Dave Ford Does Earth

Posted by Dave Ford

In the last year and half I have introduced the readers of this blog to my worldwide contingent of traveling friends. I figured that it was time to update everyone with the where abouts of some of the cast of characters of Dave Ford Does Earth–notably the crew from our cross country trip last November. Damn it, I miss these guys. PICTURED: Benny, Jess, Dave, Myself, and Daddio in Memphis

Benny “The BV Show” Vears

PICTURED: Benny and I horseback riding at the foothills of the Andes in Argentina

I spent more time with Benny in 2007 then any other person. We met in Buenos Aires on the first day of my travels and from there we spent a month vagabonding in Argentina. In early February 2007 we split off for a few months then reconnected in La Paz and traveled together for a few more months through Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. In August, Benny moved to Baltimore and we lived together for another 2 months in Garaj Mahal before taking our cross country trip through the southern U.S. Benny then headed up to Fernie, Canada for a few months to learn to snowboard.

PICTURED: Benny and Leah in Mexico

Benny is now living back in Sydney Australia with his lady friend Leah. He is “cashing up” and is looking to go back into the Australian Navy for another 2 year commitment. Ben and Leah starting dating in Canada and spent a month in Mexico before heading back down under. In the words of Benny himself, they are in L-O-V-E! LOVE!

Dave Binck

PICTURED: Dave and I in Miami; My first beer back in the states.

When I came back from South America I landed in Miami to help Dave move from Miami to L.A–via a 2 month stop over in Baltimore in Garaj Mahal with Benny and I. At the time, Dave was recovering from serious injuries that he suffered when he was robbed at gunpoint by a group of thugs in Miami. Dave and I towed the dynamic duo– his grey 1992 Volvo station wagon and blue 1993 Plymouth voyager mini van– up I-95 to Baltimore. When Dave and Benny met in Baltimore they became thick as thieves– carry golf clubs and holding umbrellas for extremely rich people every single day. At the end of the cross country road trip, we dropped Dave off at the doorstep of his new life in L.A.

PICTURED: Our good friend Mike Schwartz, Dave, and his friend Jamie out and about in L.A.

I just saw Dave about a month ago. He is a full blown actor and has started his career out with a lot of extra work. So far he has appeared in Desperate Housewives, Scrubs, 2 1/2 men, and some show with Christina Applegate starring in it. Dave is happily working his ass off in L.A.

Matt Daddio

Daddio got swept up in the Garaj Mahal fever when Benny, Dave, and I lived in Baltimore and somehow decided he wanted to go on the cross country road trip with us. At the time, Daddio was working in commercial real estate in Baltimore.

Where is he now?

Matt is backpacking somewhere in the middle of Italy. He has been in Europe for a month or so and has been to London, France, Monaco, and now I think he is somewhere near Naples. He took a Contiki tour for the first part of his trip. I think it cost about 3 grand for a month long bus trip with 50 or so other people between the ages of 18-35. He is currently trying to persuade me to join him in South East Asia for a few months before he heads off to Sydney to live with Benny for a while. I guess, like the rest of us, he has caught the travel bug. Unfortunately, it is not in the cards for me to travel right now. But, if anyone is interesting in quitting their job and taking off to SE Asia I know a friend looking for a travel compadre.

Jess Ledger

PICTURED: Jess and I on the “Lost City” trek in Colombia

My dear, sweet Jessica Ledger was one of my best travel buddies from South America. We traveled through Bolivia and Colombia together. She too came to the US and lived in upstate New York for a while, along with her brief stint at Garaj Mahal. After the road trip, she headed straight to Mexico to bum around for a few months. From there she went back to Aus to visit with the family a little bit and then headed to London to “cash up.” Jess has been working her tail off in a bar– about 60 hours a week. From what I hear she is planning to cruise through much of northern Europe this summer. Recently, she has been trying to convince me to do a month hike through Spain.

