Why Mt.Kilimanjaro?

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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.

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Thank you Cards from the Third Grade

img_1889.JPGPICTURED: One of the many drawings I received. This on is of a Cartoon Penguin holding a Pizza and wearing a feathery hat. A few weeks back I blogged about my experience speaking with 80 third graders at Shipley’s Choice elementary school in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. I was asked by my friend Josh’s 9 year old daughter Madde to come in and talk about my trip. So, I put together a slide show with many of my pictures from South America and Antarctica and told the story of my 8 month adventure last year. During the 45 minute expose I spent a lot of time talking about the variety of animals that I encountered, the weird foods that I ate, and the different activities I found myself involved in. The kids were a blast and asked a lot of tough questions.

Yesterday I received 80 thank you cards from my new friends. I’d like to share of few of them.

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