On the road again...

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It's 3:25am here in the suburbs, the wife's in the shower, the kolaches are minutes away from being heated-up in my mom's kitchen, and we're heading for DFW International Airport within the half-hour to check-in for our 6:30 flight to Beijing via Toronto 23 hours later. I'm trippin' on this right now.

Of course, I slept zero point zero last night, instead maniacally printed maps and making copies of passports, the stuff. NO-SLEEP-'TILL-BEIJING! (not Brooklyn).

Seriously, I'm crashing-out on one of those planes, and I hope I don't embarrass Pachi too much with all of the snoring I'm going to do.

Yikes. Am I really about to go to China? In modern venacular, I think the term is 'OMG', with maybe an 'F' stuck in there somewhere, I can't remember.

As a teacher, I have to make a note here: kids, this is how Sr. Hopkins rolls. You too can do this. There's a passport out there with your name on it just waiting to be worn-out just like mine has gotten the treatment for its nearly nine years in circulation. Does anyone think that I ever could have imagined at the age of 13 that at 37 I'd be traveling for a month in China for fun, with my Ecuadorian wife? How in God's Green Earth did this happen?

Deep questions to ponder while in the air for 17 hours. I hate to cut-loose, but I've got a flight to catch and a wife who's going to kick my tail if she finds me blogging when I should be packing. With new blogs from the Middle Kingdom coming very, very soon, I think I'll just leave y'all with a taste of the timeless wisdom of Willie Nelson:

On The Road Again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again
On the road again
Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again,
And I can't wait to get on the road again.

On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world be turnin' our way
And our way
Is on the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world be turnin' our way
And our way
Is on the road again

Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again
And I can't wait to get on the road again

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