My Story
Corporate Me
RV Me!
(salvaging for something?)
Blockage on top and fix on bottom
Life is a journey; at least that's what they say, right? The REAL question is, how did I get to where I'm presently at? That's a GREAT question!
My life, I guess, has always been unconventional. My parents divorced when I was 9ish (?) where I grew up in a single parent home being raised by my mother. She worked her ass off to put food on the table. For that, I'll always be grateful. However, being that ungrateful, rebellious teen, I never showed her that gratitude until later in life. When I became too much for her to handle in high school, I lived with my father for a couple of years. In the end, I "knew" that college wasn't in my future as my parents couldn't afford it nor was I "college material".
At the ripe age of 18, my father got me a job as a construction laborer out of high school while most of my peers went to college. I did that for a year knowing that "wasn't for me". During lunch break one day, I was speaking with a guy I worked with which was in the Marine Corps. Before I knew it, I was at the recruiter and enlisted! There was never a thought of another branch as it was the Marines or nothing.
I enjoyed my first enlistment enough to reenlist to start as a career Marine. However, life had a different plan for me! I was medically discharged for having seizures leaving me in a foreign civilian life that I was not expecting to join. To this day I still try to remember myself before the Corps but that young, wandering kid is long gone!
I used the GI Bill to take the "traditional" path to go to college as my peers did; however, I was four years behind them! That actually was my advantage as computers just started to be a thing! I spent two years at Western Illinois University coding in their Computer Science program before transferring up to Northeastern Illinois University where I'd spend my next 8 years finishing up my undergraduate degree.
Like most that started in computers before it was actually viable, I spent my days implementing computers as I spent the nights chasing my degree. The problem was, colleges teaching computers were SO behind what I was doing during the day that it became increasingly frustrating! Why was I learning this "old stuff just to get a degree" while during the day I was doing bleeding edge stuff? Bottom line: I needed that paper to "validate" myself as a professional while still having the technical chops to execute the tech that was being implemented.
I'm not going to go through my technical career, if you're THAT interested, you can read about it from my LinkedIn profile! :-) However, it was mainly my career at Microsoft which allowed me to set an early goal in life to retire by the age of 55. Early in my traditional career I ended up meeting my ex-wife, having two amazing children and lived what seemed a traditional / fulfilling life.
Part of that life was being semi-active whether it was running, biking, walking or traveling. I've completed a GOOD several marathons (i.e. Disney Marathon and 1/2, Marine Corps, Chicago...just to name a few) While running at the end of 2024, everything changed. While out for a short (and slow) morning run, I had a slight discomfort diagonally over my heart. Nothing to concern me enough as I started lifting and thought it was sore muscles. At my yearly physical a few weeks later, it was discovered that I had a blockage in my heart. After undergoing a discovery angioplasty, it turned out I had a 95% left anterior descending (LAD) blockage or widow maker. I was lucky that I caught it and had a stent put in!
As I did cardiac rehab, I looked around me at all the "old people" barely able to move and here I was challenging the nurses to run a short 3 miles on the treadmill (I'm a TERRIBLE patient however we came to an agreement) during my session. The mindset finally set in... I could have died or been severely disabled like those around me! That started to play with my mind as I reflected upon my own life and happiness. After 27 years, I asked my wife (now ex) for a divorce. There are MANY reasons which I'm not going to get into nor dive into here. However, my heart seemed to be the catalyst for my life change.
One of my bucket list goals of retirement was to visit every National Park in the United States. I ran across that route map several years ago and it's been parked in my mind. After the divorce, I decided that I needed to do it. So, here I am... making my dreams a reality! This site is meant to document my journey and capture sites along the way.
