Travel ur own country first.... ( Archived) (29)

The day after I turned 16, I rolled up a wool blanket, tied the roll to a belt, slung it over my shoulder, hit the road, and lived outdoors for the next 27 years.

I hopped freight trains and hitch-hiked down every Interstate, U.S. Highway, most State Highways, a whole bunch of County roads, and only God knows how many miles of dirt roads...

I hitch-hiked over 33,000 miles with my dog by the time I turned 19, and spent my 19th birthday in Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, and North Dakota.

I stopped counting miles after that, but traveled even more, and kept wandering around the States, Mexico, Canada, and Jamaica, till I was 25.

I've been in all the States except Alaska at least three times. I've been in most of em at least ten times.

By the time I was 25 I lived on the streets of every major city in the U.S.

I also road thousands of miles on a bicycles, explored over 4,000 miles of National Forest Service and BLM logging roads between North Idaho and the California redwoods by motorcycle and car, and canoed almost 6,000 miles in two years while living on uninhabited islands in the U.S. between the Mississippi River and Canada, via New Orleans, Key West, the Hudson River, and the Erie Canal, spending up to 4 days a lot of times anchored in a 17' canoe off shore in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, three of the Great Lakes, many of the rivers, and streams between Florida and Michigan, and traveling as far as possible by canoe up irrigation ditches (to avoid hurricanes).

I'm more familiar with America, than most people are in their hometowns.

I lived on the streets of every major city in the continental states, and a whole bunch of small country towns, before coming to Hawaii.

I also hiked into wilderness areas with no supplies except a book titled, Living With Nature in Hawaii, and spent years living off of the land where Hawaiian royaly used to honeymoon, and nobody else was allowed throughout most of the world's history.

After rarely spending more than two weeks anyplace, and usually hitting the road before staying anywhere for six months...

Hawaii is the only place I ever felt at home in my life. I love this island so much, I may never leave it.