So, being new to blogging, I toiled over how to begin...
Does one simply "hit the ground running" and start flinging bits and pieces of my life into the great void of the internet without any context?
Could be fun, like a puzzle for everyone to use fragments of my every day to create an image of who I am.
Or, do I set the stage, carefully arrange props and storyline, have the script and lighting all in order so for the audience to be up to speed on the plot and ready for a great Crescendo?
I'm probably just thinking too much on a simple beginning, and thus I'll just offer a "brief" history from the last few years.
A great diversion occurred in what was a pretty typical young, Midwesterner's life when the recession hit the factory where I assembling airplanes in Duluth, MN. I had lived there my whole life, traveled a bit and fell kicking and screaming into the workforce, so when offered to volunteer to lose my job at the plant I leaped into the divide. Young, restless and unemployed, I got on a train to Seattle began hitchhiking and train-hopping around the Pacific Northwest. Eventually I ran across two sailing ships docked and giving tours.
I had never wanted to to do anything more in my life.
I signed on, sailed the entire West coast and went back to Minnesota. I cleaned airplanes for a couple of months to put some money in my pockets and then shipped out to Milwaukee, sailing around lake Michigan for a few months before taking a job in the Bahamas. It was here that I met one of my best friends and accomplices, we decided to sign on to another ship that would be sailing from Puerto Rico up into Nova Scotia over the next several months.
Barely leaving Puerto Rico alive we sailed first to Florida and then continued up the coast with sailing ships from all over the world, having adventure after adventure in the ports we visited. Upon reaching Nova Scotia, we began plotting our next move, and from Maine we set out with a two week deadline to hitchhike to Oregon for a wedding, and for me a job in Sacramento, CA. One hell of a ride later we reached Oregon and parted ways.
The most incredible time I have spent alone was in the fallowing days hitchhiking through Northern California. I had two weeks to get to Sacramento and took my time, sometimes spending entire days just sitting alone a ways off the road to admire my situation. I began work on the new boat and instantly regretted leaving the last, the trip across the country was great, however I missed my old ship and crew. I began to devise a plan to quit after my first paycheck and get back to the Bounty before they made it too far down the coast. Instead, I got my paycheck and the news that Bounty had sank off the coast of North Carolina in Hurricane Sandy.
Bummer.
At this point I didn't know what to do, my plans for the next few years sank with that ship. So, with the end of my contract in California, I returned to Minnesota and became a dogsled driver. This escape didn't last long before I was heading back to sea again. This time on the Coast Guard's training ship we stole from the Nazis in WWII. We left Connecticut with three inches of snow on the deck and started off for South Carolina. We arrive a little over a week later and I'm whisked away in a car to Georgia, then Florida where in a last minute decisions, I got on an airplane to St. Thomas to spend some time in the islands before returning to Florida to start work again. I arrived in Florida and was off again, this time we were to sail from Florida through Nova Scotia and then into the Great Lakes for the summer. Upon hitting Cleveland I was fired and left behind.
Bummer.
Two days later I was hired on by another boat, got a bus to Michigan and continued the Great Lakes season, sailing back for the first time to my hometown and eventually on to Milwaukee, where we meet the present day. It's been a long strange journey and hopefully it continues to get longer and stranger.
Now enjoy some pictures...
