One of my life dreams is to walk across the entire U.S. It seems like an amazing adventure. I’ll stop in places and maybe sleep on the road or in cheap hotels/hostels, and meet lots of interesting characters.

Last weekend, I asked my 71-year-old mom to join me for a nearly 30-mile-walk to an Indian restaurant. I was looking at this walk as a small test of what my cross-country walk would be like.

I work out almost every day, but I did not train specifically for this walk.

Mom and I started walking at 6:45 a.m. I saw an amazing sunrise. We stopped a couple of times on the trip. The longest stop was a 30 minute break for lunch. The temperature was great. I did not fully realize it when the sun went to the west side of the sky. Just kept walking. As the day progressed, we realized we might not make it the full 30 miles. We did not want to walk in the dark. We called it at like 4:30 p.m., 8 miles away from the Indian restaurant. My mom did not want to walk anymore. She’s hard-core for a 71-year-old, but she has limitations. I was walking on pure stubbornness, because I was tiring as well.

As the walk progressed, I began to question my dream of walking across the United States. 25 miles, which is really the maximum distance I could walk in a day, doesn’t seem like enough miles to accomplish. This doesn’t leave me enough time for adventures. I was thinking I could add in hitchhiking,  But I don’t think anybody would pick me up — no one wants to pick up a 200-pound hitchhiking man carrying a backpack.

I began questioning if I could do this walk across the U.S., which led me to despair. I started considering a 150-mile test walk, but that just didn’t seem fun, anymore.

My girlfriend gave me an idea of purchasing a used electric car, driving it to each of the lower 48 states, and then walking 30 miles in each state. I am wondering if I could do this with an electric minivan. If I do this, here are my goals for each state:

1. Train in 10 martial arts schools
2. Hike 20-30 miles
3. Interview 30 people on tattoos
4. Visit the top 10 tourist attractions

I also am looking at options for low-cost housing. I could potentially use Planet Fitness for intermittent workouts and showers.

Weird thing we saw on the walk

I will update as I come up with more ideas, or as I test things out.

Please advise if you have any ideas!

This is part two of my adventures in getting a camera put up my ass. Check out part one if you feel like it here.

I will give some advice on the clear diet. Do not eat or buy any jello. Jello tastes awful. Get your self some bone marrow broth, Ginger Ale, and that is about all you need.

Look at it as a fast day. Close to the end of the day you drink this nasty crap, and you poop your brains out. My poop turned light yellow which is normal.

During my fast day. I got a stomach flu. I have never pooped so much. I was so sick I thought about rescheduling. This would mean I would owe the doctor money, and I would need to do this diet thing again. I decided I am going to go and they will need to send me home if I am too sick.

I remember being really scared when they hooked me up. This was the first time I had been knocked out by a doctor that I can remember. I think I may have asked them not to hurt me right before I blacked out.

I came to farting my ass off. I think the guy must have said something about investing with Bettermint, and I was trying to tell him to use Robinhood.

My girlfriend(Dimsom/Domestic Partner) went into my room and picked me up. I was basically fine. Except that I was recovering from a stomach flu. I could walk and talk normal. I should have been allowed to call an Uber. I was though very glad to have my girlfriend pick me up.

Test showed me all clear. Glad its over with.

I went LARPing(Live Action Role Playing) this weekend. I have not LAPRed in over 8 years. It was strange to go back. My nephew wanted to try it and I though it would be a good excuse to try it again.

I started LARPing maybe around 2005. I only know this because one of the plot people like to start the LARP. He would say “my daughter is only 14 years old”. She is 26 now, so I am just guessing on time line.

By playing at a LARP. I made incredible friends I still have to day. I also learn a lot about myself. As I am not really a people person LARPing was very difficult. You have to create this character and become this role that you created. As I am not the most extroverted person. This pushed me in brand new fun ways.

The issue was at the end. I really liked being myself. So I would go to the game just and just monster the whole time. This was fun as I would get to see some friends, and get a good amount of exercise.

When I stopping LARPing. I was starting to feel this incredible sadness each time I would go, and while I was there. The best description would be that feeling right after you finish eating a whole pizza, or maybe that feeling when you realize you just did the last whippets from a box of 24. Just felt regret.

The straw that broke the camels back, and why I had to leave. I went to the bathroom late at night. Someone had thrown a paper towel in the toilet bowel. I know this does not seem like much. I believe everyone was told when they were young. Dont throw paper towels in the toilet.  This is just an asshole move. You backup the toilet then no one can use the toilet. Shows a complete lack of respect for people. It seems like a small thing, and it was. It was just the last note to tell me I needed to not go back.

Through the years I have talked with friends that LARP and I would say. Haha maybe I should try it again. It used to be a lot of fun.

My nephew asked me if I would take him, I said yes. This would be a good excuse to see how my memory lined up. Could it be as fun as I remembered it being. Could it be all of the fun things, without all the sad things.

