Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

In less then 24 hours my dearest of dear friends Mark (aka Marvin) and I will be 30,000 feet in the air heading to Tanzania via Detroit and Amsterdam. Yes, you heard it correctly, we have a layover in Mo-town. Maybe Diana Ross will be there to greet us?

Regardless, the question remains, how in the hell did all of this all happen? Why in God’s name are we setting off on a three week journey to Northern Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro? Would it not have been dramatically cheaper to take a relaxing Caribbean Cruise?

The root of the answer to that question lies in a book I read 5 years ago. “Travels” is a book full of short travel stories written by Michael Crichton–of Jurassic Park fame– in 1988. When he was 33, he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro on a whim and absolutely got his ass kicked. After I read the 20 page account of his adventure sometime in 2003, I decided that I was going to do it as well. I simply made it a goal.

You might not know this but I am a huge “goal” nerd. For as long as I can remember I have listed goals and for the most part achieved them. I am still waiting to make 10 million dollars. Luckily, I have given myself until the summer of 2014 to do so.So, here I sit extremely excited on the night before I embark on this new journey. It seems to me like a good way to turn 30. Furthermore, I have somehow convinced one of my best friends Marvin to do it with me. He will also turn 30, 3 days after me, on the tallest mountain in Africa.

We leave tomorrow. I need to go to bed as it is 2:25 AM.

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NOTES:

> I have decided that it will be stupid to take my laptop to Tanzania. Much of the trip–probably 80%– will be spent either on the mountain or on Safari.

>I plan on keeping a daily journal and updating it whenever we can find a decent internet cafe. So, look out for multiple blog entries. I will post as much as humanly possible.

> I am taking my video camera and have made it a “goal” to better what we produced through the “Cross Country TV” project.> Damn it, Click here to subscribe, you could win an iPod nano. Oh, and tell your friends and family to subscribe, they could win an iPod Nano as well. Maybe it would be a good idea to make a new email account for your grandmother that does not know how to use “the email” and get her to subscribe. Yeah, it would be a good idea…

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