Picked up the NEW MTB!!!

Well, yesterday I picked up the new MTB (Mountain Bike) from Little Ades in Pekin. First I need to throw out props to my boys at Ades, they are the best! To find a shop that has real MTB enthusiast with great mechanical knowledge and be very competitive on prices is super hard to find these days, and they fill that role amazingly well. Special thanks to Mike Antonini (owner) for his patience and making the phone call to his Specialized rep which may be the deal maker on a job for me at Spesh'.
Now on to the goods...the bike is awesome. The color is growing on me at every glance. I need to post of pic of the beast! On mtb's the weight is critical and directly effects your overall performance. My old bike was a whopping 42.5lbs, which is really heavy, but this new Specialized Stumperjumper Expert tips the scale at a scant 28.5lbs. To drop 14lbs off a ride is going to be amazing and should increase the overall performance greatly. Nick will stand NO chance in keeping up with me now! :p
I can't believe I'm typing this at 5:20am on a Saturday morning...WTF? I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, so here I am. Whatever.

Positivity In a Negative World

I'm just blown away at the positive responses I get when I tell someone what it is I"m doing with my life. To see people's eyes light up with excitement gives me the strength to keep this ball rolling with hurricane like force. I think if the responses were just the opposite I would be questioning my decision and possibly cancelling my plans, but this just ensures me that this is for real and it is the path I am destined for. So thanks to everyone that has blessed me with positive enthusiasm over the last few weeks.
I posted a thread on mtbr.com (mountain bike forum) asking for help planning places to ride during my 4-5months of traveling. Once again I was blown away at the responses I got. A few people wrote some very long detailed replies that must have took 15-20min to type. That just confirms to me that this is the right time to begin a new adventure and use my experiences to inspire others to give up materialistic items in life and find out what brings them TRUE happiness. After seeing the excitement on the forum I am surely writing a book on my adventures for my fellow mtb brothers to read!
Then you get assholes like the people that were supposed to come look at my truck tonight!!! I drove 30min so their drive was cut down a bit, then they didn't show, and couldn't even call to tell me. I ended up visiting my good friend Jay Riddle and telling him my plans since I hadn't yet. As expected he was all for my change and wished me the best. Jay's so cool, I wish he could be president for a term or two. He's the type of person you need in control of this country! You are the man Jay!

Finally, ordered my new MTB

Some of you may think I'm crazy, immature, have no life, whatever you want to think, but I haven't been this excited about getting anything new since my 12th birthday. Consider this, ride a bike from Central IL to L.A. up and down mountains, over rough terrain, sometimes through the night, and then tell me it's not an important factor in the happiness of your life. I plan on riding well over 1,000 miles on this bike in a whopping 4 months. And to measure that I'm putting a 'computer' on the bike before anyone gets to ride it so I can know for sure exactly how many miles I rack up. This little 'computer' thing is amazing too, it has two parts, a brain and a sensor, and they talk to each other wirelessly. The sensor attaches to the frame on the bike facing the wheel to gather speed, then the brain can measure current speed, distance, average speed, altitude, time...etc. The entire package weighs only ounces and is about 1inch square! Tiny little devil it is.
So I will hopefully have the bike by the weekend which would be totally knarly dude! I will post pics when I get it...you'll love the color...it's, well, kinda bright : )

Another Rant Session

So how is it that we now just accept wrong doings because that is just what people do now-a-days? For instance, every intersection I sit at I watch people run through red lights while turning left. It's like this is entirely acceptable to do with no circumstances what-so-ever. WTF? This act does slow traffic down, it pisses people off (well at least it does me), and only causes chances for more accidents. To me there are plenty of times when you can get away with breaking the law and not negatively effect anyone. I admit to doing this quite often, but I always assess the situation first before making that decision. Example: coming up to intersection and the light turns yellow. I quickly glance in all directions especially behind me, then determine if I go through the intersection when the light is turning red if I will slow anyone down, cause someone to wait for me...etc. Typically in the case where I do run through, by the time the light is green for the perpendicular traveling motorist I am already passed through the intersection and have caused no damage to anyone. But this turning left while the light is red really aches me. Pull some coppers off the highway and put them at some busy intersections to make the state/city some money. Those people on the highway doing 10 over aren't hurting anyone!
Oh yeah, do the majority of cars not come with turn signals anymore? Really, how hard is it to push the stalk down or up before turning? This is such a simple act that we all did at one time when we first started driving, so why are so many people not doing it anymore?
It's the little things in life that matter people. Do what's right and things will work out for the better...I swear, they will.

