Economically conservative, socially liberal Libertarian most accurately describes my political views, while evolution-driven "Intelligent Design" describes my current opinion with regards to how I think we ended up on this beautiful rock spinning in the cosmos.

I love traveling anywhere I haven't been before, eating new foods and seeking out new and unusual experiences. Now that I'm retired, travelling, scuba diving and seeing as much live music as possible are all at the top of my list of things to do!

PHILOSOPHY

Practice gratitude.

Don't give until it hurts--give until it feels good!!

Live simply, forgive quickly, love genuinely, speak kindly, kiss slowly, laugh frequently, sing daily, and dance madly.

"Success means having the freedom to do what you want. The perfect amount of money is when you hardly have to think about it at all. The poor have to think about it all the time, as do the super rich. I'm not in love with money--I'm in love with freedom." Author unknown

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

As someone else wrote: "Hosting is like traveling without leaving home! When I can't travel the world, hosting brings the world to me!"

I am often available to host and almost always available to meet for coffee, drinks, or dinner, or to go see some local live music, play some billiards or hold'em poker.

Interests

My primary passions are traveling, scuba diving, listening to well played, quality live music, playing poker, and eating good food.

I've eaten at amazing 5 star restaurants for hundreds of dollars (shout out to Kevin Cory @ https://www.naoemiami.com/I!!) and eaten a $0.75 bowl of soup while sitting on the curb of some random sidewalk in Thailand...and I treasure both those memories equally.

Music, Movies, and Books

MUSIC: The Grateful Dead, JGB, Old and In The Way, The Band, U2, R.E.M., 10,000 Maniacs, Neil, Dylan, Santana, Springsteen, The Beatles, Bill Withers, Van Morrison, Pink Floyd, Ray Charles, Satchmo, The Radiators, The Samples, Wilco, Assembly of Dust, Railroad Earth, Papa Grows Funk, Yarn, The SteelDrivers, Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, Suenalo, The New Mastersounds, SRV, Johnny Cash, Otis Redding, James Brown, James Taylor, Johnny Lee Hooker, Simon and Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, Graham Wood Drout, John Denver, Bob Marley, Burning Spear, The Tedeschi Trucks Band, WSP, Billy Strings.

I'm a Roots, Rock, and Reggae kind of guy, but bluegrass, the blues, jazz, jamgrass, soul, folk and funk music are the jelly to my jam. I am turned on by musicians with soul amd bands that can lay down a deep groove or rock a funky beat.

MOVIES: Pulp Fiction, Braveheart, The Usual Suspects, Almost Famous, Dazed and Confused, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Forrest Gump, The Pianist, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, The Shawshank Redemption, Goodfellas, Rounders, Little Big Man, America Graffiti, Superbad, Sausage, No Country for Old Men, Hacksaw Ridge, Good Will Hunting, Rocky, Gladiator, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Godfather, E.T., Apocalypto, Jeremiah Johnson, M.A.S.H., and so many more.

BOOKS: I'm an armchair-traveler and love reading about other people's travels. Shantaram, Video Night in Kathmandu, Dune, Jupiter's Travels, A Land Remembered, Liar's Poker, The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King, The Gospel According to Jesus, too many others to mention.

FAVORITE TRAVEL QUOTES:

"Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled." Mohammed
"He who would travel happily travels lightly." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake." - Robert Louis Stevenson
"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." - St. Augustine
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain

OTHER FAVORITE QUOTES:
"€I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."€ - Mahatma Gandhi
"Don't be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try." - unknown
"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." - George Bernard Shaw
"We act as though comfort & luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about." - Charles Kingsley

"What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all--in the material sense--and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, and play-things that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. In the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine and before we know it our lives are gone. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. So which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life? The years thunder by, the dreams of youth grow dim, where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed." - From THE WANDERER, by Sterling Hayden

