Just Thoughts


I was on an evening jog and started thinking, as I do.

The couple inches of mushy snow and stealth potholes were in an odd way like deep sand and tide pools. The mist was cold but thick, like the highlands of Northern Laos. Maybe it’s the holiday hype or the anniversary for one of many pilgrimages, regardless, late last night gathered around the Winter Solstice bonfire in the middle of the mountains with gypsies, transients and friends I was reflecting.

“Where was I this day last year and how am I different?”
A sip of spiced tea and I responded plainly, “I was alone”.
I’d ridden the Iguana across a couple countries and spent Christmas day up in the air heading from Vietnam to Thailand, alone.

--

I landed in Leavenworth, Washington. Now on Sunday evenings it’s music with my farmer friend, Grant, do dinner with the foodies during the week and explore the hills in my backyard daily to keep perspective.

The cold-like symptoms of the economy provoked a go at corporate business. I needed an idea as a vehicle to drive conversations with people that inspire me. Drishti “Focus on Efficiency” is the name and slogan silk-screened on bags I design and produce for athletes who play often. I am learning as I go.

Upon last night’s debauchery and the propaganda of “Christmas,” one thing is for sure—it is relationships that will carry us through.

A couple stories bringing people from the grass-roots level to the forefront are tentative; I will post them here:

I chose the Gunnison Endurance Project (http://wiki.western.edu/ess/index.php/Gunnison_Endurance_Project)

And

Solvang Triathlon Camps (http://www.solvangtriathloncamps.com/)

because Scott and Charlie are subscribing to a holistic and personal effort.

Get’n busy livin’

Your pal,

Andrew

Comments

Vivvi said…
As always your blogs are heart-felt and meaningful. You're really an awesome guy and, don't forget, my door is always open if you feel like another adventure. Budapest is a good place to start.

Merry Christmas, Andy!
December 23, 2009 at 12:18 AM
You. Me. Everyone In between. said…
Hey Andy! I remember a couple X-mas times ago we were at Vivvi's parents house having dinner, nice wine and sharing some stories. It was so fun to catch up with you and her. You are an inspirational writer, and I hope you continue with your adventures. See you somewhere on the globe! Happy New year!

Lindsey
January 6, 2011 at 7:04 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Dispatch

Today was a very good day. Last night? Apprehensive. But today, ah, today was the introduction to a world I’ve never known. We’ve all been to Nowhere. It might have been in the middle of Seattle or Saskatchewan. It might have been at a Zen monastery, a no-man’s-land border outpost, or a bungalow in a nameless beach town. You may have found Nowhere on a sultry summer night in Paris when you’d spent your last euro and had no place to sleep; or on a midnight jeep safari in the Botswana bush after you’d blown your last spare tire, with your campsite a distant pinprick of light; or in the comforting cocoon of an all-night train compartment, sharing soul-secrets with a total stranger. Nowhere is a setting, a situation and a state of mind. It’s not on any map, but you know it when you’re there. This time it has taken, as it usually does, a tremendous amount of energy and an open mind to get to Nowhere. This time, Nowhere is Mae Sot, Thailand. I tend to prefer the places that Lonely Plan...
Read more

Haleakala: The Fast Way

Image
*Photos: Eddie Gianelloni --> Haleakala: The Fast W ay “Mainland, yea?”   Biting the top of her knuckle, the old wooden desk creaking as she leaned in heavy.   Pressing the phone to her ear and tripoding her elbows on the desk, she listened close for a few more seconds then looked up at me and asks: “So the dogs came after you?” her tanned forehead crinkling into the shape of a ‘V’.    “Well, no.   Not really.”   Pausing mid sentence and putting myself in the ranchers boots on the other end of the phone line; this must sound ridiculous.   A runner from the mainland with no shirt and short shorts wanders off his ranch into the Kaupo General Store and wants to know why his dogs, specially trained to protect the livestock, come after him when he runs towards the livestock. Meg presses the old phone back to her ear then leans back in her springy office chair: “Okay, thanks John, got it.”   I wander aimlessly in the cubical...
Read more

Yet Anoher Junction

I’m searching for a way to transcend the experience... When the bus dropped us off at the junction of the two roads there wasn’t much we could do. I had been riding my bike for 1,115 kilometers through the northern stretches of Thailand and Laos. My visa for Vietnam started in two days, I needed to rest while still covering ground; I didn’t know what to expect and was too tired to care. In retrospect, I think the driver had the mid-way drop off planned before we departed. At 7:30am a mother, her small child, a middle aged man with worn through dress shoes, the Iguana and I loaded the flatbed-turned-bus in the junction town of Vieng Thong. At 7:45am the bus-driver pushed the front seat forward, pulled out a bamboo-bong, walked out to the road, smoked himself some opium, then came back and starred blankly at the front drivers side tire. Five other Laotians trickled over twenty minutes of philophosphorizing followed. Half-hour later the stoned driver was wheeling the tire in...
Read more