PICTURED: Jess apparently living it up in England with our friend Leah.

As For Me…I have started my new job with For Your Imagination, an online media company specializing in creating high quality web video series. I met the CEO, Paul Kontonis, when I was putting together the plans for Cross Country TV in October. He candidly explained to me everything I had to do to produce a successful series. Since then, we stayed in touch and everything just fell in place when I got to NYC. I am on the management team in charge of business development. I have to say, I am really excited. It has been a long time since I have had a job. Nonetheless, this is the perfect environment for me to excel. There is a total of 10 people working in the company and this job is a far shout from corporate America. Plus, I feel that the timing is right for online video. How much time do you spend watching online video now as compared to 2 years ago?

You can check out my new jobby job here@ For Your Imagination

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Posted by Dave Ford

I have been sick for the last week. Strep Throat = No Bueno. I thought only 9 year olds got strep throat, but apparently they are not alone; enters the 30 year old guy in a new city. One of the downsides of being in a new town is getting a new “support staff”: doctor, dentist, accountant, lawyer, sushi chef, fortune teller, madame, etc. Last week, after consulting with a local pharmacist, I found Dr. Babu–a short 60 year old man of Indian descent– who has a very generic looking doctor’s office set up a few blocks from my place. Babu is his first name and when I saw him a week ago he prescribed me a course of Penicillin.

Seven days later after the Penicillin was all gone. Still feeling like crap, I set off on foot to find a new, better doctor. Cursing Dr. Babu, I headed through the Brooklyn-brownstone-townhome laden-community where Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable used to live and practice medicine. Maybe he still lives there–who knows. I remember how nice his family was. Remember when they found out Theo was dyslexic? A tear still comes to my eye at the thought.

The “doctor’s office walking tour” was interesting if anything. I quickly discovered that finding Dr. Huxtable was going to be a challenge and that there was a good chance I would have to settle for less. God knows there is nobody better. Going north, I headed for Park Slope–the nicest neighborhood around here–hedging my bet that any of the doctors there would put Dr. Babu to shame and instantly cure my throat infected with demonic strep from hell. I found out very quickly that wealthy neighborhood doctors do not take kindly to walk-ins. Come to think of it, I do not remember if Dr. Huxtable took walk-ins either. Although I feel like whenever that fat kid Peter from next door showed up, he jumped right to the head of the line. Or maybe he just came over to play with Rudy? I can’t remember.

The one place that I found that did take walk-ins was swarming with a mix of extremely sick-looking, red-nosed white people and (someone) promptly told me to come back tomorrow. Not giving up hope, I decided to walk east towards 9th Avenue –through the Brooklyn neighborhood of Slope South. I was determined to find a cure. I knocked on two more doors and found that neither of the doctors were taking new patients. In fact, neither even had office hours on Wednesday. I did meet a very nice midwife, but she was unable to help me with my predicament.

Note to self: Doctors, in general, have a pretty sweet deal.

Second note to self: It is far too late in life for me to become a doctor.

Walking down 9th Avenue into a lower working class neighborhood–this did not look like the Huxtables neighborhood at all– I found two more walk-in clinics, both full to the brim. The clinics were on the same side of the street, a few blocks apart. One was full of black people, the other was full of Latinos. When I say full, I mean literally there was 100% black patients in one of the offices and 100% Latinos in the other. This after visiting the first clinic that was 100% white. Furthermore, it seems to me that the doctors in all of these places–including Dr.Babu– were 75% of Indian descent, while the other 25% were Asian. Are Brooklyn doctors offices segregated? Is there an unwritten rule where white people go to Indian doctors and Black People go to Asian doctors? Do Latinos go to black doctors? Who goes to Latino doctors? My head started to hurt.

2 hours and 9 doctors’ offices later, my throat felt like I had just chugged a glass of razor blades. After all of my efforts, I ended up –”guess where?” — back at Dr. Babu’s office. His office was empty except for his receptionist, Esmerelda, who seemed irritated that I interrupted her lunch. She chewed her smelly tuna salad sandwich with her mouth open.