Counting Down The Days!

Well, I plan on leaving the first week of May, and the more I think about it, the closer it is to reality. So far I've sold just about everything big in the house except for my dining room table set. So now it's just the house and truck being the two main ones I need to sell before I can leave. I tell you what, if you have ever thought about relocating and starting over, don't hesitate one bit! The feeling is exhilarating to say the least. Yeah it may be tough to find a job, and if I do find a place to settle down in it will be costly to purchase more furniture and such, but to go after my dreams and look for a truly satisfying job that I actually like, all the while focusing on doing exactly what makes me happy...why not? My question to you is, what are you waiting for? Someone to hand you the perfect life? It ain't gonna happen my brothers and sisters. You have to go make it happen.

I Want To Hear Your Thoughts

You, the reader, the visitor, the follower of this blog, can share your feelings by selecting that little comment tool at the bottom of each post of mine. Keep in mind any negative comments will be deleted immediately, unless they make me laugh.
Maybe you already know, maybe you don't, but I'm going to write a book while on my epic adventure. I'm undecided about exactly what format it is I want my book to follow. The most important outcome of this book is to share my feelings and adventures with the world, but also express my views and opinions I have of this world, even if I offend people while doing so. I will be taking many pics everywhere I go and I've thought about creating a largely pictorial book to expand my market. Another thought was to write the book in journal form, kinda like Nikki Sixx's Heroin Diary's.
I've been going back and forth about this and it's driving me nuts, so I am asking you to leave a comment on the type of book you prefer to read.
Straight forward story of my adventures
Pictorial book with short stories of each place I visit
Journal Style
No format, just write down everything and go from there

Maybe I should make this a poll? Did you see my other poll on the right side of the page?

Am I Crazy, and The Rest of The World is Normal?

Ok, so get ready for another rant and rave session. I have a feeling these will be numerous on this site. I can't help but think about all the incredibly ridiculous random acts of retardation that happens every day in this world. Lets start simple...
So a few weeks ago CTC and I are looking for a parking spot at the grocery store and as we turn into an aisle two kids (prob mid to late teens) are walking down the center right towards us. Now I know there is this "law" about yielding to pedestrians, but there is absolutely no sensible reason for anyone to be walking DIRECTLY down the center of an aisle that is designed by some half way intelligent person for the use of vehicles! As we approach the boys they act like it's their right to stay exactly where they are I should be the one pulling out of their way so I do not interrupt their mindless stroll. Thinking back 10-15 years ago I can imagine if I was walking in the same place as these mindless 'yutes', my mother would have grabbed my arm and yanked me, probably forcefully enough for my feet to leave the ground, out of the way and sternly talked some sense into me. Ok, the sadder part of this simple example. The other day I find myself behind two women, probably in their mid 40's, doing the exact same thing. I so wanted to pull right up to them, roll down my window (ok, push the button for the window to lower), lay on the horn to get their attention, and continue to scream at them like a mental institution patient does when his green beans touches his mash potatoes and gravy.

