Any likeness of my story to that movie from a few years back starring Tom Hanks is purely coincidental.



OK, when I first decided 6-months ago to bail on corporate America, quit my job and follow my calling, I wasn't really sure what I would end up doing with myself- in fact, I wasn't even sure what my calling was. I knew I wanted to travel, spend quality time with family and friends, and just clear my mind for 6-months to a year. Another part of me wanted to grow my hair long, tailor a burly beard and walk around in cut-offs and flip flops for a few months in a place where the temperature never breaks 60 on the low end and 80 on the high end. Well, after much thought, I have decided to go the route of our forefathers and explore our country via the rails of Amtrak. Tomorrow I start my 2-month cross country voyage from Boston. Through this blog, I will capture my trip for myself as well as hopefully keep my friends and family up to date and (hopefully) entertained. For now, Bon Voyage!



1/17 2:00 p.m.- I just arrived in balmy Chicago. No, really, it's balmy compared to that Arctic home I call Boston. Great hotel (www.hotel71.com)- I'll definitely stay here again. Quick highlights that I will expound upon later after some exercise and a few beers: our train hit a car in Pittsburgh (no injuries- apparently, it was just like a movie. The dude's car stalled on the tracks with an approaching train. Dude bailed. Car crushed. Train delayed for 2 hours while they removed crushed car from tracks); is it me or should people really NOT be singing Christmas carols on January 17th? A group of young girls just kept singing carols- over and over... Overall it was cool though, the train truly is the means of travel for middle America. I met some really nice people. Finished another book on the train- The First Billion by Chris Reich (Grisham on Wall Street basically- highly recommended)- started Moneyball by Mike Lewis (analysis and interpretation of how the Oakland A's have won more games over the last 5 years than any other team in MLB aside from the Atlanta Braves - while carrying the 2nd lowest payroll in baseball). Chicago plan (highlights)- tonight stumble around town and enjoy some authentic Chicago style Pizza; tomorrow- city tour, Pats Game, tix to see NHL Blackhawks lose to my (LA) Kings; Sunday- Chicago Institute of Art, back on the train. Bye for now...



1/19 9:00 a.m.- HOW ABOUT THOSE PATS!!! From Donohoe braving the temps in the endzone to the knucklehead Newton Giants watching the game @ Fitz' house, I was thinking of all my fellow fans as I watched the game here in Bears land. As my Chicago time winds down, I really cursed myself by making that "balmy" comment the day I arrived. Since then temps have plummeted to Boston temps (0 and negative w/ wind chill). What a city this is though! To recap, Saturday night I went to Giardano's, a local best of Chicago for Pizza, and had a Stuffed Pepperoni w/ Black Olives- outstanding...I could get VERY fat in this town. Spent the evening cruising the Magnificent Mile (a shopper's paradise- but more interesting to me was the people watching). Chicago is the 3rd most populated city in the US behind only NYC and LA, and the Mag mile was just bustling. Sunday, I got up early and went for a frigid run before taking a tour of the city w/ Gray Line Tours. I can't figure out how to attach pix to this blog yet (Scooter or Steve- any ideas?): a few highlights, though, Wrigley Field, Hugh Hef's original Playboy Mansion, THE baseball that the Cubs fan interfered with continuing the Curse of the Goat, an amazing view of the cityscape from Adler Planetarium, the Tribune Building which has rocks embedded in it's exterior from places like the Great Wall, the Berlin Wall, an Egyptian Pyramid...cool! After some culture, it was time to get the testosterone going for the BIG Pat's game. I went to Harry Caray's (owned by family of legendary Cub's announcer and Chicago icon) to watch the game. The Chicago sports fans are truly our brothers. Everyone I talked to had the same dream... a Cubs/Sox series. I concur. After watching the Pats thump the Ponies, I headed to the United Center (the House that Jordan built) to see the Blackhawks lose to my LA Kings. As I continue to try to squeeze as much as possible into my time here, I am off to the Chicago Institute of Art this morning before catching a 2:30 train. Thanks to all who have thrown me trip ideas/checklist items. Next stop, Mom and Dad in Oregon- I'm thinking I can knock out the snow angel and the cow milking there. Bye for now....