A half hour later, when Dr. Babu finally came out, I told him that the Penicillin had not worked. He replied, “oh maybe you need a stronger antibiotic?” Freeze Frame. Now, why in the hell did he fail to give me the stronger antibiotic in the first place? Do I look like I can not handle a grown-up dose of antibiotics? I am a huge physical presence. Give me the god damn good stuff! I did not say any of this. What I did say was “thank you” and headed straight for the pharmacy with my new prescription in hand.

So, alas, I am coming to my second consecutive weekend on antibiotics. Officially, I am as sober as I have been since the summer of 1993. When is someone going to invent an antibiotic that you can enjoy with a gentle cocktail?

On the bright side, at least I know that Dr. Babu will be there for me. I have come to the sad conclusion that there are not many Dr. Heathcliff Huxtables out there anymore. And if there are, they do not take new patients or walk-ins. At the same time a thought popped into my head– wasn’t Dr. Huxtable an OBGYN?

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Related Note: Rudy’s really hot now. Damn!

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Posted by Dave Ford

OUR HOOD AND A TRIP TO TARGET …..

I live in Brooklyn, New York. But, depending on who you ask, the specific neighborhood is either Park Slope, South Slope, Greenwood Heights, or Sunset Park. I am not sure that anyone is 100% sure as 1/4 of our building lies in each of those areas. The main commercial strip is 5th Avenue. Its full of shops: Pizza shops, grocery stores, discount stores, laundry mats, hardware stores, etc.etc.etc.(pictured: Not sure who this is, but he lives in Brooklyn)

It is also full of people. There are about 2.5 million people living in Brooklyn alone–according to the 2000 US census 38% of these people were born abroad.

The US Census was not wrong. I feel like I am still touring the world. Indians. Puerto Ricans. Turks. Mexicans. Greeks. Thai. Central Americans. Polish. Chinese. Russian. Africans. Dominicans. Irish. Italians. Jews. On our block there is a Synagogue, Islamic school, and a church. It is not a wonder why the United Nations is headquartered in NYC. (pictured: The United Nations Building in Manhattan)

The Puerto Ricans run the small grocery store up the block. I found out quickly that the polish grocery store is entirely too expensive. $4.49 for a small box of Honey Bunches of Oats simply will not fly. We have a discount store in the hood as well–NON STOP DISCOUNTS. Which is run by a suave middle eastern man. At 40 bucks, I thought that the semi-crappy desk chair I bought from him was a steal. Then, the other day at Target, I found a chair 10 times better for $20 bucks. I became full of enraged fury, sort of like one of the characters in Mortal Kombat before they rip the head off of there defeated opponent. But I managed to control my emotions and maintain my good natured humor. It is a new sensation for me to be price sensitive. I am still getting used to it.

After I contained my rage, I slowly moseyed over to the blender/juicer department at target. You see, I have decided that I am going to be healthy. This is as opposed to the last 10 years of my life where I have been anything but healthy. Unfortunately, the blender aisle was blocked by a young couple. The man looked to be about 30 while the woman was who-knows-how-old because she was in a full Burka. My deductive reasoning led me to believe that they were either Saudi Arabian, Pakistani, or Afgani. The couple was not exactly arguing, but they were not in agreement about the type of blender they were ready to purchase. I patiently waited and then bought both a juicer and a blender. Who knew that you could not juice bananas or blend carrots? What happens if I wanted a carrot smoothie.

THE NUGE

I think it is about time that I introduce my roommate. His name is Pat Nugent. Since I met him in college he has been know simply as “the Nuge”. The Nuge wears many hats: Bicycle Tour Guide, English Professor, my personal grammar coach, tri-athlete, poet, and professional chicken and pasta maker. For the last two weeks while I have been in New York the two of us have spent close to every waking minute together. I do not have a job as of yet and “the Nuge” spends much of his time at home studying vocabulary–for the GRE’s– and grading English papers. So far the toughest vocabulary words that he has encountered are perspicacity, piquancy, hidebound, chary, and abreact. If you know any of these words congratulations, you are a dork.

