Hello and thank you for checking out my biography! When I was one, my father died of a heart attack. My mother never remarried but besides loving and caring and making sure us three kids went to church every Sunday, the greatest thing she did for me was to get down on her knees before me when I was six years old and tell me that a woman should not try to show a boy how to be a man (thank you for your honesty, Mom!). She then turned me around so that I was facing a group of men, whereupon she told me to go and watch, listen, and learn. With a fatherless void in my chest, I had all the incentive I needed. I studied a great many men, not with conscious intent, not as part of an academic study, not with anything but a void to fill in my chest, a void which felt as big as space itself. Into that void, I shoveled everything from John Wayne to Woody Allen (so to speak). I shoveled until I was plumb full. And when I had filled myself up, I was as confused as ever. That's right, I didn't know who I was, and all the knowledge in the world couldn't help me. Then I heard my long forgotten friend Jesus calling, and somehow, almost like groping in the dark, I found my way back to Him. He took what I had put inside and brought it to life. And when He did, it was like nothing I can describe except to say my void filled with light, my eyes could see at last, my stars and planets were put in order and I was filled with joy. Then, with my new life, I only needed something to spend my newborn energy on, and that's when my older brother planted the idea of canoeing the Lewis and Clark Trail in my head. Doing the trail was a walk with God in the footsteps of my forefathers and mothers for which I am deeply grateful.