So that is my simple example. Lets look at something more serious that plagues out country. Since we are in a slight economic situation here in the US I'll shift my focus on that topic. Individuals managing their finances: Here we go, I live in a very modest neighborhood with the average home hovering around the 100k mark. For central IL that would be below average (average being around 140K). In my neighborhood I have noticed a few households that regularly have very nice vehicles parked in the drive. When I mention regularly, I mean they own the vehicle but for some odd reason they don't park them in their broken door one-stall attached garage. Now the crazy part is when I mean nice I mean NICE. One of them is a Porsche Cayenne Turbo rolling on some off the hook 24's ("deuce 4's" for those speaking the lingo) which also means that the cost of their vehicle far exceeds 1/2 the value of the house. If they bought that Porsche new then it did exceed the value of their house! Am I missing something.
Shifting over to buying homes. When I started looking at homes my target monthly payment was 20-25% of my gross income. That would allow me to put extra money down on the house when I desired, pay extra on my truck payment, and still give me some comfort for taking my girl out for a nice dinner at say Red Lobster (if I had a huge lower lip I would've gotten the role of Bubba in Forest Gump because of my love for shrimp). I was absolutely blown away when my loan officer mentioned there are some people (obviously falling short of making any viable financial decision on their own) that are in the 60% range! Wait, did I type that correctly? Ok, yes I did...60% of their month gross goes to their house payment. Typically taxes are in the range of 20-40% depending on your salary, so how do they pay for food, clothes, utilities, up keep...etc? Don't get me started on first time home buyers! Too late, I'm there. I know of multiple people that are first time home buyers that are purchasing homes over 200K. Do these people not have parents that have an influence in their lives? I think there should be a law that disables first time home buyers to purchase a house over 100k, unless they make double that each year. Can I get an Amen? Where's my neighbor when I need him (inside joke)?
So who is to blame? Apparently the banks/loan officers aren't because the government wants to bail them out which basically is like handing a 'I'm allowed to be a dumb ass and make a solid living out of doing it" card. Screw that, any bank that has made horrible financial decisions should go under and we should be able to roast marsh mellows on the fire then pee on it the next morning to put out the still glowing coals. They messed up, they should take the fall, nobody should rescue them. If there are smart people working at that bank and they have the initiative in life to do something for themselves they will start up their own bank and do things right, for a change.
Ok, enough of my ranting....for now : )

The Big Move

So, the reason I have started this blog is to document what is happening in my life, and why I am doing exactly what I'm doing as some people think I'm crazy. When I finished high school I had the desire to travel the country and explore what is out there and what each area had to offer someone like me. I had never really left central IL, my home since birth, for more than a week here or there, but the burning sensation to leave was ever present and always in the back of my mind.

Like many others I quickly fell behind due to poor business and financial decisions. I had a decent job, but my hobbies and greed to take those to the next level put me in debt far past a comfortable level. Before I knew it I was stuck. I couldn't leave my job because of debt, I couldn't sell off stuff because it wasn't worth nearly as much as I paid for it new, and besides I was having a great time playing with my toys.

Years went by and I dealt with my situation, but that desire to explore the country side never left. In the last year or so I have got my debt down to an acceptable level and the light at the end of the tunnel has become brighter by the day. Within the last few months I have started to have dreams about hiking in the mountains, riding my mountain bike on seemingly endless trails, and waking up to the sunrise and song birds. The desire to have a nice home, vehicle, fancy dinners has escaped my mind all together. In return I ask for true happiness and my health...nothing else.

So it begins. My journey for true happiness with no regrets.

Same Ole Routine?

Tired of waking up as Bill Murray in Groundhog Day?
Eat breakfast, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch tv...
How would it feel to wake up and ask yourself "hmm, what should I do today?" and have an endless array of adventurous soul cleansing possibilities.
Is that lifestyle even possible in today's environment of $5 coffees?
Are you going to sit around and dream about it for the rest of your life wondering if you could possibly follow your dreams and go without the "necessities" we now depend on to live? Wake up people, we are missing out!

Feeling Stuck?

Have you ever gone into work, sat down, and said to yourself "what the heck am I doing here?"
Do you ask yourself if you can withstand another 20years of this crap day-in day-out?
Do you feel no matter how hard you try in life you are getting nowhere?
Ever get the feeling there is something better out there for you?
Have you ever wanted to pack up and leave, start over somewhere with more opportunities?
Can you honestly say that you have done everything possible to live life to it's fullest capabilities?
Are you stuck?
Have you ever heard yourself say "In a couple years once I get squared away I'll do this." Or, "once I get this loaned paid off I'm going to do..." What about "Once I get my raise I'll be able to..." or "I'm going to use my tax return to..."
It took me awhile to realize this, but all those artificial thoughts of happiness got me nowhere in my life. Yeah I was able to buy this toy or go on this trip, but did that mean I was happy?
I was stuck.