Conception of Brilliance: planning URT

As 2006 came to a close, I was starting to bounce back. I was starting to live for myself again, which was one of the biggest keys of all. I learned (and am still learning) that happiness is impossible to define in this life. Maybe it's impossible to achieve in this life, which is why we have faith there is a heaven.

But I knew that my quest to come back to Coney status was incomplete. I needed something to really bring me back to life. Something extreme. Then, I heard about the Adventure Cycling Association.

http://bobcats519.blogspot.com/2006/06/17-items-can-go-long-long-way.html

My goal was to literally bike down the entire Pacific Coast. It was an admirable goal, but not one that I can realistically achieve at this stage in life. I'm building a career and a life for myself. The bike trip has to come once that stage is complete.

But all the thinking, dreaming, planning and inspiring got me to the point where my heart was set on seeing the West Coast. California's Highway 1 just looked too amazing, and as my 25th birthday rapidly approached, I still hadn't lost my Western U.S. virginity. I was celebrating a quarter-century of ignorance, lousy landscape and no adventure. That had to change.

So the bike trip morphed into a much more realistic roadtrip.

http://bobcats519.blogspot.com/2007/02/road-trip-07.html

But there remained one more problem. Of all my friends, most of whom are young professionals or grad students and are all slaves to whichever system they dream of mastering, who would possibly be willing to give up two full weeks of precious vacation and let the world be our playground?

As it would turn out, there was only one answer all along: Blake Justin Nolan.

Over the next three months, Blake and I shot constant emails back and forth, tweaking and upstaging each other's idea of the Ultimate Road Trip (URT). Not only would we learn that there was a happy medium to behold, but also that maybe the greatest bond we'd share, in our already rock-solid friendship, was a love and appreciation of life on the road.