1/21 12:18 p.m. Safe and sound in Pendleton, OR. Bright and early this morning I de-boarded the Empire Builder Amtrak train (that is what they call the run from Chicago to Portland/Seattle) in snowy Pasco, Washington. Mom & Dad were anxiously waiting to pick me up (in fact had been waiting for an hour as my train was an hour late). OK, since I left you all last, here is what I have done:



I visited the Chicago Institute of Art- an amazing and huge museum of art and artifacts. The gallery that interested me the most was the contemporary area (1960-present). The 3 pieces that I found most interesting for various reasons were:



"Mao" by Andy Warhol (you've all seen it..I was blown away by it's size- 10 ft tall x 8 ft wide).



"35 Pennies"- a piece by (I forget) that consists of 35 pennies stacked next to each other on a wood mantel-the first penny is from the year of the artist's birth and each subsequent penny is a year newer- this is a perpetual piece in which each birthday the artist adds the current year's penny - it's cool how something this simple and random can get your wheels turning.



"116 pounds of Candy"- this piece was just that- 116 pounds of individually wrapped candy piled in a corner of the gallery. The 116 pounds of candy represent the sweet and happy memories that this artist has of a friend of hers who died from AIDS. Patrons of the museum are encouraged to take a piece of candy- the artist replenishes to 116 pounds every week in her friend's honor.



After leaving the Art Institute, I walked to Hank's Franks for a couple of Chicago style hot dogs- steamed dog w/ mustard, onions, jalapenos, a slice of pickle and salt & pepper- NO ketchup allowed by the Chicagoans. After this, back to the train station.



I reserved 1st Class w/ a sleeper car for this long leg (almost 40 hours between Chicago and Pasco, WA). Sleeper car is the only way to go if you plan on having more than 1 overnight- all meals are included, own private room w/ bed and access to shower facilities (unfortunately, the train's hot water wasn't working, so my shower was quite "invigorating"). Sleeper cabins also include the newspaper at your door each morning- on Monday morning it was the Minot, ND Times and this morning it was the Idaho Spokesman-Review (by the way, the Minot girls basketball team had their 21 game unbeaten streak shattered by Stanley on Sunday evening!). So, you might ask how I -with my short attention span and general lack of patience- was able to spend 40 hours on the train without going crazy. Surprisingly, time flew. I spent a lot of enjoying the view of middle America from the observation car, reading, fine tuning my travel route in Microsoft Trips and writing a script to submit to Project Greenlight (you know what I'm saying Mike?). The bulk of people on the Empire Builder were train loyalists. I easily fell into their mind sets. Just chill... A few other highlights: Antelope farms, Antelope farms and more Antelope farms. I was blown away by how many Antelope farms (yeah, the antelope you see on the Discovery channel being chased by Lions) there are in North Dakota and Montana. We must have passed by 20 on the trip. Apparently their primary use is for hunting on local ranges. Though I did not stay the night in Fargo, ND as I had originally considered, I did wake up at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday as we pulled into their train station. It looked very cold, so I was much better off in my warm cabin.



Now, here I am in Pendleton, OR w/ Mom and Dad. It's great to be here. Pendleton is a town of about 11,000 located in Northeastern Oregon. Pendleton is most known for it's namesake woolen mills and the Pendleton Round Up- a rodeo and Indian show that dates back to the 1800's. What Pendleton is not known for is selling the Wall Street Journal. Mom and I hit every business in town this morning looking for today's copy- to no avail. According to the owner of Dave's Chevron station, "We used to carry it, but that was a long time ago." I look forward to a week of relaxation and quality time with Mom and Dad. I have pix of the trip so far that I will post somewhere somehow. One last piece of trip info so far- states that I have travelled through: MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, DE, MD, VA, WV, PA, OH, IN, MI, IL, WI, MN, ND, MT, ID, WA and OR (that's 21). Hope all is well with everyone. Bye for now...




