A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step...

I have lived in California since October 2008...my possessions since that July.  I was on deployment for those few months, using my passport and the mighty power of a nuclear aircraft carrier to gain entry to the tiny and sandy Kingdom of Bahrain, the ostentatious United Arab Emirates, the gritty streets of Thailand, and the first sight of home soil: Hawaii.  Since then, I've travelled mostly home to New England, though occasionally to Key West, Alaska, and the high desert of Nevada on the Navy's dime.

It hasn't been enough.  My literary tastes run towards what I crave, and exotic escape it seems to be.  I've read about Morocco, South Africa, and Siberia, as well as the slightly more mundane Italy and small-town USA.  So, orders and passport in hand, I'm about to "slip the surly bonds" of California and make my way across the country and beyond.

Books and poem referenced in this post:
The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah
Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed a Nation by John Carlin
In Siberia by Colin Thubron
La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language by Dianne Hales
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson
High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.