As always, we appreciate your comments!

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Posted by Dave Ford

HATE ON THE SUBWAY

This morning I sat on the subway across from a white man–probably around my age–who had the letters H-A-T-E tattooed across the knuckles of his left hand from pointer to pinky. I thought about asking him what it was exactly that he hated so much but his scowl gave me the impression that the conversation would have ended with the word hate tattooed on my forehead. In hindsight, I should have asked him anyway. What the hell? I really do wonder what he hates: The government? The rain? The Olson twins? hipsters? Reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond? The only things that I hate with a passion are lima beans and Celine Dion’s music. Something tells me that this dude also hates Celine Dion. Maybe we could have found common ground and became friends.

A TIME WARP ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE

In the afternoon I picked up my bike at the shop in the East Village and rode to our place in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Along the way, I had to traverse the East River, which divides Manhattan from Brooklyn and Queens. I decided to take the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn and was thrust into a sprawling Hasidic Jewish neighborhood. By and large, the only people visible in this neighborhood were of the Hasidic community. Their distinct, traditional black dress and curly sideburns are unmistakable. While wondering what it must be like to be a Hasidic Jew in NYC I got terribly lost. I did not know that Hasidicville borders scarytown and run-for-your-life land. The 5 miles turned quickly into 10 but I did manage to escape the afternoon unscathed. I did some research and found that a massive wave of Hasidic Jews immigrated from Eastern Europe to the USA in the 1880’s. Their style of dress is reminiscent of what the Jewish population in Eastern Europe wore 130 years ago.

Sidenote: My bike helmet is too small and I look like a huge dork.

MIDNIGHT NUTRITION IN BUSHWICK

Last night I went out in Bushwick, a 40 minute bike ride north of where I live. Bushwick is industrial, dirty, and remote. Many of the buildings are covered in graffiti. But despite its desolate appearance, this neighborhood is teeming with life. If you turned Bushwick upside down and shook it real hard at least 20,000 hipsters would fall out. There is also more dog shit on the ground then in Paris and Buenos Aires combined. But, make no mistake, a positive vibe runs through the community.

My friend Jesse and I went to a party–my first party in New York.  From the outside the building looked like a factory. We walked down concrete hallways and saw that there was at least 60 people in the large loft. There was a DJ booth and a stage. At the time of our arrival there was some sort of performance art happening. Three women–one in her 20s, one in her 30s, and one who looked like she was 60–were on stage doing some sort of spoken word/singing/dance combination. Among other things that did not make sense, the phrases “Are you OK?”, “Am I OK?”, and “I am OK” were projected on the screen behind the women. The women would sing and chant in unison whatever was projected. If I said their act was extremely weird and borderline unsettling would that be judgmental?

Next,  the party host played a slide show of his art. It consisted of garbage that he picked up off of the street in the neighborhood and had covered with multicolored layered wax. His premise was that he took something ugly and made it beautiful.

At right around midnight “the chef” took the stage. For the next 10 minutes she gave a presentation to the group about “the new food nutrition pyramid.” Apparently, the old food pyramid was created by the government to appease the fast food giants. I realized quickly that I need to eat a hell of lot more whole grains, natural oils, and vegetables. Shortly thereafter, it hit me that I was getting a presentation about nutrition at midnight on a Saturday night and that I needed to leave immediately.

We left the party and promptly went to a local bar. A stinky dance party ensued shortly thereafter.

