Full Circle

I once wrote about a journey that I said was like, "Alice in Wonderland, a time warp for the amount of absolute joy and sacrifice crunched in such a short amount of time creating experiences which should have been played over many months if not years but in my instance it was just a few short weeks." I can't even begin to explain the people I met from the passengers, to odd people on the road, to my fellow tour leaders, so many, so many different stories that shaped me, that rattles my soul trying to comprehend it all and that it happened, but now it appears as just a dream, but one I definitely grew from.

Its hard to breathe, hard to believe I am no longer involved in such tiring work, work that was worth it, work that was adventure every second, every sweat, worry, laughter, of the way. Taking foreigners across the country to State and National Parks, visiting cities small and large and I shouldn't say taking I was their tour guide, leading, teaching, helping, every second of the way.

I came to grips with where I am at now, my sisters house back in Las Vegas, wrestling at times with a decision I made. To come back. Its hard to imagine how different everything was and here I am looking for a job that in my mind at one time I never thought I'd comeback to. A job working for careless people working in environments that murder the soul, working and working and working and nothing else. Man I never would have guessed that back in January when I got the Trek America job that I would be back in Las Vegas where I am. But if there is one thing I saw and realized this year a year, in which I told my sister (and wrote in previous blogs) 2010 is to be a year of Adventure and it truly, truly has been. Everyone is in shock as why I am back and believe me no one is in shock more than I. But as I was saying through all my travels from the beginning of all this, the craziest year of my life to date, everything that came to be I saw it prospering before it even would. Events would line up and fall into place just perfectly, the universe was always giving me clues letting me know what path to take and the outcome that would eventually take place (for example just as I was writing this article writing the word "Perfectly" in my last senctence the song I was listening to by the Red Hot Chili Peppers sang the word "Perfectly" just as I was writing it, and in a sequence of events to rare and odd for coincidence as I was just writing the word "Perfectly" in quotation to explain it, they sang the word a second time just exactly the time I was writing it. Almost as if the universe lays out little clues letting you know your on track.) I had so many of these events occur beginning in January letting me know I'm going the right way and I tell you if you were in my shoes trust me you would not call them coincidences, but I don't blame you if you do for if it hadn't happened to me I might be quick to call them so if I were just listening to my last example, but if I were to write and relate them all I believe any and everyone would be astonished and wonder at its reasoning and purpose and come to the conclusion this is not a pattern of coincidences but in some unique way the universe giving off whispering clues.

Which takes me to exactly where I am at now. How in the world did I end up back here? Where am I going? Well I am about to tell you. And like I said if you were in my shoes you know that the clues lead me here. It was the beginning of June I am in the North East United States traveling with foreigners with Trek. I had planned and Trek employers were aware of myself heading off to Las Vegas in mid June for one of my best friends weddings one I promised him I would not only go to but be one of his groomsman. I was and am still honored for he is a true friend. The down side was I was across the country from Vegas and I was going to have to pay hundreds of dollars for a plane ticket and that's just one way. I also had to get my tux at a Mens Warehouse at least be fitted for it for the Wedding and I could then pick it up in Las Vegas just hours before the wedding. Well I was on a trip that went from Washington D.C., to down south, to Chicago, then Niagara Falls, and back to New Jersey/ New York City. I had promised my friend I would be there but being I was making hardly any money and the money I did make I had to put in for a food kitty so that money was gone, I had to find a Mens Warehouse with no time and some real, well one real psychotic lesbian passenger and some other pains' in my ass passengers with me 24-7. Given the circumstances I was doubting my being in Las Vegas as a groomsman for my good friend. How would I come up with the money, time, and a Mens Warehouse (didn't mention the cost of the suit either) just days before the wedding. Well I was in Chicago leading a tour though this City a giant one at that, one I had never ever been to or even really studied at all, this just goes to show you with the hours end of driving, setting up camp, and handling foreigners some in which had never been to this nation before took up ALL MY TIME. Another miracle in itself, was what I was able to accomplish in a split seconds time amazes me even thinking some of the things I made possible were done. Luckily we had two days in Chicago and on the second day with just the couple hours to myself I thought okay I'll at least look to see if there is a Mens Warehouse in Chicago and near to where I am at, it was my last and real attempt to be in this wedding. I really didn't think it would happen at this time. I was hurt for I know he depended on me to be there and I told him I would and I wanted to be there for him and be a man of my word. For being a man of your word truly matters when you speak it to someone you care of. It turned out after looking on my Google app on my phone there was a Mens Warehouse literally a couple minute walk around the corner from where I was staying. A BIG sign of lets go for this. I had no idea prior if Mens Warehouse was a national store, just on the West Coast, etc., and if it were national would it be in Chicago and close by that I could get to in my short straddled time.

As I said when a sign falls in your lap last second as it did for me you'll will see everything else just falls perfectly into place. A puzzle that you find the final piece that lets you see that it's a puzzle just at its last moments before collapse and finding that last piece enables you to see every-other piece as if each piece were just slightly apart from one another letting you see how it will all fall in place all you have to do is put them together. I needed the money for a plane ticket or there was no suit and no wedding. I called my buddy one of many years also a groomsman in the wedding. My friends know I never ask for anything and as close as we all are just the mere mentioning of help to get to this wedding my friend basically hung up, called me back, and gave me the details of the ticket, one that at its cheapest was over $400 one way. So there it is my fate stamped, ticket back to family and friends, to my friend Derby's Wedding, the suit and everything else fell into place. The costs of getting a plane ticket back, then the extra few hundred dollars for food for my next trip it was too exurbanite to conjure the money to get back to New York.

My time on the magic carpet ride was cut short. One I wish I was still on, but I knew even before I decided to come back for the wedding, during my travels that I planned to ride the magic carpet for only one season. For the travelers I had met that stayed on the ride for too long stayed forever and lost the sense of reality. For they knew nothing of family, a permanent home, a pet, or permanent friends, just the thrill of the ride, taking your mind and chopping it up of anything concrete. My plans after my season were murky didn't know where I'd be or end up, but that was part of my travels, know that if I worked hard always kept positive that the Universe would and always has cleared the smoke and given me a path.

Although I ended up in Las Vegas, I knew it was for reason, all the clues didn't lead me here for nothing, the universe does not work that way. And I can truly tell you that a path and goal has shined on me and opened my eyes like no other. Just as all my other goals especially my last one it will be extremely hard, extremely rewarding and one that has already happened, I have all the puzzle pieces as clear as day I just have to slide them together. My goal and how I will achieve it will blow your mind as so the story continues....

P.S. - A thanks goes out to everyone who reads my blog, and to all who helped me, encouraged me, mentally and physically throughout my journey. Thank You!