Life is travel. Or at least that is what I've come to believe. I remember being asked to pop a dramamine in a church parking lot somewhere just outside my home town in Piper Kansas. Let's pretend you've heard of it and move on. Waking up hours later in nowheresville Minnesota to the sound of Don Adams' nasal voice on the over head television set became the source of hangover deja' vu fifteen years later. Maybe that explains my situational narcolepsy when I hear the Inspector Gadget theme song. The fact of the matter is, the bitter taste of that little white tablet, and the subsequent hours of missed travel, has never left me.
Author Greg Anderson wrote, "Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity, but in doing it." The hours lost on my young road trip to Minnesota didn't necessarily take away that joy, but prevented it. Since then I have been infatuated with the journey. Road trips and travels abroad became commonplace. As much as money and time could allow. Which is never as much as one would like. I have spent time in Australia, New Zealand, and most recently in the Philippines. Now, as I finish packing for this most recent venture, I realize that I will be adding continent four and five to my travel log over the next nine weeks.
On to the real reason for this introduction. Toto is leaving Kansas and heading to bless the rains in Africa. Six hours from now I'll be on a plane to New York. After an eleven hour layover and a few coffees, four production team members and yours truly will be en route to Berlin, Germany. There we will be purchasing three two-stroke engine cars for the journey to South Africa. These will be piloted by teams of two cast members that have yet to meet each other. Along with a production team van, the convoy will head to spain, hop a ferry over the Straight of Gibralter eventually dropping everyone off in Morocco. The "plan" is to hop on what I've been told are roads, in the most generous sense, and spend the next seven weeks driving to South Africa for the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Synopsis aside, what the hell am I doing? I'm a the lead videographer for a pilot season of a TV show about young travelers. Think Real World meets Travel Channel. Amazing Race you say? Well, take away the made up challenges, replace them with real car troubles, searing Saharan heat, possible rebel contact, and the fact that none of the cast know each other. In that sense, they are the same. The fact that I met the producers two and a half weeks ago at the NAB conference is crazy enough. They were discussing the plot and mentioned they were looking for a videographer. Two guesses as to who jumped on bored.
I'm not much for writing, hoping I get better as this all goes along, but for an introduction, I hope I did my brief story justice. I've gone from being inspired by "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego" to channelling Anthony Bourdain. Minus the drug addictions and smoking habit. I'll be updating as much as mother Africa will allow. Cheers. Welcome to my life.
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