"Money is a good servant but a terrible master." - unknown
"You have to sow before you can reap. You have to give before you can get. Success is the result of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." - Robert Collier
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." - Thoreau
"Don't be squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experienced you are the better." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
"It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are" - E.E Cummings
"Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver and gold . . . open your eyes, look within ...are you satisfied with the life you're living?" - Bob Marley
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." MLK
"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lives a great street sweeper who did his job well." - MLK
"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.Watch your words, for they become actions.Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny." - Author unknown
"A drunk man's words are a sober man's thoughts" - Unknown
"If...the machine of government... is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law." Henry David Thoreau
"€You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it." Malcolm X
€"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." - Aristotle
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship." - Alexander Tyler
"Although gold and silver are not by nature money, money is by nature gold and silver.€ - Karl Marx
"€Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value - zero."€ - Voltaire
"If the door's of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is--infinite." - William Blake
“The world takes us to a silver screen on which flickering images of passion and romance play, and as we watch, the world says, “This is love.” God takes us to the foot of a tree on which a naked and bloodied man hangs and says, “This is love.” Joshua Harris
“Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.” Yahshua
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Yahshua
“Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Yahshua
“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” Yahshua

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I spent 9 months circumnavigating the United States while living out of a van.
Spelunking in Tennessee.
Shark dives in Bahamas
Manta night dives in Hawaii
Cave diving in Mexico.
Solo night diving in various places
"Pelagic Magic Black Water Night Dive" in Hawaii https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsUnxYNwJBE
Snorkeled with dozens of Whale sharks off Isla Mujeres in Mexico.
Following the Grateful Dead around the country--city-to-city, coast-to-coast--from 1987 to 1993.
Snorkeled with manatees in Crystal River, Florida.
Snorkeled surrounded by a pod of Spinner dolphins in Hawaii.
Listening to Humpback whales sing to one another while diving in Hawaii
Solo caving in Thailand (one of the not-so-smart things I've done, and that's a long list...)
Skydiving
Acrobatic stunt flying (as a passenger)
Tripped the light fantastic with a green-eyed Angel . . .
Was near the front row for this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nz8QN8PMVY
Was at this show front and center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDMY1jdHJsk&t=139s

Teach, Learn, Share

TEACH
Five Simple Rules for Happiness:
1) Free your heart from hatred.
2) Free your mind from worries.
3) Live simply.
4) Give more.
5) Expect less.

I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN TO:
1) Play a musical instrument
2) Hang Glide
3) Practice yoga
4) Speak Spanish
5) Dance salsa

SHARE:
I have traveled in every state in the U.S.A. except for North Dakota, so perhaps am a good source to help others plan their cross-country travels. My opinion: if you have limited time, stick to the west coast and/or the Mountain states. Or just blow off the mainland entirely and spend all your time in Hawaii!

Good advice no matter where you're headed--pack half the clothes you think you'll need and double the amount of money! Also: Never pass up the opportunity to fill the tank with gas, go to the bathroom, wash your hands or drink a glass of water.

Travel slower to see more.

If you're visiting south Florida and want to experience the funky side of Miami's music scene, check out Miami's hottest Afro/Latin/Jazz/Fusion/Funk band Suenalo!: https://www.facebook.com/SUENALO/

Would you be willing to give away $250 to radically improve a person's life? Visit https://www.smiletrain.org/

Donate wisely--make sure that the charity of your choice uses your money effectively by investigating their finances at http://charitynavigator.org/

Learn about the almost magical power of compounding interest, how to wisely manage your own money, and how to get rich SLOWLY: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/index.php

I have nearly a terabyte of live concerts which I share freely with others--send me a 1,000 gig hard-drive and I will fill it with a lifetime's worth of amazing music.

"In the long run there's no luck in poker...but the short run is longer than most people know." Rick Bennet
"Poker is a hard way to make an easy living." Doyle Brunson
"You will show your poker greatness by the hands you fold, not the hands you play." Dan Reed
"Poker is a war that people pretend is a game" Doyle Brunson
"If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, you're the sucker." Paul Newman
“In poker, when a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience leaves with money and the man with money leaves with experience.” Unknown
“The cardinal sin in poker is becoming emotionally involved.” Katy Lederer
“Serious poker is no more about gambling than rock climbing is about taking risks.” Al Alvarez

What I Can Share with Hosts

Food, fun, and laughter, all in copious quantities.

Countries I’ve Visited

Anguilla, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, France, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Panama, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands, U.S.

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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