Photos from India

Sunday, December 31, 2006

First Post

Today, I am stuck in Birmingham for New Years. It is raining and has finally given me the opportunity to begin work on a web site that can keep all of my friends, family and new acquaintances up to date on where I am and what I have been doing. Right now, I am prety nervous about quitting my job. I have worked for an architecture firm in Birmingham, Alabama for the past five and a half years and on Tuesday will be giving them notice that I will not be working there as of the end of the month. This is a very difficult decision for me as I have enjoyed working there and have gained an extensive amount of knowledge from everyone I have worked with. Most likely they are not going to be happy about my decision to leave but taking an open ended trip around the world is something I have been dreaming of for years. At the point I am at now, there is no turning back.
Currently, I have flights booked to be snowboarding in Copper Mountain, Colorado Jan 17-22. I will come back from there, have about a week left to finish up some things at work and from there, I have no intention of working a serious job for a year or longer. After leaving my job at the beginning of February, I am flying to Seattle to meet my friend Jon Miller who is currently working at Copper Mountain. I think he is bringing a friend that he met guiding on the New River this past summer in West Virginia with him. Anyway, we are going to drive up to Whisler in British Columbia, Canada and spend four days snowboarding. From there, the three of us are driving back to Seattle to catch an early flight on February 8th to fly back to Denver. I will be staying at John's house in Leadville, near Copper, doing some snowboarding before flying back to Birmingham late on February 13th.
From there, I will spend two full days at home before departing for Tortola on the 16th. Once in Tortola, I am taking a bunch of ASA classes that will get me to the level of a certified bareboat captain on a 50' monohull or a 50' catamaran sailboat. I will also be doing some further courses in coastal passagemaking and navigation to further my skills. After completing the sailing courses on March 3, I hope to join another sailboat as crew for a few months and refine my sailing skills. If that does not work out, it looks like doing some island hopping down to South America where I will be wandering around and seeing all the sites. Hopefully I will know more in the next few weeks about all of that. For now, back to work on the website! Have a Happy New Year!