Across The Great Divide

So I packed up the car, picked up my life and headed down the road. The balmy lights of NYC were still in the rear view mirror when the "check engine" light first reared it's ugly head but I pushed on forward undeterred. On the Road without a real game plan is the only way to travel during these turbulent yet triumphant times. You have to let life guide you sometimes, allow things to come to you rather than constantly stressing, chasing down your demons. Instead, slay them with your blind momentum. I felt the wind in my hair and it was awesome. I saw the open road and it was wide fucking open. From cities to plains, rocks to boulders, cliffs and mountains, streets and highways, bridges and dirt roads I broke on through. Through the days and through the nights. I ate Ethiopian food and slept on an air mattress in Pittsburgh, drank coffee from the Kum and Go, stopped at truck stops where men are men and women kind of look like men. I shot through Illinois and Iowa, Nebraska was a blur from the window of a speeding Subaru. In Iowa I had the best chicken francaise I think I have ever eaten and I have had it everywhere so that was a shocker. I felt the sting of a Colorado blizzard, visited the grave of Buffalo Bill as mist enshrouded the landscape like being swallowed by a ghost. Ate a calzone in Fort Collins that would have made any Italian New Yorker proud. It took all my strength and willpower to not stop in snow flooded Vail Colorado for a day or two of snowboarding but the road was beckoning and alas, my snowboard remained dry. I-80 was good to me, the cops were scarce and the speeds blistering. I am proud to say I never stopped at a single Starbucks and I might never again. Gas ain't cheap but beautiful scenery is the cheapest drug there is. Utah was breathtaking as was Arizona. I loved the old west feel and wide open spaces, abandoned Indian arts posts and dirt roads to nowhere. Jagged jutting rock formations that seem so out of place and so random. Mexican Hat rock is insane, doesn't even seem real to be perfectly honest. The Grand Canyon, oh how grand she is. If you like huge holes you will be mesmerized at the grand canyon. So much to see but if times not on your side you can still see enough to get your fill. Las Vegas, amazing and depressing. Such a cocktail of triumph and misery, highs and lows, wins and losses. I ate at the Planet Hollywood buffet and it was delectable. I had a full plate of assorted shrimp and everything from brisket to dumplings, pork chops to chicken kebab. I could barely walk when I finally put down my fork. After a quick agriculture checkpoint where they stop you and inquire about what plants and animals you are sneaking into California I was finally in.... you guessed it, California! I had made it from one coast to the other, safe and sound. I will always remember this trip and hopefully there will be many more to come. I love the open road and feel like every trip I take I mature on some level. I can't wait to hit the road again and have some new adventures, too bad I can't drive all the way to Thailand =)

1st stop

Pittsburgh -

Iowa -



Nebraska -



Colorado -

Utah -










Arizona -












Arizona Scenic Rest Stop -

The Grand Canyon -

Las Vegas, Nevada -

Peace =)

Thanksgiving

I guess this is the holiday we are supposed to be thankful. Sometimes it's hard to know what we are really thankful for. Of course there are the old stand by's like life and love, family and god etc etc but what are you really thankful for. Life just happened and you have no control over it and same goes for family. God, well even if you believe your not 100% sure, and how cliche, it's not like you just won an academy award or the NBA championship so... Material possessions is a tad materialistic and shallow. I'm sure your thankful for your new car or brand new LCD screen but using these types of belongings to remind you of your thankfulness on a day like today is ridiculous.

The only thing that I keep coming back to are friends. Friends are the people in your life who don't really have to be there at all. Friends have no obligation to be by your side through thick and thin, to love you when at your best or worst. They can walk away and never look back, trust me I know. Nobody wants to be alone, especially on a holiday geared so much towards family but Thanksgiving with the family can become old hat. Thanksgiving with friends is when you share a real part of your heart, a true sharing of your soul created by the harmony of working together for something beautiful to be remembered for the rest of your life. A time capsule memory of when times were good and friends were family.

I used to have a lot of friends, maybe even too many for my own good. I didn't know how to juggle them all. I have been a good friend and a horrible friend at times but I must say, good or bad my heart was always in the right place. I am thankful for everyone I have been friends with, whether I still am friends with them today or not. It's only outside of my safety net, the bubble of family that I broke through to become the man I am today, because of friends, because of connections, inspiration and love. I have always wanted to be good to people I love, be honest and strong. There is no way I have always been these things but I will always try to be, if I have 1 friend or 500 I will always do my best to treat them the way I would want to be treated. So that is my pledge for the future, based on my overwhelming thankfulness, on this day of Thanksgiving, to friends far and wide, old and new, realized and forgotten, thank you. I hope we can mend and love yet again, from now till forever. Peace