Concerning this page
As I was setting up my reading list page, it occurred to me that I travel, a lot. And maybe it would be a good idea to write a thing or three about it.
I suppose I’ll use this space as a baseline regarding what travel is to me and for me. I grew up in Fresno County California, specifically in the city of Clovis (I promise this is relevant). Fresno is not the nicest place in the country. It it home to the most violent gang in America per capita (The Bulldogs Street Gang), it consistently ranks the the top 10 in worst air quality, top 10 in lowest quality of life, worst sleep, worst divers, etc. My point here isn’t to bag on my hometown, because there is a good thing about living in Fresno. It’s centrally located in California, a state known for having natural beauty and fun places to visit. I was 3 hours from the coast, 3 hours from the mountain, 2 hours from Yosemite, 2 hours from Sequoia National Park, 3 hours to San Fransisco, 6 hours to San Diego…I digress
I was born into a lower-middle-class family who took 1 trip a year to one of two locations. First was Dinky Creek campground in the Sierra Nevada mountains about 3 hours from home, second was Caycos Beach about 3 hours from home.
These Trips were not glamorous vacations, but I suppose I was lucky enough that my family was able to afford us a small amount of vacation. Unfortunately even as I grew up into young adulthood I never found the time, or money to travel on my own. I had never been to Yosemite, or Sand Diego, or the Sequoias, I had nearly left the state since I was a young child, had never flown without a parent, and had never left the country.
Even after I moved to Arkansas I didn’t have time to travel much except Christmas to Either see my ailing mother in Utah or my family in Fresno. Finally, after I graduated I had a bit more money and was able to travel domestically a bit. Still wasn’t in a place to fly across the pond or anything that extravagant. But I did visit the Pacific Northwest, San Diego, and a few more fun locations.
The first time I left the country was a work trip for Walmart International to Toronto IN FEBRUARY, the Niagra Falls literally froze while I was there it was so cold. Walmart also sent me to Leads, UK for two weeks, which was probably 2 of the best weeks of work I’ve ever had. Long story short the day before I was leaving the application we were preparing to roll out during the trip had a bug, and we gave free wine away. Instead of spending the next two weeks doing user training and rollout, I was on root cause analysis and damage control. I was able to calm the stakeholders down, get my team to fix the error, and get the application up and running before the holiday season. It was one hell of a fun week. In 2020 I was supposed to go to Japan to do requirements gathering for a new project, but all travel was suspended before we left. While disappointing, I understood the need to keep people safe during that time. Instead, I got to work overnights on Japan time for two weeks.
When my wife and I started to get serious we had a great adventure to Alaska. I also had the pleasure of studying abroad in my master’s program in Dublin for 2 weeks, as well as going on an Icelandic cruise for my Honeymoon, two years after the wedding (2020)
I would love to do more international travel. I want to see India, Japan, China, Germany, and Scotland among others. But My wife and I have decided to purchase an ever-increasing scale of recreational vehicles starting with an 18-foot camper and escalating to a 40-foot Class A motorhome. So we are focused on experiencing all that our own backyard has to offer.
Last summer we visited New Mexico, Arizona (my wife hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon while I played golf), Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and California. This year so far we’ve been in Arizona for a gathering of working-age RVers, and California for a month of remodeling my office.
I’m not sure when I started this I mean to give my life story in travel, but I guess I got ya’ll caught up. Thanks for hanging out I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts and travels.
