Introduction: Leaving on a jet plane ...

Well only a couple more hours left before I leave. It has been a busy last couple of weeks. Before I ramble on [ packing plus lack of sleep tends to cause this], I would to thank everyone who has wished me well for my trip, it makes coming back that much more sweeter. For those of you who don't know, I have packed a backpack full of clothes and I am going tobackpack around the world for a year or so. In order to accomplish this feat - I quit my job, packed up all my belongings in nine boxes [ not too shabby ], sold my car, and I got vaccinated for almost all diseases known to man [ My doctor started calling me pincushion and my last shot on Friday made me hisall-time shot taker - maybe he should call me Kobe,nice ].

My trip begins with a one-way flight to Shanghai today, then on to Honk Kong, then Vietnam. I will be plodding around Asia for a while, then I will head south to New Zealand and Australia, then through Africa, and then across Europe. During mymisadventures around the world I will be sending periodic emails about my comings and goings and in the next coming days I will try to set up a site on this thing called the Internet so you can track my progress.

So will that, I will quote Confucius who said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." So barring any wrong turns, delays, traffic stops, security checks, etc, etc, that first step wil lbe today at 12:25 pm and my next email will be from across that big pond they call the Pacific Ocean.