D. Todd Benson

Took a nap, then called Junior to meet for drinks later.  I had dinner at The Bounty restaurant up the street from the hotel - garlic scallops over white rice and prawns in an onion butter sauce - yum.  Drinks at Ed’s again - met up with Junior from the travel agents office - got [...]

Ours especially.
Everyone I’ve talked to is eager for our election - the feeling is that America AND the world are ready for a change.  And Dale from the bar last night thinks President Bush is a dumbass.  My words - I think he said idiot but I reserve editorial rights.

I woke up at 7-ish and spread all of my gear out all over the room and then repacked it.  Unpacked it again and readjusted things - re-repacked the bags.  I finally feel like I’ve moved in to my backpack, kinda like moving in to a house.  I managed to throw away about 3kg of [...]

I was less than 24 hours away from Charlotte, but I’d lost another day to the International Date line.  I was tired, dirty, stinky, hungover - but not at all surly and in a surprisingly fantastic mood.  Got off the flight, got my pack from the baggage claim and went through customs.  I went outside [...]

747-300, row 68D - Quantas flight 26 to New Zealand - I sat next to a sweet older couple from Auckland who’d spent six weeks in the US with family for a wedding.  He was really nice - she was afraid of flying but he took care of her (awwww…)  12:40 minutes in the air [...]

Left Hickory in the midst of a huge freak out.  I was totally mentally unprepared for leaving and it sunk up on me.  We drove to the only place in Charlotte that had the final piece of my tent/hammock/rain shelter combo thingy and got some other incidentals.  We stopped for a sandwich and then headed [...]

So my first experience in NC after JJ picked me up and we drove to Hickory was that Anne’s dog Woody bit me.  Twice.  We think he was just scared of me because it was just me and JJ and the first he saw me was at the bottom of the stairs wearing a huge [...]

Took the last of my stuff to storage, cleaned up and packed my Kelty pack for the initial trip to Charlotte.  I dropped the truck off at Cam’s - it’s a weird feeling to park a car you’ve driven for almost everyday of the last 6 years and realize you won’t be seeing it for [...]

I’ve always said I hated LA, but I’m chillin’ in the LAX airport at Gate 48-B waiting on my Quantas flight and It’s not so bad.  Granted, I haven’t left the airport at all, but I haven’t been shanked, shot, or raped once.  It’s kind of a bummer, really.
On the way to Fiji.  Soon the [...]

This is it folks - my last weekend in town.  Your instructions are:

Come to the Gingerman On Saturday afternoon @ 5-ish.
Buy me drinks.
Profess your undying love and affection.
Buy more drinks.
Make sure I get to a quiet place out of the rain to sleep it off.

We will start at the Gingerman and head out from there [...]