I Think It's Time to Get on the Road

For a long time, I've had this idea in the back on my head that eventually I'd like to get on the road.

Not for a vacation. Not for two weeks with an itinerary and hotel reservations.

I mean actually live on the road.

My goal over the next year is to get my house ready to sell. There's work to do. Projects I've put off. Things that need fixing, cleaning, finishing, throwing away and probably a few things I haven't discovered yet.

But there's a reason I want to do it.

I want to sell the house, take some of the equity I've built up, buy a van and turn it into my home (mobile). Then I want to go.

I don't have the entire route figured out. Actually, I don't really want the entire route figured out.

I want to travel around the United States (there's so much to see here). Hopefully, get up into Canada. I want to see places I've never seen before, spend time in small towns, state parks, cities, mountains, weird roadside attractions, and wherever else the road might take me.

And somewhere along the way, I want to train. A lot.

One of the things martial arts has taught me is just how much there is to learn once you realize how little you actually know.

I train Okinawan martial arts. That's my home. But there are thousands of dojos scattered across the country filled with people who have spent decades studying things I know absolutely nothing about.

Karate. Judo. Jiu-jutsu. Boxing. Wrestling. Gun Fu, Filipino martial arts. Muay Thai. Small traditional schools nobody outside of their town has ever heard of. Guys teaching out of garages. Old instructors who have been doing the same kata for 50 years. Young fighters testing themselves against people who are trying to punch them in the face. Reality based self defense....the list goes on....

I'd like to meet these people. I want to walk through their doors as a student.

Train with them. Talk to them. Learn where they came from, why they practice the way they do and what they believe martial arts is actually supposed to do. Because I believe it's different for everyone that trains.

Maybe I'll film some of it. Maybe I'll interview people. Or maybe I'll just write about the schools, the instructors and the things they teach me.

I have a feeling there are some incredible martial artists out there whose names most of us will never know. I'd like to find a few of them.

But martial arts is really only part of the reason I want to do this.

I want to see what happens when I change the way I'm living. I'm 45 years old (soon to be 46). I have a house. I have stuff. I have routines. I have some responsibilities. I've spent a lot of my adult life doing what you're supposed to do next because it was the thing you were supposed to do next.

And lately I keep thinking about how much of the world I still haven't seen.

I want my dogs with me. I want a laptop and somewhere to write. I want a Gi and a guitar in the van. But I really want to wake up somewhere I've never been before and figure out what's around me.

Maybe find some strange places, meet interesting people, train, write, take pictures, tell stories. And then keep moving. Like the wanderer types.

Maybe eventually this becomes some kind of American martial arts project. Maybe it becomes a book. Maybe it becomes a documentary or a Youtube series. Maybe it just becomes a collection of stories about the people and places I find along the way.

The reality is...I don't know yet. I don't even know if I'll be able to sell my home in this economy. But for once, I'm okay with that. Right now, there's a house that needs work.

So, I guess that's where the road starts.