Wait for it . . . .

So here goes my blogging debut.

Although I have yet to begin my travels (I'm sitting at work right now) I want to begin my blog to put all my plans in one spot in cyberspace. This way when my plans change (as they do daily) I can update everyone at once. I'm not yet sure who "everyone" is, but hopefully someone cares enough to check this on occasion.

Anyway, the itinerary is shaping up as follows:

July 31: Drive out of lovely Missoula, Montana for a Trans-Canadian roadtrip to Temagami, Ontario

August 5: Meet up with Jessica and stay at the world-renowned Wabun wilderness canoeing camp. www.wabun.com

August 11: Bum a ride to the Midwest and make my way home to Silex for some quality time with friends and family

August 24: Drive to New York with my Dad and Uncle Ken to do some serious fishing with my Uncle Steve.

September 2: The big day. I fly out of JFK airport in NYC to London and then Sofia, Bulgaria!!

September: Building strawbale houses at Hotnitsa www.hotnitsa.com. All I know is that I get free room and board and I'll be camping in the garden.

October: Travel to Istanbul, fly to Trabzon and then by train to Tibilisi, Georgia to volunteer at the Temi Community Farm and Vinyard. www.temi-community.org This is a one-of-a-kind place with cares for people with special needs in a farmhouse and manages a self-sufficient farm. It will be grape harvest time, so I'll be doing my three favorite things: 1) Traveling 2) Getting to know interesting people with special needs 3) drinking lots of wine.

November: Traveling through Eastern Turkey and Central Anatolia and eventually getting to the Aegean coast where I'll be working on a farm for two weeks harvesting olives and making olive oil.

December: Fly from Istanbul to Delhi, India. I'll then go by train to Jaipur, where I'll be working at Saharia Organic Farm and Resort www.sahariaorganicresort.com . Sometime before Christmas Jess will fly in from China to meet me.

January - April: Jess and I will take an epic train ride from Delhi to Chennai in the far south. We will then go to Auroville to work at Sadhana Forest, a project that aims to reforest 70 acres of eroded coast. Jess may leave in February to continue her job in China (www.wheretherebedragons.com) and I'll stay in India through April.

May: Travel back up to Delhi and then into Pakistan to begin the fabled Karakoram Highway which is one of the most scenic and dramatic roads in existence. I'll eventually end up in Kashgar, in the far West of China to meet Jess after her semester is over.

May/June: Jess and I head to Kyrgyzstan!!! We will hopefully arrive when the weather warms up and the city of Bishkek thaws. We will volunteer with the Alping Fund www.alpinefund.org and then try our hand at finding real jobs in the city, but I'm not going to worry about that yet . . .

It will be interesting to look back on this first post after my plans have changed a dozen times, but it feels good to have a framework that I can tweak as needed.