Bearded Ventures: Stories and Reflections of My 13,000 Mile Van Life Adventure Kindle Edition

Two and a half thousand years ago, a Greek man named Heraclitus wrote, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.” In the pages of this book lie the tales of a man and rivers. Leaving the drudgery of the office behind, I set off to find the joy of life again through the adventure of the unknown. My plan was simple, Go West and venture into places I had never been. Sure, there were more thoughts than that, like, catching as many trout as possible on the fly, hiking along a cliff edge for the sake of doing so, and seeing the places where people go to get lost. But all of it funneled into one goal – to reignite the light of joy and the hunger for life back into my eyes, that spark of wildness I once knew. As I set sail, one day led to the next, and one adventure led to another. I soon found myself putting pen to paper, recording these adventures, ponderings, and life takeaways so as not to let time and age steal their details from my memory. At the time, I had no plans for my writing to land between book ends. However, with the encouragement from my loving wife and a few close friends and family, the stories and insights from my six months on the road, in and out of rivers, and up and down mountains have found their way into just that. As I stand here five years removed right back where it all started, now with a wife by my side and a daughter in each arm, a couple things are certain – they are not the same rivers, and I am not the same man. Read more