April 28, 2000: Prologue & Introductions

Howdy! I'm Kevin Jackson. I'll be your tour guide on this little trek across the U.S. I'll also be the one using a lot of parenthetical commentary, informal sentence structure, first person perspective, and loose phrasing. All you English majors out there just put away your red china markers now 'cos I'm giving you advanced warning, it's gonna be a (grammatically) bumpy ride!

I suppose a little background information would be helpful... ya know so you have context for the stories we'll be telling along the way. I'm 31 years old and a native of that beautiful desert city; Tucson, Arizona! I've been partnered to Steve Finch for the last five years. He's a wonderful, loving, crazy, bear-of-a-guy and the love of my life.

By profession I'm child and family counselor (yeah yeah.. I know... it takes the crazy ones) working with homeless, runaway, and street youth. By hobby I am an amateur writer, cook, and the secretary for our local bear club; the Bears of the Old Pueblo. Couple that with my furry queerness, my love of international pop music & culture, and skewed sense of humor and you get a pretty interesting critter, me!

Then there's the other half of this road trip (and the one who's doing all the driving), one Dr. Michael Sean Ramsey, PhD., MS, BS, Esq. (he'd be the overly educated one too!) Mike is 32 years old, born in Alaska and raised in southern New Jersey. Mike is also the reason for this excursion having recently accepted a job with the University of Pittsburgh. Up until today he held the position of visiting professor and research associate for the earth sciences program at Arizona State University but greener pastures (literally and figuratively as Mike never acclimated to the weather out here) and proximity to family have drawn him back towards the East Coast.

Mike's specialty is remote image sensing and volcanism and he's currently working on international projects for the National Science Foundation and NASA. In his spare time he has been a river guide in the Grand Canyon and world traveler, prowling the globe seeing the sites and experiencing anything and everything. His website lists his goal in life as "..see the world and then start over" and brother, he means it! All you Atlantic seaboard bruins had better be grateful for our sacrifice, cos you're getting one helluva wonderful guy. The woof-quotient for the southwest will drop substantially once he crosses the New Mexico border, (by the way, he's also single!)

Whoops! Yentabear moment!

Mike is actually quite modest (well.. about his accomplishments at least) and that's one of the qualities I admire most about him. He's been a close friend to Steve and I for the last five years and we love him dearly.

I've always wanted to travel with him, but those grants to cover my expenses as "personal attaché" just never came through. When Mike sent me the news that he had finally worked out the details with U of P and was relocating, I was thrilled. Then he mentioned that he would be buying a vehicle in Phoenix before he left and DRIVING to Pittsburgh and I swear to you... it was like a scene from some Terry Gilliam animation. The clouds parted, and a golden beam smote me on the noggin' and the vision of the two of us laughing, listening to Negativland, and blasting down two lanes of blacktop in the glorious spring sun filled my mind. The epiphany over, I grinned that mischievous grin I get when I know my destiny. I clicked "Reply" and fired off my vision. A few hours later I got my answer, Mike dug the idea as much as I did. We were off... (and the heavenly chorus sang!)

What followed next was a couple of months of massive (and very silly) emailing. To be honest I don't think I've heard Mike's voice since February (man.. I love the internet). We discussed routes, we discussed people we wanted to visit, we discussed what format the travel music should be in, we even slipped this odd idea of documenting the excursion for use on the Resources For Bears site!

So here I sit... my bags packed, my CD's selected, my return flight booked, writing this piece to let you in on the what should be an interesting look at our country through the eyes of two 30-something bears with a unique perspective on life and entirely too much imagination for their own good.

Here's our itinerary:

	May 1st:	Phoenix, AZ - Albuquerque, NM
	May 2nd:	Albuquerque, NM - Denver, CO
	May 3rd:	Denver, CO - Kansas City, MO
	May 4th:	Kansas City, MO - Columbus, OH
	May 5th:	Columbus, OH - Pittsburgh, PA

If you want to get more information on the two of us check out our profiles in the NetBears section on www.resourcesforbears.com. Kevin Jackson is #2288, and Mike Ramsey is #3.

I'll be posting to the RfB website at the end of each day to share our experiences along trip. If you want to catch up with us along the way to share the sights or a meal drop me a line a kjackson@psn.net, we're always looking to make new friends and experience some local color.

Stay tuned!

-Kevin Jackson
Tucson, Arizona

Next: Day 1

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