I wasn’t always a world traveler. Other than occasional summer vacations, my family didn’t travel very much. I grew up in Wisconsin and never saw salt water until I was 21 years old. In 1998 I sold my business to a multinational corporation and they sent me on a whirlwind 3-week tour of their offices in January 1999. I visited Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Germany, Belgium, and the UK.
That trip stuck with me for years. I made a few other international trips after that to the Bahamas, Iceland, and Argentina, but never really made a commitment to travel.
In 2004 I decided to go back to school and study geology. After seeing the hell that Ph.D. students were going through, the idea of going to graduate school became very unappealing. I enjoy learning but didn’t enjoy doing research so much.
I decided to travel around the world.
It took about 2 years for me to tie up all the loose ends I had and sell my house. Finally, on March 13, 2007, I turned over the keys to my home.
I lived on the road, traveling non-stop for 9 years. In 2016 I finally “settled down” and got an apartment so I had a base I could return to between trips.
Today I’m still traveling about 3-5 months and visiting upwards of 20 different countries each year.
