Dear diary…
It is now February 10, 2021, and there is much that has occurred in the last year and a half. I fear I cannot begin to sum it up, but there is hope yet, that my entries here will take shape, and over the course of this great journey, the people may know some of what I am doing.
I began thinking up a plan back in September of ’19. There was a need to get away from the life I had cultivated. It was a good life, but I am in love with learning, and that process had become somewhat stagnant. So I dreamed of travel, immersing myself in different cultures, and once more taking in new knowledge. This comes at a price, however, and I was ill-equipped to simply go out on a walk-around.
I quickly came to the realization that I would need to fund the trip as I went along, and so my idea was born: I would not travel abroad, I would simply take to the road, become the hockey gypsy, and ref games all around the United States. This could mean new experiences, and on the heels of this idea came another…
Never Far from Home is my baby. I dreamed it up in an effort to highlight the community of the rink through storytelling. This community has given me everything, and I became determined to help it grow. There was little time from the inception of the idea to travel, and the humble beginnings of my podcast. I had spent the previous six years in the radio industry in Steamboat, and found myself enamored with audio.
So it was, that the next months were spent planning a trip around the nation, beginning to interview guests on my podcast, dealing with the craziness of Covid that threw everyone’s world into a tailspin, and eventually, I was able to settle on a date to leave the beautiful place that had been my home for so long.
I left in October of 2021, and have been on the road since. I spent a couple months in Virginia on a remodel of a brothers home, and have now made my way to Florida. When I next journal, I will still be in the sunshine state. I have much to tell, and more still to live…