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June 17, 2001

On the Road for the first Time

I drop out of college. Things are not the same with my then girlfriend and I decide it's time to hit the open road and see what's out there for me. With $200 to my name I know I have to make a change, go somewhere new. Don't know where. I have a '87 cressida and a burning desire to make a change. I give myself that morning to make a decision by midnight as where to go.

I'd always had the fantasy to go to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I knew I would go south but where, and which route? I didn't even have a passport or any money to get there. I fumbled for answers. I sat at Disck Faulk baseball field on mlk in my car just trying to eak out a decision. the day passed. I had lunch. I walked about. This is crazy. But I can't stay here. There's nothing here for me. I have to follow my heart. My heart tells me I won't go anywhere staying in Austin, and that I have to go. Southbound it is, but on which road? Where will it lead me.

I revert to my core values. Enjoy the process. The outcome will take care of itself. I remember having taken Bastrop 71 once and remember how beautiful it was and how it crossed the colorado like 7 times. All those bridges and river crossings. I would take 71 south towards Rio de Janeiro. I got as far as Houston. I knew that I would need to make a little money in order to get further south. But the drive that night with the moonlight guiding me southbound I felt a sense of relief and connectedness to my life and to world around me like I had not in a long time.