Thank You

Before I get into post-trip posts, I wanted to issue a handful of well-deserved thank yous.

First, thank you to all of you who have followed (and may continue to follow) at any point throughout the summer. I hope I have provided you with a little entertainment from time-to-time and perhaps even a chance to live vicariously through my stories and photos. While I have kept a handwritten journal throughout the trip, I've certainly written about stories which I forgot to include in my journal. Thus, by maintaining this blog, I've essentially created a second journal for myself.

Second, and more importantly, thank you to those of you have contributed to me being able to take this incredible trip. No one deserves more thanks than my parents. Without helping me fund my college career, I would have never had the money to do this. In most life scenarios, my parents play the role of bringing my fantastical ideas down to reality; but in this trip, they maintained a positive attitude and made me think I could actually do this trip (if I went about planning it intelligently). And after two years of planning and saving, I think I did a pretty good job.

My girlfriend sat through two years of me planning what my trip would be. From wanting to go to Europe to seeing the United States, from wanting to travel together to wanting to do the whole thing alone to combining the two into a comfortable compromise. And for being near the phone when I felt lonely and for taking care of the things I could not by not being in Cincinnati, she rocks! Plus, she had to deal with the lack of my magical presence, which can't be easy for anyone.

My employer went against its culture and enabled me the time off and a spot when I came back.

Several people gave graduation presents. And while I had saved what I needed for the trip, these gifts provided a financial backdrop, i.e., I wasn't going to come back broke!

Several others provided me with encouragement. The most spoken phrase to me throughout my last two years of school was, "You definitely have to take this trip while you can." It was this encouragement that I believe really made me think I could do it. Then, after the trip was planned people would ask me, "Who are you going with?" I'd answer, "No one, for the majority of the trip." Most would return with, "Wow! I couldn't do that." This gave me even more incentive to go - to prove I could be on my own for that long.

Finally, for those who joined me. Specifically, my two buddies in Leg 1, my parents and girlfriend (at different times) in Leg 2 and the friends who put me up and put up with me for a night or two in Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Blacksburg, Jacksonville and Atlanta. All, and I mean all, of these people took away the potential for loneliness with their company and also lessened the financial burden in one way or another.

And for anyone else I missed who thinks you may have contributed to this trip, you probably did. Thank you.

No, it wasn't what I had planned, but truthfully, it couldn't have been better.