Bucket List

We have all seen bucket list posts on the internet. They contain incredible things to do, places to see, things to try.  I think it’s important to have a list, not that you have to do everything on it, but it gives you a perspective on the things you find interesting, and the passions that you hold.  It also gives you a goal.  Things seem to become more permanent when you write them down and they’re out there for someone to see.  Even my own adventure didn’t seem real till one day when I wrote out the concept to show a friend of mine when I was trying to plan certain aspects of it all.

If you have it written down, somewhere -a page in a notebook tucked away somewhere, or a webpage blog post – you will remember it.  If one day the opportunity came up to complete an item on a your bucket list, that’s what will pop into your head, crossing that item off.  If you haven’t written it down, its not nearly as real in your own mind. Being faced with the opportunity won’t have the context of “Crossing one off my list”, it will just be “Something I’ve thought of doing”.  Write it down. Even if its silly or the likelihood of it happening is zilch. You don’t have to share it with anyone, you don’t have to take it out and fret over it every day.  Just make the list, and know that its there.  Add to it. Delete from it! Your list is not set in stone, it should be ever evolving, just like you are.

In that spirit, I have decided to put my list here, for all to see.  It is transcribed from several lists I’ve made over the years, so not all are travel related, but many are. I will add things that are already done, and cross them out, so you can see how things are going.  I will also try to keep it updated as I find more things from it, and add to it.

Ty’s Bucket List

Places to See

Valley of the Kings in Egypt

Great Pyramids and the Sphinx in Egypt

Antarctica

Ireland  May 20, 2013

Giant’s Causeway, Ireland

Blarney Stone, Ireland

Stonehenge, England  May 9, 2013

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Base camp, Mt. Everest

Summit Mt. Kilimanjaro

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Petra, Jordan

Vatican City

Eiffel Tower, France

Catacombs beneath Paris, France

Great wall of China

Nazca Lines by air, Peru

Machu Pikchu, Peru

Chichen Itza, Mexico

Easter Island, Chile

Pompeii, Italy

Rome, Italy

Coliseum, Rome, Italy

Athens, Greece

Parthenon, Athens

 

 

 

Things to Try/See/Do

Skydiving

Scuba dive The Great Barrier Reef

See a lion, a tiger and a bear (Alaska-Numerous times) in the wild.

See Gorillas in the wild

Visit 100 Countries

Visit all 7 Continents

Visit all 50 States

See a sunrise/sunset on both coasts of the US

Sail in all 5 Oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic,  and Southern Ocean)

Step Foot in Both Atlantic and Pacific Coasts.

Hike Pacific Crest Trail (Alaska/Canada – Mexico)

Hike Appalachian Trail

Circumnavigate the globe with out using air travel

Visit the Top of the Empire State building, New York City, New York

Stand on the highest public point of the tallest building in the world

Have a Guinness in a pub in Ireland – July 11,2013

Get 100 Signatures on my Travel Guitar

Donate Blood 100 times

Donate hair to Locks of Love (See progress HERE)

Shoot a Portrait of a famous person

Publish a book

Make a living as an Artist

Play Guitar for a large crowd (Over 250 People) – August 25th, 2012 (Ward Stock, with Ty’s ; )

Play Guitar for a large crowd (Over 1000 People)

Play Guitar on stage with or Open for a Major Musician

 

Double Rainbow!

Last night, the skies opened up and released two weeks of built up rain on a parched land.  It was torrential. For about 30 minutes it hammered down on the sky lights in the staff quarters of the hotel and golf course I’ve been staying and working.  When the sound of the rain pelting the glass above subsided, I opened the door and stepped out into the cool air.  It reminded me of my home in Alaska. I closed my eyes and could have sworn I was standing at Ward Lake or Brown Mountain.

There were puddles in the gravel driveway of the building I stay in, an old stable converted to housing. The trees nearby were still trickling water down from their leaves.  It was evening, nearly 8 o’clock, and the hotel didn’t have many guests, so all was quiet.  Being summer, the July sun was still up, though starting to sink. It wouldn’t’ be fully dark till around 10:30 pm or “Half Ten” as they said over here. The sky was an ominous grey and there were showers pelting down in the distance.

One of the chefs came around the corner of the building opposite the driveway and noticed me.  He told me that the staff dinner was nearly done and would be out in a few minutes.  He was staring off in the distance and motioned for me to come and see.  He is from Ukraine and spoke with a thick accent but I was able to make out clearly what he said next.

“Double Rainbow.”

I walked over and looked.  Sure enough an extremely bright rainbow with a few lighter sub rainbows was standing out against the grey sky behind my own building.  I hadn’t seen a rainbow that strong in quite a while, so I decided to grab a few pictures of it.  I ran back in and grabbed my camera and managed to snap a few shots of the rainbows.

IMG_1512

 

I’ve been very busy this last week, between working on the golf course and trying to set up details for my next big move on this crazy adventure of randomness.  It looks like my next stop will be in France! A wildly different location, doing wildly different tasks than I am now!  If all goes according to plan, I will be in a rural town occupied by William the Conqueror, helping to teach English to school children! Building up quite the patch work resume, aren’t I?

I’ve also contacted a school in Russia about coming to do the same in Moscow later in the year.  This is a big step as that leg of the journey has been very troublesome. The VISA process to enter Russia is quite complex, and usually is done from your country of residence.  The real problem for me has been they want EXACT dates that you will be there, and the way my adventure is set up, I don’t usually have that information.  I should have gotten the VISA while I was still back in the US, as it is easier (Apparently) to get the VISA from your home country, but live and learn.  I have seen people that have done it from abroad, it just ends up taking longer.

So that is wonderful news on my adventure! Two puzzle pieces starting to fit together.

I’ve also been busy working to build a website for a client, something that helps pay for my adventures, but can be quite difficult to do from 9 time zones away.

All in all it has been a pretty good week. I’ve gotten to chat with friends and family back home, made some new steps on my travel itinerary, and done a lot of marketing to help get my adventures out there to people.  I will be hitting 1500 twitter followers soon, which may not make me the most followed travel blogger around, but it is a far cry from when I set out 7 months ago!  Thank you to all my regular readers and followers.  I appreciate your views, your contributions, questions and support.  Please, if you enjoy this site and stories, think about following on twitter, or liking on facebook, if you haven’t already, or sharing the page or this article if you already do!  Thanks again, keep checking back for new travel adventures!

 

 

 

 

New Guest Blog, Changed front page

Hello!
Another guest blog was published today on the MyHeritage! Go check it out! http://blog.myheritage.com/2013/07/tys-journey-part-2/

I talk about the dos and don’ts of researching your genealogy abroad!

I also changed up the front page a bit.  Now the front page will have the news above and the most recent blog posts as well. The old stuff is still there, under a new heading, About.  There you will find About the Trek, About Ty (That’s me, by the way), and Mission.

I also updated the Face of a Traveler animation, you can see it here.