It wasn’t long into my Journey of Fear before I began to get a taste for adventure. It also wasn’t long before I began to learn some of the deep lessons that I had set out on this trip to learn. The day began calm enough. I stopped at the Warm Candle Co. outlet store, which sits just past the Ohio–Indiana border along I-70. You can’t miss it – it has a thirty foot candle outside of it. They have AWESOME prices on everything that they sell, which is all things country crafts. Pretty much the perfect place to bring Mom or a girlfriend…or me. I’m currently writing by the…

Now that you know about the downward Cycle of Fear that I had to crawl out of whenever I moved back to Pittsburgh, as well as the Way I Believe Our Minds Work, I can explain to you the next stage of my trip. Hoosier Serendipity After spending a few hours hopelessly lost as I drove the state roads surrounding Patoka Lake, I eventually found a state trooper, who gave me directions to a free campsite. The site was absolutely beautiful, and I found a spot that was directly on the lake. Prime real-estate. There was only one other vehicle camped nearby – an RV with an American flag hung…

“The only difference between a traveler and a homeless man is a destination.” This is but one of many quotes that I took away from my stay at that Hoosier campsite, though most of them I can’t repeat. The family that arrived in the van (we’ll call them the Davidsons, for the sake of anonymity) was a fun, colorful bunch – pretty much my kind of people. For example, that experience would prove to be the first time that I’ve ever heard a three-year-old use the F-word AND the B-word together in the same sentence. But that family truly did teach me a couple of incredibly positive lessons, which I…

While I was packing up to leave on my last morning in Hoosier National Forest, Mrs. Davidson approached me. She handed me a small collection of bright, multi-colored pieces of paper. It was a beautifully handwritten letter. In it, she provided words of encouragement for my journey that have meant more to me than she could possibly have known. But included in this letter was also a list. At one point, I had told everyone that I was trying to see life from different perspectives – particularly from theirs. I wanted to see through the eyes of someone who hadn’t been raised with a silver spoon. In the list that…

While I’ve already described to you the bulk of what I learned from my new friends the travelers, I went on to have a number of great experiences in the time that I was in Hoosier National Forest. This will serve as my disjointed diary of the most memorable events. “You’re Unique” At one point around the campfire, I was asking the whole crew about the types of people I might meet along my travels. “Oh, you’ll meet tons of people,” responded the mother of the Davidson family. “Rubber Tramps (people who live in their vehicles), Rainbow Kids (your text-book, loving hippy-types), Dirty Kids (those who take pride in staying…