Residence Inn By Marriott Austin Downtown Convention Center

I want to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving.
I had a great thanksgiving week. I want to thank some of you who have already donated. Thank You.

My grandparents came and brought me money from some of my sponsors. I had to make sure I sent out thank you e-mails. My dad had to send in more money to People to People so I could get a confirmed spot in the program.

I will have soap for sale soon, and details of my other fundraisers.

Susan and I finished packing all our clothes and gear this morning to start our excursion. Since we will be traveling for a month, we needed both warm and cold weather clothes. We also packed our skiing gear in case we stop at a place where we ...

Hello
For those who want to donate and don't know how, I have just made it easier for you.

On my page there is a button over my picture. It says "Support my travels, make a donation."
Just click above to see.

You can press that and it will take you to a section where you can type how much money you would like to donate. Like I said before, you ...

Things are going well.
We are hammering out many of the finer details.
But finer details do not start fires.

Passion burns.

I do not have passion.

I am passion.

I am burning.
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Imagine you have an "itch" to scratch, something that stirs yearning.
Yet every time you scratch it, it only perpetuates. It yearns for ...

Dustin and I got back to the house around 10 pm Thursday night. The drive seemed much quicker coming back than it did headed out. I have a full trip diary on my own page so as not to run this one up too far. It's a good read, I promise. Upon return I knew I had a few issues already lined up for me to address. Namely my motorcycles apparent failure before we left for our trip. Dustin and I were going to ride my Triumph ...

... www.fliphappycrepes.blogspot.com I also ran into the only bit of rudeness I'd experienced in Austin, but I definitely understand the sentiment. (Again, comparing what's happening in Austin to Nashville.) Just take a look at the truck. I zagged over to Taylor to visit the famous Louie Mueller Barbecue. Wow! Forgive me while I repeat myself: Wow! You know, I'm just going to quit ordering sides. The ...

My friend Bev threw an amazing going away party for me. We all got together at her house and had bloody marys, burgers, and beers. Derek came in town and brought his special lady friend, so I got to meet Kelly. Omar came in from San Antonio. Layla and Dave came up. Janello was there. My friend Moni had met me for lunch a ...

... have a little lunch, so far so good. The truck nows says we have enough diesel for about 220 mile, okay, things are still going good. Suddenly we have taken the wrong road again, we can go straight on this road and catch the highway about 20 miles down the road, no problem. 160 miles till empty. Maybe there will be a big gas station on the highway,that  sells diesel and its a pull thru. Onward we go! Down to 80 miles till empty Running out of fuel doesn't seem like a good  idea ...

... running. Her friend Vicky kept us entertained with stories of her father and how he does things like eat turtle food and try to warm ice cream on the stove. After the run Jody and I met Meredith at the Hula Hut. Hula Hut is on Lake Austin and you can sit outside on the water and drink and eat Mex fusion food. The food is just OK but the atmosphere is terrific. Later that afternoon, our friend Beth had a bday party for her son Max so we headed over there. Talk about ...

... first one I really got into was while he was in Central America. I fell in love with his stories and photos, all of which are absolutely amazing. So when he started another one for SE Asia and things started to get slower at work (no, I don't work for Hastings anymore. I have a nice desk job where I can pretend to work but really read Asia stories), I of course was hooked again, like a good book in which you have to wait a week for the next ...