DAY 1
Week 1
BOISE (Idaho, USA) to MIDDLETON (Idaho, USA)
Wednesday June 21st, 2006
TODAYS MILEAGE – 22 miles or 35 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 22 miles or 35 kilometres
Hopefully life finds you all as fit as a mallee bull and twice as dangerous.
It's about bloody time I hit the road. In January. after coming back from my 4600 mile Southwestern Meanderings road trip through Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Colorado and back to Boise, I decided that it was time for a change, but I wasn't sure where, when or why - I just knew it was time for a change.
In early February I walked into the bosses office and said I was headed back to Australia and that I was looking at shooting through around the start of June. What ever the hell you call it Luck?? Fate??? The planets were aligned??? or all of the above may have conspired as those original plans changed when I purchased a 34 foot long Class A Southwind RV (recreational vehicle). After it's initial trip to Missoula, Montana it was dubbed "The Man Pad", I decided I was going to live in that and travel around the States until I go to Wellington, New Zealand for the Golden Oldies Rugby Festival in October.
Well it's now mid-June and I'm finally going to be on the road. The house is sold (all be it with a little agro), my gear's in storage and most of the goodbyes have been said.
It's kind of an emotional time for me. I've spent the best part of a quarter of my life since arriving in Boise on the frigid afternoon of February 22nd, 1995. I asked "Why the farq are we here?" and now I ask "What the farq am I doing?" In the the time I've been here, I have loved and lost, saw things that have given me vision as well as tasted, heard, smelt and touched in ways that a blind man can appreciates. For those that have been a part of those experiences - I am truly a better person for that and mere words simply can not express the heartfelt thanks and joy that those experiences have given me.
I was lucky enough to have had only one employer while I've been here in the US. Being the large entity that it is, I was exposed to both the good and bad that comes from such an enterprise. If it wasn't for the fact that they gave me a go, I would have had no chance in establishing myself in the profession that I am now in, which I love for the challenges that is part and parcel of my new career.
Ultimately, it was the politics of a large corporation that saw me headed on my walkabout. I have nothing but good thoughts and memories from my former employer and a lot of the people I worked with, but to those who strive to build their own kingdoms to the detriment of their so-called team mates, I have but one thing to say "There is no I in team - but there is one in dickhead".
Anyway's, I'd better hit the frog & toad, click on either of the two links below to check out the weapons I will be taking on the road. 
• MIDDLETON ~ 2005 Chevrolet Trailblazer LS 4x4 (Idaho, USA)
• MIDDLETON ~ 1988 Fleetwood Southwind 34' Class A (Idaho, USA)