How it all begun...

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Traveling to foreign countries was since early childhood a part of my life...

I was fortunate to grow up in a small beautiful country in the heart of Europe. Switzerland, is surrounded by France, Germany, Austria and Italy. My parents took us almost every summer camping somewhere south of where we lived and I loved it. It was adventure time for me. I snorkeled in the Mediterranean Sea and learned to scuba dive at the early age of twelve. I dreamed of traveling and read books about adventures and foreign countries. Switzerland seamed to be to become to small and with fifteen I decided that it was time to explore the rest of the world. My friend Tieni and I took the train and off we went. Certainly we wrote a goodbye postcard from the train station to our parents telling them in poetic words that we wont be back but they should not worry. We were FREE... no more school, no more restrictions just like "Tom and Huckleberry Finn ". Well our freedom did not last very long. We did not even get out of Switzerland. Two days after we ran away we were already locked in behind bars and then transported back home. The contrast of absolute freedom and absolute confinement was to strong and I decided that this was definitely the first and last time I would do anything that would jeopardize my freedom. Playing within the rules of society without giving up my dreams was now my motto.

My next adventure was better planed and this time with the approval of my mother. Freedom tasted just the same...even better. With a train ticket in my pocket that would get me from home to Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France and back to Switzerland I was spending a great summer traveling from place to place hiking camping meeting people I could not talk to, but I was having a blast anyway.
I was hooked. Every Year during my Education, I was spending my four weeks of vacation time traveling in Europe and the US. But a few weeks was simply not cutting it. My next trip had to be longer! A few months sounded a lot better. So I planed to finish my education, save all the money I could and take off to the land of unlimited possibilities. America! I saved most of my lunch money and ate carrots and bread most of the time. I supplemented my diet with chocolate to cover all my needs. By the time I finished my education as a drafter in Mechanical engineering I hat almost 7000 Swiss francs together and was ready for my next adventure. I was even able to speak a little English since I had dated an American exchange student and had spend three weeks in Kansas the year before. I was ready.

America her I come... Arriving in New York and my girlfriend and I were heading straight for the greyhound buss station and then took a long ride all the way to Dallas. Some friend of a fried gave us the advice to buy our car in Dallas...and for some reason we listened to his suggestion. It was end of May and we were looking for our ride that would take us trough the USA.

We found a VW bus for a fair deal with registration and all. We were exhausted from the trip and for the first time since we left Switzerland had our own little home away from home and finally we got out of our tennis shoes. The were a little on the smelly side and we thought the would be save under the car. The first night we slept simply on the bus floor in our sleeping bags. We certainly drove off the next morning leaving two pairs of sneakers neatly placed in our parking spot. Soon we had transformed the VW van into a pretty comfortable little motor home We found a couple of wooden doors that I fitted in and serve as bed. We also got peace of foam and some essentials for camping in K-mart as well as some fabric for curtains. Ready to hit the road we drove cross country from Dallas to Kansas, Denver, Yellowstone, San Francisco, San Diego. The beach between Solana Beach and Cardiff was the perfect place to hang out. We were spending about a month there and met lots of people and had a great time. From the Oceanside pound we even got a 8 week old golden retriever girl that I names gipsy. Although we were pretty broke already we spend our last 35 bucks getting her and some food for the dog. It was the best investment ever! We met so may people trough Gipsy and were invited for parties and dinners or hot dogs and burgers on the beach. We had a blast! It was time to start the second big leg of the trip. From San Diego to St. Lois, across the US to Baltimore up to main and finally back to new York were we boarded a play to return to Switzerland. Gipsy came certainly with me. She was about 5 months now and was a great dog. We had such a strong bond that it was easy to train her and she was a great travel companion.

This USA trip mad again lasting impressions that strengthen my desire to travel the world. However, I needed to beef up my drained bank account. I was working for the next three years not just on making money but also on a motor home that would take me across Africa. Working on "Bussli" was a experience by it self. I learned that there was nothing I was not willing to tackle. Out of a empty cargo bus, I created a motor home that would take me further than I could imaging.

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