TRAVELING CHOPPER

           For the last month I've been thinking a lot about what I would say in this post, how much I would reveal.  So, here I sit, on the eve of my 2nd birthday typing away.  A long stretch from what I would have been doing on a Saturday 2 years ago.  There are a lot of directions I could go with this.  I could tell you about every drug I've done, everything I've lost due to being an alcoholic and what my rock bottom looked like or I could tell you about all the postive changes I've made in my life and how much better things are.  I've decided to give you both, but I want to focus on the positive because that is the real reason why any addict decides to put down there vice and aspire to something better.            I've known for the majority of my life that I have a very addictive personality with an affinity for the booze.  Though I was able to keep it in check for years through involving myself in competive sports, I eventually lost my grip.  My life took

        We woke in the morning nervous and excited.  Today we would be crossing the Mexico border at the Nogales port of entry.  Fortunately, the ride from Phoenix to the border was uneventful.  Though Phoenix was experiencing record low temperatures, it was still far warmer then it had been.  We approached the border around 11 AM, a bit later then we had hoped but still within our window of exceptable.  Our plan was to make the crossing, then proceed to push quickly a minimum of 250 miles south to the coast.   250 miles was what we felt would put us a safe distance from the violent border towns.  Interestingly, the Mexican government has put in place an American Hassle Free zone that covers the area from the border to 250 miles south of the border.  Within this zone, if you any issues such as mechanical breakdowns, you are promptly towed and escorted, for free, to the closest edge of the Hassle Free Zone.          We approached the crossing with tanks full of fuel and our nerves on hi

          Day 2. Morning sun and clear skies brought bitter cold temperatures.  The current temp was 15 degrees and the forecast wasn't calling for a warm up.  Our destination for the day was Phoenix, Arizona via interstate 40 and Interstate 17.            Sticking to protocal we were on the road by 8am, west bound on I-40 where we would remain for the next 400 miles.  The moment we left we were instantly in the trenches battling a wind chill that would make a snow man shiver, the sort of cold that threatens to freeze the marrow in your bones.            After a speedy and painful 50 miles we quickly came to the conclusion that we needed to seriously assess our situation and devise a plan.  We came up with this:  We decided that we would tackle no more then 50 miles at a time.  If we came upon a gas station at 40 miles we would stop there instead of pushing on to the next.  We proceeded to buy out the gas station of hand warmers and stuff them into every nook and cranny we could to