CURRENT MISSION

Paintball World Tour 2007: St. Louis to NYC the Long Way

ABOUT ME

I'm a twenty-something post-college, pre-real-world freelance writer with three books to my credit and over a thousand published articles. I write for Action Pursuit Games, Facefull, Jungle, Paintball News, Paintball Sports, the Clarion Journal, St. Louis Suburban Journals, www.mycow.eu, and other sites. I've published fiction, non fiction, and two of my three books. At the moment I'm traveling from St. Louis to New York City the long way: west to Korea, China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland, and then...

That's where this site comes in. After Krakow on September 12th, I'm rather out of prebooked hostels and places to stay, and plan to throw my fate to the winds and try hitchiking, couch surfing, and if all else fails, living in my hammock. My goal is to make it to the Atlantic coast in Spain or Portugal by October 10th, so I can fly home by the 15th--I have a wonderful fiancee waiting for me when I get done finding myself, or whatever it is I'm doing on this trip...

As I'm a professional paintball journalist, I'd love to see your home field, tour your business, or just hang out with your team. I'm writing travel articles and paintball articles as I go on this trip, and would love to see how our sport is played in your country. Don't play paintball? That's fine; I'll still be quite happy to sleep on your couch!

I'm a light drinker (I'm neither looking for, nor offering, any drunken shenanigans), non-smoker, and am allergic to cats/dogs/mice/etc. Most importantly: I don't snore, so you won't be hosting a lumberjack festival at night :)

Please let me know if you can help me get from Bratislava, Slovakia, to Frankfurt/Gedern/Mainz Germany, or from there, anywhere west.

Thanks folks; I look forward to meeting you.

Dave

PHILOSOPHY

Live until it kills me; write about it, so others can get a chuckle and a glimpse at places and people they otherwise might never see.

Por qué estoy en Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I haven't participated in it just yet, so I don't know. If I end up liking Couch Surfing, I will help it. If not, I'll quietly go my own way.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

As a freelance writer, I crash with people when I can near events, becaus no one pays my travel expenses. Thus, I've slept on plenty of strangers' (and strange people's) couches, a guy broke me into an abandoned house when I couldn't stay with him (my dog allergy), I hitchhiked with bigrig truckers from Vermont to Mississippi to cover Hurricane Katrina a while back, and I've participated in two Sister Cities exchanges to Germany.

Intereses

Writing, art, artsy cafes, paintball, hiking, camping, fishing, reading, travel...

• cats
• dogs
• arts
• writing
• books
• festivals
• dining
• flying
• paintball
• news
• reading
• traveling
• fishing
• hiking
• camping
• paintballing
• surfing
• sports
• business
• freelancing
• journalism
• mountains

Algo increíble que he hecho

I was in Nepal when the royal family was assassinated, and their civil war got going in earnest. That was a great trip--awesome mountains, great trekking, good food, cheap prices, clean air, and lots of time for solitary writing/reflection/reading.

Enseña, aprende, comparte

Take the hopper off BEFORE you unscrew the airtank, and be sure to shake the last ball clear of the breech. Keep your barrel bag on throughout, and remember: there is sometimes a bit of gas left in the system, so be sure you're pointing the marker in a safe direction with the barrel bag firmly in place before you pull the trigger to let the bolt forwards.