Blogging -- never before....

Most people start a blog with a faux-inspirational statement about some gifted insight they have to share with the broader world. I have no such statement to make.

As my favorite Despair.com (if you haven't seen the website, carve off a good 2 hours and get on it) poster states, "Blogging -- Never Before Have So Many People Had So Little To Say". Which basically captures the essence of why I've never bothered (that and a moderate dose of laziness). As far as the social interweb goes, I'm not even on the map. I'm not on Facebook connecting with people that I haven't seen since puberty. I don't do Twitter (10:32am - attention world - I just broke wind). I've never much been in need of a Polish bride or a Thai lady boy. And I found my beautiful wife the pre-Match.com way -- at college, where I plied her with copious amounts of cheap beer and made her laugh and/or feel sorry for me.

But after being literally inundated with 2 requests to start a blog about us and our travels, I've reflected a bit and have decided to give it a go. Why the change of heart? Well it could be that I have some free time on my hands. Or it could be that I'm taking the advice of my career coach and "getting out there on the web". But mostly I think it's because deep inside I know that we've been up to something pretty extraordinary, and a) I'm getting older and need to start writing stuff down, and b) just maybe it will inspire someone else out there who's contemplating travel, either big or small, to give it a go. Or inspire them not to, it's not clear which way this will go.

Our story began in February 2007, when sight unseen, I accepted a transfer with my company to move from Washington, DC to Nottingham, England. Six short weeks later, Andrea and I were strapped in to our rear-facing business class sleeper seats on a British Airways 777. And then it began -- we've always been travellers but we decided to engage the warp drive. In 30 months we visited 30 countries on 4 continents, and took 97 flights covering some 200,000 miles. And now starts our biggest trip yet -- a six month jaunt around the globe.

As we literally pack up our lives here in London, I'm going to use this blog to share some marginally insightful ramblings as we move around the globe for the next little bit. A gold star for those of you who have actually made it this far without the help of powerful stimulants.

See you on the road!