| Williamsville, NY |

Remember the movie ‘Up’?

In what simultaneously manages to be one of both the sweetest and saddest first few minutes of a film, Carl and Ellie meet as young adventurers, fall in love, get married and then start putting their pennies, nickels and dimes away; towards the goal of fulfilling their dream of visiting Paradise Falls.

But the years pass, other bills, priorities and the like rear their heads – time ticks on and eventually they’re both quite old. Carl finally realizes that the interlude called life has kept them both from their quest – he plans the trip to South America and buys the tickets – but it turns out to be too late and Ellie passes away.

Cue the waterworks, eh?

Its been quite a while since I’ve seen the movie, but I’ve thought of it more than a few times recently.

How many of us mentally put away our spare change with the intention of one day going on a ‘quest’?

I’ve come to the realization that though I’ve taken plenty of trips over the years, I haven’t really ever had an ‘adventure’. After all, I’ve traveled West of the Mississippi River once – to San Fransisco on a lark – and that was nearly twenty years ago.

So while the exact start date of this trip is still a little in flux, it’s going to be by Tuesday at the latest – and with that I’ll be off on my own personal ‘Paradise Falls’ quest.

I don’t have the flying house or the talking dogs, and I doubt I’m going to meet any exotic birds like Kevin, but I’m still pretty excited.

We’ve got a big, beautiful country and the best National Parks system in the world. We’ve got forests, deserts, grasslands, peaks, valleys and everything in between and while I’m not going to quite get to all of it over the course of two months, I am going to get to quite a bit.

As you’d likely expect if you know me, I’ve spent a lot of time researching this, and in doing so can’t help but get more excited with each passing day. But I really have gone out of my way to not overly coordinate the bulk of this trip. So while I know the general route I’m going to take and have a good idea of which parks and forests I’m going to get to, I am going to wake up most mornings not knowing where I’ll put my head down that night.

If I really fall in love with where I’m at, I’ll stay longer. If I see a town that looks interesting, I’ll visit it. If I get to a fork in the road, I may very well take the one less traveled.

I plan on writing about four nights a week. A lot of that will likely be in bed at night, but since we’re in the Information Age, I also plan on bringing my iPad along as I go about my journey – and intend on writing from park benches, roadside stops, and maybe even the peak of a mountain or two.

And I appreciate you joining me. Really, I do.

There’s a purpose to this blog (journal) of mine. And I’ll start to make that more clear in future posts.

If I do this the way I intend to, I’ll likely reveal more about myself than I perhaps ever have. Nothing weird, or scary or dangerous, I promise. But this blog is, in some ways, a personal journal of sorts. And someone’s journal is certainly going to tell you something about the person.

And that, again for those of you who know me, is not something that comes easy. But it is for a greater good.

So, the next time you hear from me, I’ll be off. Likely somewhere in the West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina area.

See you soon.