Step 1: ORD-LIR 25 Feb (Chicago, USA to Liberia, Costa Rica)
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit
Step 4: UIO-ORD 4 May (Quito, Ecuador to Chicago, USA)

The time is swiftly approaching before my next adventure commences. Most of you know that I began a new job in October. As part of my negotiation, I was able to swing a two month sabbatical in order to avoid the worst part of Chicago winter and hopefully satiate my wanderlust. So far the Chicago winter has been incredibly mild, and I am hoping that if there is another Snowpacalypse this year, it’s while I’m soaking in the South American summer.

The trip begins with one week in Tamarindo, Costa Rica spending time with my coworkers, planning ways of making the company more amazing, and, of course, drinking Imperial.

I’m still doing a significant amount of tweaking to the rest of my itinerary (the above two flights are the only thing I have booked so far), but here are the general highlights:

• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a rockin music scene
• Iguazu Falls
• Buenos Aires, Argentina for steak and general city fun
• Patagonia, Argentina for some hiking, hopefully meeting up with my friend Victoria currently travelling the world
• La Paz, Bolivia to meet up with my friend Nell (currently studying luchador culture in Bolivia) and possibly check out the salt flats
• Lake Titicaca
• Inca Trail/Machu Picchu, Peru
• Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

Just this weekend, a friend who has done even more extensive travelling than I have convinced me that I might be trying to do too much for the short amount of time I have. I find it funny that amongst many travelers that two months is considered “short”. But I do believe he has a point. After sitting down with a spreadsheet and budgeting time and realizing that I’ll be spending close to 10 days of my time on busses and airplanes, I do believe I’m going to have to cut one or two things from my list.

I welcome your suggestions on places not to miss and places I wouldn’t say I’ve been missing, Bob.

This will be the most epicest adventure to date.

It’s been nearly a year since I’ve left the country. While that would normally make me more than a little sad, I think I’ve been making up for it by travelling quite a bit within the borders of this fine country.

It’s wedding season, and over the past four months I’ve been to three weddings, three bachelor parties, and a bachelor party reunion (really just an excuse for a bunch of college friends scattered across the country to hang out in Vegas). I’ve been to Las Vegas twice, New Orleans, Fort Lauderdale, and Ponca City, OK to visit my grandparents.

Due to a minor flaw in the iPhone software that has since been fixed, my phone’s kept a record of everywhere it’s been since the last time it was reset (and by extension, everywhere I’ve been). Thanks to some cool software created to expose the flaw, I’ve been able to visualize everywhere I’ve been in the past year:

I think this picture proves it’s been a pretty awesome year.

Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve posted because, yes, it’s been a while since I’ve left the country. But that doesn’t mean I’m not hauling ass around my own nation. Between by the end of May I will have gone to Las Vegas twice, New Orleans, Oklahoma, and Ft. Lauderdale over the course of three months. Including the ones happening in Chicago, I’m attending 3 bachelor parties and 3 weddings over the same time frame. Since airfare has gone up significantly, this has not been cheap for me, but hopefully it doesn’t delay another overseas adventure sometime in the near future.

But, in all honesty, this post has nothing to do with traveling the world, but it does have quite a bit to do with the other thing that I love: drumming.

My new band The Mediocre Fight is hoping to go into the studio in May to record an album. The band is much less jammy than my past endeavors, with a much more indie rock influence. We’re super excited about the project, and think the music we’ve come up with is pretty rad.

To help make this album a reality we’ve started a Kickstarter project. If you don’t know what Kickstarter is, it’s a way for people and groups to raise funds for creative projects (or in the case of the city of Detroit, to erect a statue of Robocop). The buzzword for this is crowdsourcing. You pledge now, but your credit card doesn’t get charged unless we reach our goal. And if you pledge money to us, we offer gifts/prizes/awards in return. Lower levels include digital or physical copies of the album, upper levels include a private lesson with one of us (over skype for those not in Chicago), recording a cover song of your choice, or even write a theme song just for you.

We explain a little more about it in our video above.

Make sure to check out out website, themediocrefight.com. Our multi-talented bass player Paul has been drawing Mediocre Fights of the Day for a while now. They pit epically mediocre opponents against each other in a battle to the death (or until they get bored of each other) such as: Puppy vs its Reflection, Admiral Ackbar vs Traps, Alcohol vs Memory, and the mediocrest of mediocre fights, Grass Growing vs Paint Drying.

I’ve contributed to a few of these posts with my Mediocre Prose. Heavily inspired by Dan Brown’s writing, these works abound with misplaced modifiers, excessive adverbs, and inane similies, it’s the best terrible writing I can come up with. Check the comments on: Rabbit vs Carrot with Face (heavily inspired by Watership Down), Puppy vs Its Reflection, and possibly the greatest piece of writing I’ve ever done Fat Man vs Rickety Chair.

I’ve been thankful to you all for reading this blog over the years and would be eternally grateful for your support in my musical adventures as well.

