CURRENT MISSION

Continental drifter

ABOUT ME

Performing for merit or advancement is a drag, act instead for the joy of doing. Want nothing... fear nothing... be free.

It's peaceful being a solo irrelevence, staying small, as long as it's not out of fear. I'm nobody. Who are you? Are you nobody too? Emily Dickinson

Dark care never sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough... Teddy Roosevelt.

PHILOSOPHY

What is a mind not occupied with plans and schemes and fears that the plans and schemes will fail? What if unexamined beliefs were to fall away and you were to live withouts them, and without thoughts you had given anything up? ... John Tarrant

Man is free the moment he wishes to be... Voltaire

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

My son and I stayed a week in Herning Denmark while attending the World Greco-Roman and Freestyle Wrestling Championships. An excellent experience. We are doing it again this year in Russia.

While motorcycling in West Texas I was fortunate to couch-surf with, and get to know a fascinating woman in Terlingua. I wish I could have stayed longer.

I've also surfed and hosted couch surfers long before I knew anything of this interesting group.

Interests

Fitness activities, re-enacting and living history, visiting historic sites, Scottish Festivals, Highland Games and Clan Gunn, canoeing and camping, bicycle roadraces, criteriums, time trials and velodrome racing, stargazing, motorcycles, walk-a-bouts and duffle-time on my bike with no destination in mind, freestyle, Greco-Roman and intercollegiate wrestling.

• festivals
• fitness
• motorcycles
• traveling
• cycling
• hiking
• canoeing
• camping
• wrestling
• economics
• history
• hitchhiking
• historic sites

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies...Fargo, Dr. Zhivago, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Paths of Glory, High Noon, Unforgiven, Papillion, Rob Roy, The Mission, The Big Lebowski, Local Hero, The Sand Pebbles, Barry Lyndon, Glengary Glen Ross, The Big Kahuna, Little Big Man, Inherit the Wind, Nobody's Fool, Nothing in Common, V for Vendetta, Fight Club, About Schmidt, Last of the Mohicans, Restoration, The Girl in the Cafe, Pieces of April.

Music...Pink Floyd, Bob Seger, Iris Dement, The Wailin Jenny's, Tom Petty, John Lee Hooker, Connie Dover, Reba, George Jones, Loreena McKennitt, Enya, John Mellencamp, The Chieftains, Eric Burdon, Joe Cocker.

Books...The Razor's Edge by Maugham, Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl, Pillars of the Earth by Follett, The Day the Universe Changed by Burke, The Trial by Kafka, Battle Cry of Freedom by McPherson, Team of Rivals by Goodwin, Larry McMurtry works, Stephen Dunn poetry.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

While hitch-hiking around the country in my youth, a car picked me up that had the beat-poet Allen Ginsberg as a passenger. Maybe not amazing... but interesting to me.

Teach, Learn, Share

I taught Economics, Advanced Placement U.S. History and American Civil War for quite a few years. It's still a passion for me.

When I travel to or through an area I want to learn everything I can about local history. Sometimes it drives my fellow travelers nuts.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Denmark, France, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States