Look and Listen

Biography

I had my first taste of life on the road at six--and haven't stopped. It all began in an old red and white Chevy, with a burlap-covered water bag strapped onto the front grill. With my father behind the wheel, we sailed wide-eyed across the wide expanse of an uncluttered America and I was hooked on travel--my sweet addiction. Growing up in Pennsylvania's Ohio River Valley, I've been writing since I was in my teens when I contributed to local newspapers and won my first literary award at 17. While waiting for my first book to be published, I've written travel/adventure articles for anthologies, international magazines, newspapers, and the Internet. Yak Butter Blues, my first book, is about a 650-mile trek of faith and survival that my wife Cheryl and I took, becoming the first Western couple to walk a Buddhist pilgrim's trail from Lhasa to Kathmandu. As we stayed with local families along the way, it provides an intimate look at Tibetan life under Chinese occupation. It's now in its second edition, and was a 2005 IPPY (Independent Publisher) award-winner. Dead Men Don’t Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa premiered in late 2005. It's about a crazed 7-month journey across some of the wildest regions of Africa with some of the most bizarre traveling companions possible. My photographs have won awards from National Geographic Traveler and Islands magazines, and I've recently been accepted into the prestigious Explorers Club. My new book about a 2600-mile walk for peace I made from France to Jerusalem, Along the Templar Trail, was awarded the 2009 Best Travel Book in the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition, SATWF. It was also short-listed for Book of the Year by ForeWord Magazine.

Inspiration

Inspiration is everywhere. I've always pondered the "whys" of life. I enjoy adventure traveling--and inspiring others to discover life's possibilities through long-distance walking, preferably ultra-light. Although I'd backpacked through nearly 100 countries, I discovered something totally unique while walking 650-miles across Tibet--the pleasure of "deliberate travel." Slowing down, walking, gives us the ability to travel outside--while traveling within. Plus, it expands our experience by bringing us more into intimate contact with the people and things around us. So travel become more than a slide show. It shapes who we are; it influences those we meet. Since that Tibetan adventure (detailed in my book Yak Butter Blues), I've continued these spiritual adventures, walking many of the world's major pilgrimage trails: the the famed Camino de Santiago across Spain (twice), the Via Francigena from England to Rome, and St. Olav’s Way across Norway. Last fall, I completed the longest journey I'd ever attempted--a 2600-mile walk for peace through ten countries and two continents from France to Jerusalem. This was an amazing odyssey and the subject of a my new book, Along the Templar Trail. Other interests...Tibetan freedom, exploration, photography, peace and human rights, archeology, camping, boating, Africa, spiritual development. The secret is finding passion in everything you do.