In the spring of 2015, I did the scariest thing I could think of, called my past boss and asked for my job back, but I didn’t want to work in the office. I proposed taking over their marketing programs but doing it while traveling fulltime. Unbelievably, he said yes, so I quit my job, again, and prepared to hit the road.

I left Santa Barbara in my old VW campervan, and my first adventure was a 5-month, 20,000-mile drive around the United States. After that I wanted to go international, but I didn’t care where, so I wrote 6 countries down on a piece of paper, numbered them, and rolled a die. Ecuador came up, so I parked the van and booked a one-way flight. I toured South America, including the Galapagos and Machu Picchu, hopped in a van with a guy driving the PanAmerican highway, drove down the Peruvian coast, and headed back for the North American summer.

The second year I drove across the Trans-Canada Highway, from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland, and down the east coast, chasing fall colors. I parked the van again and flew back to South America, this time with a bicycle and a friend, to bike tour Patagonia to the end of the world.

After another summer in North America, riding as a relay team in the 3,000 mile bicycle Race Across America, running the Plain 100, and enjoying the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, I again parked the van and this time flew to Asia to motorbike through Vietnam and Myanmar before spending the winter in Australia and touring New Zealand in a campervan.

While in New Zealand I found a used truck online and my brother bought it in Denver for me. I flew home to get the truck and spend the last few weeks of my grandpa’s life with him in hospice care, then I sold the van, outfitted the Tacoma for serious off-road travel, and explored deep into the wilds of the southwest.

In the fall I had a company-paid flight to Germany for the trade show, and Oktoberfest, and after hanging with friends in Venice I flew to Paris, bought a backpack, and set out to hike the Camino de Santiago, from France, across Spain, to the Atlantic Ocean.

After the Camino, while relaxing on a beach north of Barcelona, I found a slide in truck camper perfect for the Tacoma, called the owners in New York State, bought a fight back home, and drove to pick it up. What I thought would be a 5-week camper renovation turned into a 5-month odyssey, in the Midwest, in the winter. I blame myself for watching way too much HGTV.

Once the camper was done, I pointed west and set out on an adventure to the Arctic Ocean, driving the Alaska Highway, up the Dalton Highway, and spending the summer exploring Alaska.

Though it was the start of the PanAmerican Highway, I decided to take a break from driving, parked the truck, and flew to Indonesia for the holidays. After 2 months in Bali, I did a quick stop in Singapore, then Kuala Lumpur, and ended up on a tiny island in Thailand, planning out the rest of my year around the world, but I instead of continuing on, COVID happened. I ended up staying for a year and a half.

Post pandemic I’ve been bouncing around the world, became a Spartan Trail Race Director, helped manage an ultramarathon in the Kingdom of Bhutan, worked trade shows and attended conferences in Europe, and chased summer in the winter in Baja, Mexico.

People often ask if I’m ever planning to settle down. I never say never, but I don’t think so!