Read Part I

Read Part II

Part III of III

While it felt like we, having achieved our apotheosis as lords of Africa, were standing on Mount Olympus, the frigid air and the fatigue spurred us to begin our descent poste haste. The way back to Barafu camp was long, but not nearly as arduous as the ascent. Instead of sucking you down and impeding your upward progress, the dust now allowed for something less ambulatory and more akin to skiing. We kicked up the dust behind us, leaving the snows and the summit in our wake.

About three hours after reaching the summit, we arrived back to camp to be greeted by hot tea and a warm breakfast. A short nap, and it was time to get packed up and descend even further to our final camp.

It’s this segment of the trek that I had the worst time. I originally believed we only had an hour and a half to the next camp. It distressed me to discover about 45 minutes in that we actually had about four hours left to go. I do not believe I have ever been that exhausted in my life. Even though we had the goal of camp, but had already achieved our primary goal, leaving little excitement for what lied ahead.

On the way down we discovered what happens if you get sick or hurt on the mountain. They have these “stretchers” they wheel you out on. It’s a metal frame, you’re tucked in with sleeping backs and strapped in tightly. There’s only one wheel on the stretcher, but it’s a heavy-duty off-roading wheel on shocks. Once you’re strapped in, it then takes six people to steer this vessel. Going over the rocks and drops did not appear to be my idea of fun. You already have mountain sickness, now it’s time to add motion sickness to the mix.

Four hours later, we entered the final camp. It was probably the nicest camp we stayed at. They even sold beer and Coke at the hut. I believe if you take the Marangu Rough (also known as the Coca-Cola Route; ours, the Marangu route is also known as the Whiskey Route), most of the camps are closer in style to this on. Oddly enough for me, I had no desire for a celebratory beer. I did, however, crave a Coca-Cola. And let me tell you, it was the best $3 Coke I’ve ever had. Pure cane sugar, glass bottle: Coke the way it was made to be imbibed (you can sometimes find Mexican Coke at the grocery store, which is the same style, but lacking the “I just climbed the highest fucking mountain in Africa” feeling).

Epilogue

The next morning we awoke, feeling reborn. It was time to return home from our adventure, the Masters of Two Worlds. We celebrated with a rousing song by our crew, and walked under Machame gate one final time.

We spent the next day exploring the city of Moshi a little more, collecting souvenirs, and enjoying our final Tusker beers (named after the elephant who killed one of its founders).

And finally, that evening, we boarded the airplane, departing out of Africa with a newfound Freedom to Live, this hero’s journey at its end. There will of course, be many adventures yet to come.

“The hero is the champion of things becoming, not of things become, because he is. ‘Before Abraham was, I AM.’ He does not mistake apparent changelessness in time for the permanence of Being, nor is he fearful of the next moment (or of the ‘other thing’), as destroying the permanent with its change. ‘Nothing retains its own form; but Nature, the greater renewer, ever makes up forms from forms. Be sure there’s nothing perishes in the whole universe; it does but vary and renew its form.’ Thus the next moment is permitted to come to pass.” – Joseph Campell

Read Part I

Part II of III

Unlike Dante’s ascent up Mount Purgatory, this didn’t get easier as we climbed closer to the peak. As we climbed higher and higher, the terra firma beneath our feet became less and less solid. Hemingway and others always remarked on the snows of Kilimanjaro, but they had obviously never climbed it, otherwise they would have known there was more dust than snow on the slopes. As we reached closer to Gillman’s point 5685 meters above sea level (18,651ft), our feet began to sink into the dirt. Each step forward was like walking on sand, sliding you half a step back down. It was near this point that I last checked my thermometer. 10ºF it read still nearly 1,000 ft below the summit (still a couple miles horizontally from our goal).

I had been carrying a down coat in my bag thinking I would need it, but my many layers of Polartec, Smartwool, fleece, and Gortex (product placement: REI and 3M, where’s my money?) were thankfully keeping me adequately warm. I can’t say the same for my chemical hand warmers, which apparently don’t work well in low oxygen. But my coat did come in handy for my less warm-blooded companion, so I am happy I didn’t carry it for nothing.

We reached Gillman’s Point around 5:30 or 6am. I had no watch the entire trip, so unlike (or like, depending on your interpretation) Dean Moriarty, I did not know time. Regardless of our human chronology, it was the hour Diana’s brother mounted his chariot for his diurnal expedition across the sky. While it was a spectacular sunrise, our enjoyment was tempered by the arduous trail still ahead of us.

Shortly thereafter we finally found the Snows of Kilimanjaro. While it might have been easier walking than the shale and dust of lower elevations, trekking through snow is no easy task. The snow on the path was tightly packed and worn from years of explorers like us and the temperature rarely rising above freezing. Up ahead of us we could see a crowd of people gathered around a sign most people have only seen in pictures. “Congratulations / You are now at / Uhuru Peak Tanzania 5,895 M. AMSL / Africa’s Highest Point / World’s Highest Freestanding Mountain.” The five of us, with the help our our guides had made it to the summit.

Here at the glory of the summit, Willem revealed his cupcake, frosting, candle, and all. However, much to our disappointment, there was too little oxygen to light the candle. We would have to wait until we reached lower elevation to properly celebrate his 45th birthday.

To be concluded…