HardMiles

67 Million-Year-Old Snake Fossil Found Eating Baby Dinosaurs

2010-03-03T10:09:00.001-06:00

67 Million-Year-Old Snake Fossil Found Eating Baby Dinosaurs

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Walkabout

2009-10-06T22:13:00.004-05:00

This is the first entry I've posted in quite some time and, to me, it seems fitting to touch on a subject that so many people have been asking me about. Something so many friends, relatives, acquaintances have commented on lately.

"Where is he sleeping?" they ask me.

"How is he getting around? Is he hitchhiking? Is he walking?"

"What if he gets mugged?"

"He's crazy. Why would anyone want to do that?"

"Who knows, maybe other people will start doing this."

For those of you who don't know, my brother, Jason, has left his job, his home and his girlfriend. On September 15 he shouldered a backpack and took the first steps of a personal journey, what he calls his "walkabout." A combination of hiking and hitchhiking, couch surfing and camping, sleeping under bridges. It's a journey of blisters and bliss. In the three weeks since he left he's been robbed, harassed by cops, threatened by junkies, verbally abused by college kids, had trash thrown at him. He's also seen things that most of us will never see. The secret lives of towns behind tourism's shiny facade. Jason has travelled more miles and met more interesting people than you or I will on years of vacations. It's been three weeks and he's already in Boston.

People ask me, "What's he going to do about..."

People ask me, "What if something happens to him?"

People ask me, "Why?"

I'm pretty sure that most of the people asking me these questions think that no one has ever left home and comfort and family and typical life to find something else on the Road. To them, there was never a Jack Kerouac, WIlliam Least-Heat Moon, Christopher Columbus, Magellan. There were never hunters and gatherers and gold miners and hippies. No Sir Edmund Hillary. No Cain. No Everett Ruess. No Chris McCandless. If you know those last two names, you're probably really worried.

Sometimes a human will feel a pull toward something. Or a sucking hole inside of himself. When you feel that pull, that empty spot in your viscera, the nine to five, white picket fence, mortgage, car in the garage, 401k, HMO version of life won't fill it. Most people live that way. Most people die that way. They ask questions like "Why would he want to do that?"

A very few people have gone looking. Jason is one of them. That isn't something new. And leaving everything behind, permanently or temporarily, is also not new. You would be surprised how many twenty-somethings there are on the Road doing the same thing. Let the boy be. Let him look. He knows how. Let him find It.

People ask me, "Are you jealous?"

People ask me, "Do you wish you were going with him?"

I tell them no. And for the most part, I mean it. Sure, I'd like to experience some of the same things. Tales of beautiful places, secret places, fascinating things; they always make me a little jealous. Jason's journey is right for him, and right now is his time. I understand the why. I understand where he's going in his heart. There was a time when I might have done what Jason is doing now. But I didn't. I didn't go walkabout. I didn't move to Portland to live in a travel trailer and I never did become a truck driver. Maybe I should have. Or maybe not.

The Road has always called to me and it always will. But I'm in a different place in my life now. Consequently, my adventures are, and will forever be, of a different sort. My path was my own, but I can promise you I walked every step of it alone to wind up here. Somewhere along the way, I found what I was looking for. I also found out something else, something I think Jason will learn, too: whatever it is, when you find it, you'll spend the rest of your life consumed. Forever restless.

If you haven't been following Jason's blog, check it out here. He's having wonderful adventures. Read. Enjoy. Be inspired. Cheer him on.

-Mike

Enchanted Rock

2009-03-05T09:10:00.007-06:00

A couple of weekends ago Christie, Jason, Tasha and I took a trip to Enchanted Rock near Llano, Texas for a day of hiking.

Take a look at the pictures for now; I'll post more info later.

Earthquake in Costa Rica

2009-01-12T13:58:00.004-06:00

We were hiking right there on the Poas Volcano on December 7. We stayed just a few miles away at the Hotel Buena Vista. I can't believe we were just there a month ago, and I hope that the community recovers quickly.

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Strong-earthquake-shakes-Costa-Rica/ss/events/wl/010909costaricaquake;_ylt=AubfHnG4JjZ38.7pgb9QH8S9IxIF

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090111/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_costa_rica_earthquake;_ylt=ApCnpEe8cOtiUvvWFd7NMC23IxIF

New Website and Portfolio

2009-01-12T13:50:00.007-06:00

Now that the holidays and the wedding are all done I've got some time to do some much needed self-promotion. My new website is up. Check it out:
http://www.mikefoux.com

Or go straight to my portfolio:
http://www.behance.net/mikefoux

Enjoy!

Holiday Flicks

2008-12-30T13:17:00.001-06:00

This has nothing to do with travel or adventure, but while we were on the road visiting our families for the holidays I started to think about Christmases past. When I was a kid, there were shows we watched every year around this time. It was family tradition for us all to gather around the TV and watch Rudolph, the Grinch, Charlie Brown, Clark Griswold and all the others. When Christie and I met, she re-introduced me to the tradition of watching holiday flicks throughout the month of December. While we agree on greats like Christmas Vacation, she prefers those old classic movies--with moral fiber and bad acting--and those cheesy new pop-Christmas movies like Prancer. So here's a list of my top five movies to watch during the Christmas season:

5. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
4. Love, Actually
3. Die Hard 2
2. A Christmas Story
1. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Iguana

2008-12-16T18:27:00.005-06:00

This green iguana was hanging out just outside our room at Villa Tortuga.

Hard Miles

2008-12-16T14:15:00.003-06:00

When I talk about Hard Miles, I'm referring to the kind of travel that's more than some people care to experience. Hard Miles are the long trips, the tough drives and the adventures you have whether you planned on it or not. It's driving through the night, breaking down in unfamiliar places, losing your way, adventuring without an agenda. It's blowing a tire in the middle of the night miles from the next exit and finding your spare is flat, too. It's getting stopped by the border patrol because you took a wrong turn and almost ended up in Mexico, and now you're backtracking at 3am. It's when you're so tired you wake up in parking lots and don't know how you got there. Hard Miles are when your vehicle has 200,000 or 300,000 miles on the odometer and it shows in the dents and peeling paint and the duct tape holding things together. It's when your air conditioner goes out in the summer and your heater tanks in the winter. You feel the miles when you sleep in your vehicle and your buddy snores so loud that you give serious thought to smothering him. Or when you melt your brakes squeaking down a mountain at the end of a 12 hour drive.

There are rewards, though, for all our efforts. The stories alone make up for it all. So do the little gems one finds in unexpected stops along America's highways and backroads. Getting stranded in Roswell wasn't half bad. Neither was the time I fell asleep driving back from New Orleans and woke up in Mississippi. And that little pizzaria on the beach in Garza, Costa Rica, was a fun place to relax and have a drink.

Hard Miles are what we do. It's how we roll. This blog is for us to tell our stories to you. We might throw in some tips and useful information; but for the most part, it's just a collection of accounts and experiences for those who may be interested to read them.

Those who know Christie and I know that travel isn't just something we like to do. It's ingrained in us both and has been a major defining point in our lives and our relationship with each other. We met on one of my road trips and never looked back, even with three hundred miles of asphalt separating us. For two years we took turns making the trip to see each other. I think those were the hardest miles I've ever driven.

Now we're married, and it seems like as good a time as any for my partner-in-crime and I to start this blog and share some stories with you.

Enjoy.

-Mike