First post

I have no idea what I'm doing here, but I will try to make this good. In about seven hours I'm going to get on my bike and ride. A LOT.

I will start job training in Idaho Falls, Idaho in four days. I live in Lebanon, Indiana, just north of Indianapolis. Rather than fly to Idaho and then just fly home again, I have chosen to throw a gym bag on the back seat of my Harley and ride out there. It's going to take almost 1900 miles to get there because of the route I am taking. Once I leave Idaho, I'm going to continue to the west coast before heading back home.

The job training is merely an excuse for me to take the rest of this trip. I NEED this trip. I returned from my third tour in Iraq this past April and my life has been in turmoil ever since. I'm not certain that I've actually returned home yet. This trip will be a once-in-a-lifetime solo adventure for me, and my goal is to find my sanity by the end of this trip.

I have a few other goals as well. I plan to meet up with several people around the country with whom I've associated through a discussion forum - some for a few years now. I have never met these people in person. I also plan to pursue one of my hobbies, called geocaching (see www.geocaching.com), by finding at least one geocache in each state through which I pass. Lastly, I hope to visit several places in which I have long been interested but have not previously had the opportunity to visit.

This will be a photo blog. It will also be a narrative of both my discoveries throughout the country and my discoveries about myself. Feel free to skip the psychobabble and just enjoy the pictures if you so desire. This blog is for me AND you.

See you on the road tomorrow.