July 9th 2016:

I am currently writing this somewhere 34,000 (34,001 to be exact) feet above the Pacific Ocean. By the time you read this, however, I’ll be in the mist of some sort of new adventure I’m sure…

What can I say about the last few months? It’s been a crazy fucking ride to say the least. If you’ve followed my travels through Facebook, Instagram, or “Nutty and Buddy”, you’ve seen quite a few of the highlights. My cousin/co-explorer and I got a little carried away with our journey, and have yet to provide any stories regarding our stint in Southeast Asia. We’ll get to those at some point. As for “Buddy”, he will not accompany me for this chapter of the trip. He’s somewhere in Spain currently, so I can’t say I feel too bad. We will reunite somewhere in Europe and continue with “Nutty and Buddy” in the near future. In the meantime, I’ll be getting my first taste of Japan and China. I am also thrilled to be meeting up with my longtime friend, fraternity brother, and co-worker Greg Winkler in Tokyo this afternoon. As for China, well, that will be a solo mission (my first!).

This “grand trip” originally began on March 17^th of this year, with the goal of making it to November. Unfortunately (and fortunately), fate had a way of intervening with the fun. I will get into the details soon, but a return flight home was made on May 17^th for health related reasons. Determined as I was to get back out traveling by early June, I would fail to receive such clearance…

Things really sucked balls for the next month. It would go like this:

• See doctor
• Be told “See you in 2 weeks”
• Repeat

I gained a new level of respect and sympathy for burn victims over this past month; recovery is a long and frustrating process. Days went by, and I grew really sick of all the fucking bandage work I had to do on myself every day. Keeping the foot elevated and immobile also sucked serious ass.

**Side Note. Speaking of elevation, I have nobody sitting next to me on this flight. This is a relatively full flight, but the obese couple next to me upgraded their seats for much needed legroom. I get to lie across this entire fucking row now, elevating my feet. Life gives like it takes sometimes, right?** Anywhoo…

But as frustrating as this healing process has been, and how stir crazy I got over the days, something occurred to me during one of my final doctor check ups. I was sitting in the waiting room, looking at multiple fellow burn victims. One had very obvious scars on her face, while another was covering their burn with a towel… Too embarrassed to even show her face. Then there was me, complaining all month about how HORRIBLE my luck is. Last time I checked, I spent 2 straight months having the time of my life in 5 different countries, to come back home temporarily to have my ANKLE repaired. My fucking ankle. God forbid somebody notices how ugly my fucked up ANKLE looks someday down the road…

What I’m getting at is that my life is pretty awesome. I flew off a motorbike, slid across 50 feet of asphalt, and am alive and well to tell the tale. And yes, my foot got stuck in the bike that cooked up the real problem (da dum tiss!), but overall I’m a really lucky piece of shit. I even got asked to come in and continue my work on the Shark Week specials I left behind back in March. I recovered while saving up more money to continue this trip. My amazing parents were happy to have me home and spoil me as well, so I got to spend more time with the family than I had in several years. The universe seems to have a funny way of making things work out sometimes. And all the frustration paled in comparison to the excitement I felt when I was given the last minute clearance to fly on this glorious Saturday. (Two weeks after the surgery, not too shabby. And my thigh looks pretty damn good on my ankle!)

So I’ll end this post with the following advice: Get into a violent accident in Thailand on Friday the 13^th (true story). Things will work out.