Whew

Man, after I launched my initial Bendiana Jones website I got hit up to work on a so many other sites I havent had time to pay much attention to my blog.

Well I'm currently revamping the website and hopefully will be back writing regularly again.

I will report that my great friend Josh Moore arrived home safely from spending the summer in Jordan.

More to come, please stay tuned.

Father's Day - not the destination

Heads up here.

I've assembled a list of fantastic books, movies, and other blogs that truly capture the spirit of adventure.

If it wasn't fathers day today I would begin...

However, my wife Anna is taking me out for the holiday. She is doing exactly what I wanted -

We get in the car, we begin to drive. We have no destination, no itinerary, nothing. We just kinda see where we end up and then we make the most of it.

What an absolutely perfect day! Anna knows I always preach that it is not the destination that matters, it is the journey. So, when there is no destination you get to thrive in the thing that matters most (to me) - the journey.

Obviously we are not going to go anywhere too far, although the thought crossed my mind to drive through the night as far north as we could go....but we will probably just meander around central Kansas until we find a spot that suits us.

The temperature today is 99 degrees F, with a heat index of 106 F. It will be HOT.

Then I think of my good friend Josh who has spent so much time in the Sahara Desert, and I tell myself that although it is hot....its not that hot.

The Trek

For those of you who know me, you know I have been planning a walk across the United States for quite some time now...well, not really planning, exactly, because I'm famous for doing very little of that...but I've been thinking about it.

A few simple rules and guidelines -

1.) No major roads.
2.) Shave my head and beard before I leave (I have shoulder length hair right now).
3.) Not to worry about time or distance - that distracts from the journey itself.
4.) As always with me - extremely limited gear

I will be blogging about the journey HERE so don't miss out. I've read some amazing literature on trans-american walks and I'm quite excited to finally experience it for myself.

Departure date: Still unknown at this point.

I recently had some major foot problems during a long walk and will need to fix those if I can...

Roger Stone, Seaman, makes the Ultimate Sacrifice

I'm always perusing around the internet looking and reading stories related to adventure and travel - occasionally those stories unlock tales of disaster, heroism...and death. However, most people who live adventurous lives understand the risks, and they would rather die doing what they love than by other, more random means.

In 2008, Roger Stone gave his life so that the rest of his crew on board their sinking boat would make it out unharmed. He was was a safety officer on board a yacht headed from Galveston Texas to Vera-Cruz (a 600 mile journey). He was with a team of college students competing in the rugged Regata De Amigos.

When a freak accident led to the immediate floundering of the vessel, Stone made sure everyone else was off the boat safely before he turned his attention to his own fate - but by then it was too late.

Kenneth Miller of Reader's Digest wrote the following article about the disaster and Stone's heroism:

http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/drama-lost-at-sea/article125453.html

I'm reminded, when I read such stories, of a quote from the Swiss writer Henri Frederic Amiel:

Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.

Why is this so? Because the natural human instinct is to gain, not to lose. All throughout history we have account after account of a common man (or woman) making tremendous sacrifices that defy the law. If it was commonplace, it wouldn't be a sacrifice. If the head entity and establishment was built around the philosophy, "loss for me = gain for others" then there really would be no means to assume a position of power.

On a human level, such acts are truly the most basic form of love. Roger Stone knew that the pain his wife and family would endure would be far less than what he would endure were he to selflessly save himself rather than his friends. That said, his act was not out of fear of his own potential misgivings - it was a basic instinct embedded into his entire body. Love is like that, it can manifest itself so quick and so powerful that reason and intellect are discarded in place of sacrifice.

Losing your life on an adventure doing something you love, while saving the lives of people you love, is not something to take lightly. Sacrifice may not, as Amiel reminds us, be the Law of Society - But it is the Law of Humanity

Abby Sunderland found safe

Abby Sunderland was found safe today by a passing plane. Her boat was completely adrift. Because she was so far from land, the rescue ship will still take about 2 days to reach her, but she has plenty of food and water to remain healthy during that time.

What an exciting adventure. I, personally, applaud her parents for allowing their young child to pursue her adventurous dreams. I hope they were not doing it for fame...thats for only them to know in their hearts.

Abby Sunderland - Lost at Sea?

It's all over the news, but in case you didn't know, Abby Sunderland's sail boat lost contact today during a fairly serious storm in the Indian Ocean.

Abby is, flat out, a remarkable girl. She's sailing across the world! She's only 16 years old, but has the heart of a sturdy adult. I've been following her blog at www.luckykattv.com. Personally, I don't really care for all the awards and hoopla about her trip and her age, I just think the courage to go out and do it is in itself the true reward. Another young girl, Jessica Watson from Australia, recently returned from a similar voyage.

I was very discouraged to hear about the bad news today...but there is still hope. You see, her boat has more than 1 distress beacon. The second beacon activates when the boat goes more than 15 ft. underwater. As of now, that beacon has not gone off. So either she is still in her boat, but with the communication equipment down, or she is in a life raft. Whats tricky is that she is literally 400 miles from ANYTHING in between Africa and Australia.

I'm positive she's OK.

But let's keep our eyes and ears on the news and hope to hear some good news.

Years ago I read the book "Dove" about a similar feat and fell in love with the sport...too bad i'm in Kansas.

Colors Matter.

It may seem trivial, but when I travel, Im very particular about colors. Not in a vain sense, but rather an absorption sense.

A hunter will enter into the woods, generally, with one of two outfits - camouflage or bright orange. While the camouflage serves the purpose of, well, camouflaging, the orange serves the purpose of being noticed. Both outfits are useful for their particular purpose but are donned with a different mindset than what I mean when I discuss "absorption".

As I enter into the woods, I most often are wearing browns and greens. I am not doing so to blend in, like a hunter. I'm doing so as not to "blend out". I have no desire to stay hidden, rather my desire is to become as one with my environment as I can.

During my last trip to Africa, I would sit out upon the street-walk and watch the bustling urban locals go about their business. It is a pure treat to witness the fluid movements of a foreign locale, the street vendors peddling their goods, the businessmen rushing to their office, the children running down the walks, and the friends walking casually together down the street. You get used to watching this, it feels so natural to your eyes! But then a figure enters the scene, a tall man with high shorts, pleather sandals, and bright pink fanny pack (stuffed to the brim), a tucked in double pocketed light blue adventure shortsleeve button-up shirt, expensive binoculars hanging by the neck, outrageous sunglasses, and an off-white wide brimmed hat.

I want to puke.

The A-Typical tourist doesn't know any better. Western culture has taught the world traveling tourist to wear, for some incredible reason, this ridiculous outfit. We all have seen them before. This person, unlike the secretive hunter, has no wish to be hidden. Unlike the hunter wearing the bright orange, this tourist does not wish to certainly be seen. Instead, they are just ignorant to what I call absorption.

Naturally I will not wear the exact same clothes the locals do when I travel, for the most part. However, I will try my best to simply blend in to the environment, so that if someone else were watching from the street-walk, (as I so often do) I will be but a small blip on their radar as I pass by. A foreigner, yes, but little else of consequence. It's not out of fashion that I pick my garb to accomplish this - it's out of respect to the primal aesthetics of the landscape, be it urban or nature.

I dont want to "blend out". At the same time I dont necessarily want to blend in. I want to show respect.

Whether its the ocean, or the desert, or the jungle...I feel this is an important step in not becoming an ignorant adventurer.

ABSORPTION

This is loosely the first post in a series I will be penning concerning adventurology (my study of adventure).