A few had words to say about my cycle trip so I can not wait to hear what will be said about what Im taking on as of next week. The great loop is a bucket list event. Much like riding cross country on a bicycle. For those that do not know what the great loop is it is a trip around half of the United States by boat. It goes up the Atlantic Coast up through the Erie Canal into Canada and then back down to the Gulf of Mexico and then back to the Atlantic. Yeah that is right it just like my cycle trip it is a one of a kind adventure that few ever even consider and even fewer ever do.
When I moved here to Florida with pretty much nothing but a dream and some serious goals in mind I know that many thought yeah right. He is just heading there to change scenery or what ever. I told you all I came here to follow my dreams and to go after the life I have always wanted, to do the things I have always wanted to do and to take on the adventures of a lifetime. I was not joking.
I started my writing, I have continued to work out and really I had all intentions of jumping back on my bicycle and heading back out to finish what I started. That was the plan all along, but sometimes things change. I am not shelving my cycle trip by no means. People still need to know that anyone is capable of doing something amazing. No matter what their past, present or possible future may seem great things are not reserved for the people who think they are due it or born into it....no people need to know great things are available to us all.....and usually the ones that think they are better are the ones who rarely ever achieve great things. You have to answer when opportunity knocks and if it doesn't knock well you make your opportunity happen.
Currently I am writing for 5 different blogs and I am a writer of consideration for two different magazines one of which has bought an article, so chasing one dream is solidly in motion. The other dream was to return to living a life of adventure, a life that I fell in love with during my cycle trip.
I was never truly a risk taker before. I did risky things but I really never chased something that I was passionate about, putting everything on the line. Things changed for me when I made that decision to go on my bike trip. When I decided to step from the past and pursue the future. Many times have people heard me say "I think I am the universe's favorite son". How else can you explain what I have overcome, what I have endured and what doors have been opened. There were moments in my life where I doubted everything, moments when I thought I wasn't good enough, moments when I thought I couldn't do it but somehow someway the world just opened up and I made it though. I have never taken the easy road and have often taken the road less traveled sometimes to serious dead ends by the way. But coming to Florida felt right and felt like what I was supposed to do.
As of today I knew it was the right decision....since being here like I said I started writing. I signed up for some classes.....started working with some young people and telling them to take some chances to achieve the things they want and telling them not to settle because it fits the mold. Well today a opportunity that rarely comes to anyone has fallen in my lap. I have been invited to partake in the trip of a lifetime. This will give me the chance to see parts of America that few get to see and in a way even fewer ever get to see. I get to to do the great loop on a 45 foot luxury motor yacht. I will have to pitch in and help out, it is no free ride, but I will be traveling with one other man who has done the journey several times.
Getting to write and take photos of areas. Meet new people and expand my world beyond its limits are what life's all about. It is not about sitting in the same small town talking to the same small people, no life was meant to be lived and well that is what both the bike ride has been and what the great loop will be for me. Life incarnate, a life beyond my wildest dreams. Or at least I hope it will be.
The great loop is roughly 8,000 miles by water and will take about 250 days. The current planned Great Loop route will be the Atlantic Intra Coastal Waterway to Chesapeake Bay to C & D Canal across Delaware Bay up the Jersey Shore around Sandy Hook to New York City. Then up the Hudson River to the Erie Canal to the Oswego Canal onto Lake Ontario into Canada at Trenton, Ontario entering the Trent-Severn Waterway to Georgian Bay, Lake Huron proceeding up the North Channel to Lake Superior (side trip to the place of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald) and the Straits of Mackinac and Lake Michigan. Down the Western Shore (Wisconsin) to Chicago entering the River System with the Illinois River, to the Mississippi, to he Ohio, to the Tennessee, to the Tenn-Tom Waterway, Tombigbee River to Mobile Bay. Across the Gulf Coast Waterway to Apalachicola across Gulf of Mexico to Tampa Bay to Gulf Coast Waterway to Ft. Myers up the Caloosahatchee River to Lake Okeechobee to St. Lucie Canal to Stuart and the Atlantic Intra Coastal Waterway proceeding North to the St Johns River and returning to Ortega Landing completing the Great Loop.
I will be back in Baltimore in the near future for at least a day or two. I hope to see my friends when I get there. I can not wait to see the sights along this journey I can not wait to share this experience and I can not wait make history. I say make history because only about a 100 people a year make the full loop. This is what life was meant to be an adventure.....so please come along for the ride.