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Posted by Dave Ford

After a year and a half of wandering through North and South America–with a brief stint in Africa–I have finally come to the point where a rest is necessary. For both personal and financial reasons–if you have not heard the dollar is not doing so hot–I have decided to take a break from the rolling vacation. Chapter 1 has taken among many other places through Bariloche, Argentina; Florianapolis, Brazil; San Pedro de Atacama, Chile; Antarctica; Arequipa, Peru; Rurrenabaque, Bolivia; Taganga, Colombia; Havana, Cuba; Quito, Ecuador; The Galapagos Islands; Arusha,Tanzania; Fernie, Canada; Nashville, Tennessee; New Orleans, Louisiana; Rozwell, New Mexico; Monument Valley, Utah; Grand Canyon, Arizona (2); and Los Angeles, California (3). I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, repelled down a 200 yard cliff in the Amazon Jungle, ate guinea pig, went swimming with pink dolphins, and enjoyed gentle cocktails with hundreds of people from around the world. Through this journey my mind, body, and spirit have developed significantly. I say this because last night, I kicked ass on Jeopardy; I also ran 4 miles the other day without passing out, and have kind-of-sort-of figured out how to live in the moment.

Now, for the first time in a long time, I have my own room. Weird. 4 walls, a door, and a dresser are all mine. My new home is in Brooklyn. My backpack now resides under my bed.

I am living with an old, interesting friend. More to come on “the Nuge”.

In January, I decided to scrap my initial 5-month-overland-Africa-trip. Since then, I have been thinking long and hard about what direction I am going to take this whole thing–this whole thing being my life. After traveling in Tanzania for almost a month, I realized that the Cairo-to-Capetown trip I had originally planned would have taken me deep in the heart of nothingness; No infrastructure, roads barely passable, people suffering from terrible disease. Although I am sure it would have been rewarding, I am not yet ready to endure such an undertaking for such a long time. I plan to do it one day, just not now. Africa’s not going anywhere and for the time being, neither am I.

The Website:

While trekking on Mt. Kilimanjaro I spent much of my time thinking about what this site should look like. I have decided to make some changes. Mainly, I want to make it easier to go back and reference past posts. Unfortunately for travel bloggers like myself, blogs read backwards. Much of my feedback from new readers indicates that it is very hard to make sense of the content as it is all out of order.

Professional Goals:

I made a commitment to myself in South America that I would go into business for myself. This site has been the crux of that business commitment thus far. The blogging world is still relatively new. The reality is that everyone out there is still trying to figure out how to monetize their content.

With this in mind I have decided a few things professionally:

1. I am looking into alternative ways to share my travel experiences. Namely, I am seriously considering planning trips to some of the places I have visited–namely Bolivia, Peru, and throughout Africa. Most of these would be exotic in nature. I would also look at taking small groups of friends, acquaintances, and interested readers. Along the way I have forged friendships with some tremendous travel and wildlife guides. I am currently in talks with some of these fascinating people about planning some adventures over the course of the next few years. I will keep you posted on my progress.

2. There is no doubt about it, I am going to keep writing. Yesterday I moved to New York City. Today I got lost in Manhattan. While stumbling around I encountered a new story around every corner. I quickly realized that I am still traveling. I love not knowing where I am. I don’t know what streets I am on right now and I only sort of know how to get back home to Brooklyn. This feeling of living in a new city is what I will be writing about over the next few months.

3. I am still going to explore the video/podcasting ideas I have been working on. Currently my editor Francis is putting together two videos from my recent Africa trip. The Safari and my Kilimanjaro trek should be produced by the end of the May.

Sidenote: I am buying a bike. Religious people, say some prayers for me. My biking skills need immense improvement. Non religious people, please do not laugh at me when I come tumbling off my sweet new 10 speed.

Travel Goals:

Make no mistake about it. I am still going to be traveling. I have an addiction. Luckily there are no 12 step programs to cure this condition. I am currently working on a few trips in the upcoming future namely to Europe and potentially back to Africa. However, my true fascination of the moment is South East Asia.

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Thanks for reading this last year and a half… I am looking forward to my time here in New York City. For years I have had dreams of living in New York City.

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