got stuck, a huge semi had to pull over and pull us out.  So now, we’re parked on a lonely road waiting for the others to catch-up with only trucks and a few other vehicles passing us every little while.  This is the road to nowhere in the Arctic Wastelands.

What were you doing 14 years ago today? Well, I can answer that for myself. You may have started seeing posts titled “14 Years Ago Today;”  categorized as such and under “Travel Journal.”  These are a collection of entries from my written travel journals capturing my travel adventures across five continents.

These start as a wayward musing about graduating college and leaving for Alaska 5 days later.  The story is journey through some of the most incredible years of my life.

I’m transcribing my entries word for word. They’re not meant to be articulate with good grammar. These were written stream-of-consciousness to capture the exhilaration of the moment, magic of the experience and both the romantic idea and the gritty reality of a traveler. Written in locations like mountain tops, open fields of wildflowers, jungle hostels and the odd tea house, these tales capture some of my most memorable, magical moments in a few lines.

Some may know me as the well-dressed digital mind at Ketchum, others may know me as the foot-loose and fancy-free globe-trekking backpacker.  Regardless of where anyone is in their life, I hope that sharing these adventures will inspire others to get out of their comfort zone, break convention and experience the world.

Sept 6, 1995

I finished my time in Denali.  It was fun, but it sure is nice to be done with it.  The last week I was there was pretty crazy. They have this crazy dash they call the Denali Dash where they go from the Hotel up to the Chalet’s – it’s about 3 miles.  It was the night the Gold Spike Saloon closed.  I had just gotten off work and went in for a beer.  Everyone was nuts!  Everyone was packed in.  I was in the smoking car when everyone started taking their clothes off.  You see the “Dash” is a naked walk to the Chalets.  When everyone started running, I almost joined in.  I had my pants halfway off, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.  But, I drove alongside.  There were almost 30 people all buck-naked, having a great time.  Each stage there were people cheering on the side.  It was almost like a race.  It was so funny to see all the moons walking along.

When they crossed the bridge of the Nenana River, all the guys had their asses to the road pissing and the gals sat over the railing. From there they ran to a bonfire off the side of the road.  Can you imagine – sitting by a mellow fire and having 30 naked bodies run up and start whoopin and hollerin.  Crazy.

They dashed on to the Princess Lodge where they proceeded to run to the lobby.  5 seconds after they went in, they ran back out arms waving “Run” “Run” they shouted.  Then up to the Chalets where they loaded everyone into a bus and off they went back to the Hotel. After that night, and everyone was unloading at the hotel a bunch of rangers drove up.  Probably just to break it up.

A few days later I drove up to Matt’s cabin – he’s been working on it all summer. It was a great little 2 story cabin overlooking the tundra.

August 29, 1995

Wow, August is almost done.  Glenn will be 25 in a few weeks.  I have to figure out what to get him.  I’ve been thinking about what I really want to do while I’m in Alaska.

Honestly, I just don’t know.  I’ve been talking to my roommate and his friend about their world excursions and there are definitely a few things I need to work through as far as getting up and going.  Like money.  I have to power through the idea that I always need to be making money.  Another is actually thinking about what I want to see.  Going with the “flow” works, but I definitely have to take the opportunities, I think.  I’m getting lazy about that.  Maybe this is just the rest period I need to re-energize myself. And remind myself why I’m traveling.

There’s a great saying I found today: “There is no such thing as strangers, only friends we haven’t met.”

I can see a lot of Uncle Ted and Mom’s personality quirks manifesting in me.  Like I’m a work-oriented person with the spirit of a traveler.  Which can work – I just need to fin the balance.