“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”
― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Perhaps one of the most overused lines ever, but so it begins. Over the course of the next few months, I will be traveling from Toronto to New York to ??? back to New York to New Mexico to Utah to California to Japan to Hong Kong. Everything is ahead of me and nothing is behind me. It’s the most exciting time and also the most intimidating. Once you can overcome inertia, you can come to terms with the job or family or whatever ties that bind us, and face the tarmac in front of you with courage. In my case, as always, there are those who question my sanity. I’ve questioned it myself. But we have but this one life to live. I don’t want to die having not taken some risks, having not felt the freedom of traveling. And so it begins.

As this trip is going to span a number of months, I wanted to clarify a few things about this site. Yes, everything here is written by me. I have a terrific web designer/engineer helping me to make this a reality and I have an artist/digital designer off of whom I bounce ideas. I also have you–my friends and audience– supporting me, and for these contributions, I am grateful. Without you all, this site could not happen.

You may notice there’s no chronology for this site, and that’s necessary considering how much material I have. If I could sit down and write one post a day without traveling another day, I could probably fill up 5 years’ worth of posts without missing a beat. I’ve been that fortunate in my travels. So, if it is alright with you, I figure I’ll carry on with the posts about past destinations, as well as keeping you up on my actual travels as I go. I’ll make it clear which is which. What do you think?

Ch, ch, ch, changes: 

1)Photography Website:I’ve also launched a photography website here: www.georgenobechi.com . There I will showcase some of my photography portfolio. You can also access it under the “Photography” tab at the top of this page. These photos will be grouped under themes, for example, what you see now is “Man vs. Nature” that I shot in New Mexico last summer. These photos will be post-processed to the most careful of lengths and will be available down the line as limited edition fine art prints that you can frame and hang on your wall; they will be of much higher resolution than what you see on this site. Once I settle down in one place, I will set up a studio and printshop in my house and release them for general consumption.  You will know I carefully crafted each one from building a vision, to composition to shooting to processing to print set-up, and finally the print itself. If any photos jump out at you that you want to speak for, you can email me at [email protected] or [email protected]. Which also brings me to the issue of photos from this trip. If there are any you want to use or have as a print, also let me know. For example, I love this one and I want to hang it above my own mantel some day:

2) The Launch of a Diary Website: I was asked by some folks over at Blue Chalk Media in New York to document my transition from Wall Street banker to photographer and creative writer as a fun exercise in looking at the ever growing world of people shunning white collar professions for a life “less ordinary.” So stay tuned here for details. This is going to get really personal and deep, so I’m in need of purchasing a crash helmet first.

3) Updates to this Website: Among the new features you will see is a new world map under the “Destinations” tab at the top. This is going to be really handy for you to look up stories and places and make the site much easier to navigate. Click on a continent, and see all the relevant posts listed below. If you’re new to the site, that’s going to be a good way to approach it, although the categories: Travel Stories, Tips, Postcards from the Road, etc., are fun if you want to search by story type. Thanks to my trusty engineer/web designer for building this feature. You’ll also see a “subscribe” box. This site is still in its infancy and we could use all the help we can get to build out the brand and recognition. We work hard here to provide you the very best free content we can with our heart-and-soul efforts put into everything from the articles to the photos to the logos and banners to the web design. And we do it all ad-free. We’d love to keep it that way but we’d also love to reach more people. So please tell your friends. And please subscribe via the simple email subscription box so that you will receive a notice every time a new post is up. Your email address is safe with us and we will never give it to anyone else to let them spam you. So, thank you for supporting us and we can keep on delivering you photos like this one:

So, back to the start of this road trip. I packed up my things on Sunday night, had a final farewell dinner with family in Toronto, then headed out on the road Monday morning. Sometimes you just get lucky, and a two-day, one-way full-sized car rental was a steal at $68. You just need to keep an eye out for deals like this. I had recently purchased a felt fedora ahead of my travels (my beautiful Borsalino grey fedora and straw Panama hat are both in storage, leaving me with just a cashmere hunting cap in terms of stylish hats–not ideal for the desert).  When I saw my car, a black, full-sized American sedan, I thought ahead to New Mexico and couldn’t resist putting on my shades. “Say my name!”

 

And so I left frozen Toronto for…still frozen Niagara falls. You’ve probably seen some photos or see on CNN some stuff. Well, just to clarify, it’s American Falls (the smaller of the two) that’s frozen. Horseshoe Falls, the larger one, is still going strong.

The landing area in between on the Niagara River is completely frozen over at the surface. Nature is a powerful force. I’ve been to Iguazu in South America and Victoria in Africa–the other two great waterfalls of the world–and I’d been to Niagara in the summer as a kid, but I was much more impressed with the winter landscape at frozen Niagara Falls this time around.

A couple of hours there and my fingers were pretty frozen. So I hopped back in the car and continued south on my journey. Stay tuned for the next episode from TGB’s epic trip.

Thoughts, feedback, comments? Please leave them below and I will respond in our next video Q&A podcast

Meanwhile, here are the ten photos in gallery form for your convenience: