Steaks, Stories and the Travel Bug

Saturday night I had the pleasure of catching up with one of my oldest (well, in the history of this blog, oldest) friends, Rabbi Shapiro.  Since he is now well more sophisticated and personally I think he's a spy for SPECTRE (see James Bond for reference), let's call him Dr. Shapiro because it just sounds way cooler.

Anywhoo, I haven't seen Dr. Shapiro in a over a year so it was great to catch up. He's by far one of the most interesting / intelligent people I know and clearly will win the award for the Nowherenearberlin Annual Dos Equis Most Interesting Man Award.  Former winners are me and me, so its about time I passed the torch.

Listening to his stories I realized I have to get out more.  I mean, he and his girlfriend were telling stories that were phenomenal and seriously made me jealous. I'd go into more detail but I'm pretty sure they are under cover, working for the CIA / MI6 and only in town to get new kill orders.

Our conversation made me long for the days when I created this literary masterpiece and gave me the travel itch again. Made me think that I should either A. become a mercenary and travel the world with a gun, B. join the peace corps (pffft ... ha ha ha ha -- couldn't keep the laughter in -- loads of respect for the peace corp but I'm not going into a lot of those countries with out a 50 cal) C. save some money, quit my job and go for a Walkabout, D. continue my meager existence and live vicariously through others and the travel channel, E. just start taking some more trips and saying "fuck it" a little more often.  I'm probably leaning towards E, but a few of the other entries are pretty enticing.

So to kick this off, I've decide that in the next two weeks, I'm going to do some local travel. Ok, so that line is total bull shit, I already have travel plans but I'm going to make these much more glorious.  First off, I'm going to meet up with Captain Fry and explore the mountainous regions of Tennessee and Uber Gatlinberg.  I may do some rafting, I may take the time to explore Dolly's World ... I'm just not sure.  I can tell you that if its not fun, I'm going to kill a Grizzly Bear. 

Then the following weekend (disclaimer - no way in hell I can make this trip sound good ... it's going to suck and there's no sugar coating it), I'm going on an exploration into the depths of Hilton Head (for 24 hours), enjoying a meal in a marsh and then flying across the country to host a work event for a SINGLE day and then fly back and head into the office. I know ... you are all jealous. It's at moments like these when I want to go back in time and beat the shit out of the Jed that complained about traveling to Amsterdam or Brussels for the day. I'd also like to go back in time and tell that kid to take both of the pills from Morpheus ... it's the Matrix, you can't die.  

While the second trip might not be a glamorous adventure, its going to certainly be an adventure. Stay tuned for more because its about time to starting getting up and off outta here ... peep Delta (see video below for lame reference).

Oh and pic from Sat night. Great to see you Dr. Shapiro.  We are all very happy that things are going so well and anxious to see pictures / hear more. Seriously, you should write a book ... it would win an award from Nowherenearberlin for sure.