Or, Bye, Bye Buster –
Welcome to my new travel blog, where I will chronicle my latest rambles around the world.
My name is Epaul and I have been an analog nomad for decades. I’ve traveled all across the US and much of Canada performing & selling at Renaissance Festivals and art shows, and working as a tour guide and long haul trucker, among many other things. This blog is to share with you my journey into my new phase of life, wandering around the world on my own. I will also be sharing my transformation from analog nomad to digital nomad.
During the last 13 years, I traveled as the sidekick to Buster Brown the Supercute Corgi. In that time Buster made it to 43 US states and 4 Canadian provinces, plus the Yukon Territory. He lived a great life and I am beset with grief without him. This Adventure is about my life after Buster, but I suspect he will still intrude from time to time. Buster passed on May 25th, 2021.
Heading back to Wine Country for our pre-game show
After Buster’s passing, I returned to San Francisco to work the summer as a tour guide in Sonoma Valley for Edge of the World Tours. The plan was to make enough money in the 3 or 4 months of the summer season to finance traveling around the world during the rest of the year. It turns out this is a fairly common practice amongst tour guides in San Francisco.
In early September I left San Francisco with 2 suitcases and an ukulin. That’s an instrument I put together myself – a Kala Travel Ukulele that is strung in fifths like a mandolin. I spent a weekend at a summer camp attending a business conference for people who want to live an Independent Lifestyle built on the triangle of freedoms: location freedom, time freedom, and financial freedom. Then it was on to Boston and the true beginning of this Grand Adventure.
At Long Last, the Journey Begins
Long ago I joined the US Navy to see the world. They sent me to San Diego, and Chicago, and Charleston, and Orlando, and said “We’re going to put you in Idaho for the next 6 years.” And so my lifelong Naval Career came to an early end. In the decades since I have worked for/with almost a dozen companies/organizations where being sent overseas was a critical component of my involvement. Plans fell through every single time. I will now admit out loud that I spent the entire journey from San Francisco to Boston working really hard on not believing that something was going to happen to stop this adventure before it even started. Not this time! Just before dawn I landed in Dublin, and for the first time set foot on another continent. I cried when the plane landed. Too many feels.
You Never Forget Your First
After too short a time just transferring planes in Ireland (I’ll be back), I headed for the first stop on my around the world journey: Venice. After making and changing lots of plans (for those who don’t know me yet, that will be a common motif in my adventures), I decided that my first step would be a week in Venice. A city I dreamt of and planned on visiting all my childhood. At some time in the past years I took it off my list on the grounds that it has become so overrun with tourists and cruise ships that it wouldn’t look like the pictures in my head. That has changed in the fall of 2021. My week there was amazing and will be the subject of my next blog post. As part of my current plan to return again to San Francisco and work next season, I have decided that it is now officially a tradition that when I leave Frisco my first stop will always be Venice. It has become my home away from home, and where my heart is. It’s a good thing I can’t afford to just move there right now, or this would end up being a very short travel blog.
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