This is were I started to think of LARPing like Prozac. I had a buddy that did a lot of Prozac. He described the experience like this. Well you see you are this personalty. You have all these issues you cant really handle so you take Prozac. Then its great you are this brand new personalty, and you dont experience all your old problems. Then as you keep taking Prozac. This new personalty gets its own brand new problems. You cant really handle any of these brand new Prozac personality problems. So you decided to stop taking Prozac. Well that would be great except your old No-Prozac personality has all of its old problems you could not handle which is why you started taking Prozac in the first place. Well then you try and comment suicide. NOTE: If you feel depressed get help call  1-800-273-8255.

I kind of see LARPing like that. I went back I did not get that sadness. I got happiness. I got see some old friends. How they changed. I got to see my nephew have tons of fun.

I dont really understand people. AKA kind of why I started this blog to help me think and see people. The people still doing LARP. Why do they keep doing it. I ended up understanding it does not matter. This was an experience I already had. I completed it. There a lot of things I want to be doing in life. LARPing helped immensely in who I am today.

I would most likely not be writing this blog were it is without LARPing. I took a comedy improv class and want to do more with this. I have all kinds of new adventures I want to go own, I feel LARPing helped me down the road. I can not even state all the ways LARPing changed my life. I just now know I dont want to go back.

I guess sometimes going back helps you remember there is a lot of new fun things you need to be doing today.

Lay on.

It is really cold. Has not been easy to get any new tattoos. I will write about what is going in my life.

Due to both my mother and father getting colon cancer. I need to start getting colonoscopies early. This is both good and bad. The bad is now I have to get a colonoscopy. The good is am still young enough that I question everything.

My doctor gave me a recommendation to this one GI. They called me up the next day. They happily informed me they did not have any time slots for the next month or so. I would need to set this up as soon as possible is what they told me.  They called me a couple of times, trying to get me to agree to a date with them.

The GI also had lots of rules. Exact quote from email: “For 3 days prior to your procedure, you will need to be on a soft diet (no hard fruits, vegetables, nuts or popcorn) and 1 day prior is a clear liquids diet (chicken broth, ginger ale, popsicles).” As this was the rules. I was not really sure what I could eat. I start asking the lady on the phone seemed confused. She would just state these are the rules. Honestly from this it looks like I would be eating only meat 2 days before? What is a soft fruit? The lady on the phone could not really answer any of my questions. I wish I had asked if gummies are on the diet.

The next thing I have from the email. This is what drove me over the line:”If you need to cancel or reschedule, we require 3 full business days notification in order to avoid the $250.00 cancellation fee.
You will also need a driver that can stay the full two hours with you at the location and you cannot drive for the rest of the day due to sedation. ” My first issue with this is. I am now required to have a driver? I need this driver to not have any issues within 3 days of the procedure. If my driver does have an issue, and I cannot find a replacement. I will be charged 250$. My driver has to stay in the waiting room the entire time, and can not leave during the procedure. Why do they care what my driver does while I am getting getting a camera put up my butt? What if my driver wants to run around the building? What if my driver wants to go to Starbucks? Why do they care? They have to just sit in the waiting room?

I asked: Can I show up alone. I will call an Uber and get a ride home. They said no you will need to arrive with a driver. They will not allow you to show up alone, and Uber home. They would not do the procedure.

I asked: What if I am old and I dont have a friend\partner. They started in on some service for 22$ dollars an hour. I would have to pay this is so a person can wait in the waiting room, and drive me home.

As most of this did not make sense to me. I started to look online. I found two things. First: Most GIs will require you to be sedated. Second: Sedation is a GIs requirement not a requirement of a colonoscopy.  If you directly start calling GIs. They will tell you. You have to be sedated. If you don’t have someone with you to drive, they wont do the procedure. They wont even offer the unsedated option. They may say this is a standard and a requirement of all GIs. This is what I was told this when I called GIs.

I really hate just following orders. When the answer is “because I said so”. I came up with a two part plan.
The company I work for has a health advocate. I requested them to find me a doctor with 25 miles that did not require the patient to be sedated. If this was not possible. I would call my insurance company. Let them know that having a driver was a required part of the procedure. What drivers would be covered under my current insurance. That or they could find me a doctor were it was not required.

The health advocates did find me a GI as requested. When I called for my appointment. The person on the phone was much more friendly. They also only required a special diet for one day before, and Movieprep. I was also able to set the appointment with this option: If I have a driver, they will sedate me. If my driver is unable to attend, they will do it unsedated.

I may or may not update again about this after I get the colonoscopy. I just kind of see it as a moral of the story. Don’t just take things at face value. If something feels wrong, find a way out. Try to fix the problem.
Maybe if I was older. I would have just bowed, and allowed these rude people treat me like I was a toddler.
I look forward in life. I hope I don’t end up like a scared old person. Just doing what a doctor said without asking why.

Yes I know what the page is left blank. I still think it stupid.