February 4, 2004: UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE...Yes, I am still alive. I know, for those of you who had quickly become addicted to my own reality show, CASTAWAY, you have probably been having withdrawals.



Let me do my best to update you on my perils since we last talked:



My parents live about 3 hours east of Portland, OR- and the route to Portland from Pendleton runs through the Columbia Gorge and along the Columbia river. In my endeavor to try as many new things as possible, I decided to take Grey Hound from Pendleton to Portland. Here are some brief highlights of that 3 hour tour: while waiting in the Pendleton bus station for my bus, a shady character tried to get a refund for a stolen bus ticket (police were called); someone stole the bus I was supposed to be on from the Boise, ID station the night before, so after scrambling to find a replacement, we left Pendleton 2 hours late- BUT, with all that being said, the ride was absolutely gorgeous (the Columbia Gorge is a must see in your lifetime). After a beautiful relatively relaxing ride, our rig rolled into the Portland, OR station under cloudy drizzling skies. I cabbed to my hotel in the downtown area (another great boutique hotel choice I scored off Hotels.com called Hotel Lucia- www.hotellucia.com). In the morning, I spent about 2 hours in a really incredible local bookstore called Powel's (its on Burnside)....HUGE!!! Caught the train that afternoon from Portland down the coast to Paso Robles, CA. I think this might have been the last leg I do on AmTrak as I really started to get cabin fever on this leg (not to mention that the train ran about 4 hours late).



For the last 5 days, I've been visiting the area of Cali where I lived from 6th grade to HS graduation -Atascadero, or as we locals refer to it, A-town (population about 20,000 I think). My gracious hosts right now are Mike and Rayne and their 3 dogs (combined weight-about 400 pounds- Mastiff/Rotweiler mix, Great Dane and St Bernard). Caesar, the Great Dane, had the pleasure of having his tail lopped off a few days ago because of an infection. He was a trooper and looks much meaner now w/ the short stump. This really is a beautiful area..the Central Coast. San Luis Obispo (SLO) is a college town about 15 miles away where the "action" really is. We've gone down there several times for good grub and nightlife...I have more than a million fun memories of living here. After HS graduation, my buds, Tim and Buzz and I moved to SLO- and actually lived there and went to Cal Poly until we were all 21. Oh man...OK, I know I'm all over the place, but here are some highlights of the Central Coast so far: bottles w/ Mike and Jason (a game that we intend to mass market by the way), a limo for Rosie's (Mike's mom) 70th birthday, a SWEET Super Bowl party made even sweeter with the Pats win, golf with Tim (parred the first hole and it was all downhill from there), Mike winning Scene It every time, meeting Tim and Denice's new baby -Carly- for the first time, Jayce calling me Uncle Dave and stealing me a sucker at "Pancho's", losing my wallet, cruising the Vette, Lloyd -table for 4- Lloyd?, finding my wallet, Mike losing his wallet, Mike finding his wallet, reading the Slaveway site with Mike every morning, spending hours and hours trying to get the wireless internet adapter to work on Mike's PC (yet refusing to call technical support for help)....to no avail, no cell phone reception AGAIN, no internet connection AGAIN.



Tomorrow morning, Mike, Brad and I head up to Lake Tahoe to visit Dean and Family, Tony, ski, gamble, etc....should be a ball! I know I blasted through the last 8 days pretty quick..but gotta go. Bye for now.

2/6 Arrived in Tahoe last night. It's beautiful up here. The place we are at is amazing (www.24-thirdcreek.com). Tahoe got about 2 feet of fresh snow 2 days ago so skiing today should be outstanding. We're off to Diamond Peak.