"We will either find a way or make one."
–Hannibal
Yeah, really. In 2016, I returned from Australia physically crushed from the injuries I sustained there during my eighteen-day dirt bike trip across the Outback. I persevered through fifteen days of hell to make it to Fremantle after getting clobbered on a sand dune in the Simpson Desert on day three. While I was successful in reaching my goal of riding east to west from the Coral Sea to the Indian ocean, I did so in abject misery, which negated the triumphant sense of accomplishment I should have felt; an emotion that I had felt upon returning from a very successful solo Arctic Circle motorcycle camping adventure in 2011.
So in 2018, I cooked up this (some say crazy) scheme to ride a motorcycle to Mount Everest base camp. By 2019, I had all the logistics sorted out and the trip was a go. I trained like a mad man and was in the best physical condition of my entire life. I even had abs. Then China and Faucci unleashed COVID and the world came to a stop. My trip was canceled and dream was shattered. Unlike many, I still had my health and looking back, perhaps my physical conditioning lended a hand in my not ever catching the virus. In the five years since, I've let my conditioning slip. OK, it's more like a landslide, but the one thing I did do was refuse the jab and that is probably the best move I could have made towards sustaining my health. But I digress...
Here we are approaching 2025. I'm turning 62 years old and am just a few months away from retirement to maintain my small farm and volunteer around my rural community. There will probably be an entirely separate blog for that. My Rural Retirement YouTube is registered, but I haven't created any content yet. Stay tuned.
I've decided to follow Dylan Thomas' advice and "not go gentle into that good night" just because I'm retiring. While age, finances, and farm responsibilities can be restrictive, I feel like...no, I know I have one more good adventure in me - and I am going to take it. I reached out to the in-country fixer in Nepal that was helping me before and have arranged to pick up a motorcycle in Kathmandu. I also booked my flights and while I'm not looking forward to the 30+ hour travel duration each way, I know it's a means to an end to realize a long-awaited goal. My corporate travel will have hopefully ceased long before I fly to Nepal, so maybe I'll be in the mood to fly. If not, it's nothing that Xanax can't fix. I still have a tremendous amount of logistics to sort out, but I'm up to the task. I also have an uphill conditioning battle that I have no choice but to win.
As a goal-driven man, I'm stoked to planning this adventure again. It also provides much-needed writing fodder, so stay tuned and check back here for updates. I'll be writing even if no one is reading.
