I didn't win the Powerball....Damn it all!

The Powerball was $230 million & I bought 2 tickets. One had my lucky digits & the other was the lazy QP(quick pic), I didn't hit 1 number on either. I must go to work today as a result of this piss poor performance. I realize the odds of winning are a bazillion to 1 but I play when the jackpot gets to a crazy amount. I enjoy day dreaming of exactly what I would do if I was the big winner. First, I would get the title of my 1992 money pit(Jeep Cherokee) & drive down to the Lottery office with at least 2 pieces of I.D. Then I would request cash pay out and when they came to take my picture with the big check...i would put on my Carnicus face for the picture. Next, I would drive to the nearest American made auto dealer preferably a Chevy Tahoe dealer. I would ask who is the newest sales person & I would pay cash for the ride after I made them take my Cherokee out back & shoot it. Next I would go to my fiance's bank & deposit a $1,000,000 check in her account anonymously. I would donate money to my 2 favorite charities Safehaven & Nashville Rescue Mission. I would call up my key people & tell them to meet me at Sportsman's Grille in the Village as I needed to talk about our friendship. I would give them all shit for the things they had done to me over the years in jest of course, then write them a fat check. I would get really loaded with my friend & bartender Rod....then write him a fat check with the stipulation that he must quit bartending & travel on my dime for no less than a year. I would go to my bank & take half of the $125,000,000(gross estimate after my dues for being a citizen in the greatest fucking country in the world) and fly first class to Grand Cayman,BWI to deposit said $62.5 mil in a high yield savings account. Then I would take the next two weeks diving the Cayman Islands & drinking beer. Once I returned I would buy a house, find people to maintain the house & drink beer. Then I would help some more people as that is what i like to do. I would like to think that money wouldn't change me but it would.....it would allow me to help other people, my friends & especially what is left of my family. Well that is what I would of done if I had won the Powerball but I guess I better get in the shower as I have to go to work today...SHIT! Until next time, always remember "Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be"
Cheers,
Rip

The world is a funny place!

Advertising can be hilarious if the writer wants it to be. I saw this in the Sydney subway & I had no idea who Barry "The Cougar" Dawson was but I was leaning towards porn star. Turns out he is like the big stud on some soap opera. It ain't easy being cheesy comes to mind with this ad. I saw another ad in Adelaide on the back of a horse trailer that read.."We bring baby animals to you" Once again my mind went straight to the gutter but let's be honest, Aussies & Kiwis alike have been known to have a little romance with a sheep when no one is watching. Back home there is a sign on I-65 N to Louisville that reads "Used cows for sale", are there any other kind? I get emails all the time that have pretty funny messages. Another way for advertising to be funny is if the writer is not very smart. You see contradictory signs & terrible spelling that can only be lack of smarts so to speak. Also, the public bathrooms of the world are a great place for perfect phrases. As i was going thru my divorce in 1998, the men's bathroom at The Villager had this one: "No matter how good looking she is, somebody, somewhere is tired of fucking her" A true classic cuz it's true. Until next time.

Cheers,

Rip

www.onmeway.com

Your birthday is the only day you get to do it all

2 clowns both born on Feb 13th, John is obviously 3 yrs older than myself. I made it to 42, now on to 43. I feel pretty good for 42 but my belly is stuffed from the incredible brisket tacos from Pat Martin's BBQ Joint. I took him my last 11 Schlitz regulars for his store & he paid me in grub. Now I am reflecting on my life before I take a well deserved bday nap, then rise & shine for some more festivities with friends and the UT-Arkansas baskeball game. I'm sure the entire team will thunp that soooey ass for my birthday present. I took the day off as i can't be expected to work as i battle with my own mortality. If I lived in a third world country i would be considered on my last leg but not so much in the U.S.A. I could realistically be half way home. Only God & the Grim Reaper know for sure. Back to the other bday boy, John & i grew up together with both of us spending all of our summers at Wildwood Country Club. He lived in Wildwood Estates & i just squatted at friends houses. The Harpeth River flowed behind the club & we pretty much lived in it. Those were the days before bills, engagements & other forced responsibilities. If you could go back & do it all over again would you? I'd think about it. So today my 42 birthday is dedicated to those times & kicking Arkansas's ass in basketball.
Cheers,
Rip
www.onmeway.com

I feel the need for adventure travel

My 42nd birthday is Wednesday & I'm spending it in Nashville watching the UT Vols basketball team play Arkansas on the tellie as the Aussies say. I guess it could be worse...I could be spending it on death row or in Darfur. Fuck Darfur,save America!(great idea for a bumper sticker) Winter time in Nashville makes me restless for some travel. I rarely do anything but brave the bitter cold, slow down my drinking & watch alot of movies. I am training for the Music City half marathon which takes place April 26th. My brother & I run together with a beer stop at the half way point. It really freaks out the hard core runners! That is what i'm here for...shock therapy. Back to travel...not much scheduled so far. In my quest to see more minor league baseball & another major league park; I am taking a car trip up to Fort Wayne to see the Wizards & on to Detroit to see the Tigers new stadium. I have two good friends that live in these towns so it should be a blast! No return to Australia with sidetrack to New Zealand planned just yet but I feel a change in the wind. If I could just win the Lotto then it would make things easier. I guess it is common to take stock in your life on your birthday to see where you are. I am headed in the right direction & nothing is going to stop my VisionQuest!
Cheers,
Rip

As Webb Wilder says....It gets in your blood!

It is January in Tennessee & it was 12 degrees for the low Thursday night. It is currently 72 degrees & sunny in Penguin, Tasmania. I have decided that in the very near future I will leave in early January & travel until it is warm again in Nashville, which is usually April. It seems like the perfect solution to this cold business. Not really much happens in Nashville when it is cold anyway. This way I'll travel the South Pacific when it is warm & now that I think about it, I'll get to wear shorts all year long! I can make this my annual pilgrimage for treasure to Australia & New Zealand. This will put me back in town & ready for the Nashville flea market at the end of April as well as opening night for the minor league baseball season. Then of course comes the gauntlet of fun known as May in Tennessee. It is warm, the top is down on the Cutlass & spring is in the air.
Once you start traveling & seeing different lands, it really does get in your blood. I find myself daydreaming about past adventures & looking forward to seeing new places and all that goes with it. Some may equal but none will excel my visionquest. I am going to add New Zealand to the itinerary next trip. I believe I can see a great deal of both islands with a 2 week tour. I've heard from alot of people who say new Zealand is so much more beautiful than OZ.....prove it to me! Until next time.
Cheers,
Rip
http://www.onmeway.com/

Treasure is everywhere in Kuranda, Queensland

Let us talk Australia some more. Outside of Cairns is the quaint mountain town of Kuranda. it is a day trip that I've made twice, once in 1998 & on my most recent 2007 adventure. It's claim to fame is the daily markets that are home to some of the finest treasure I've hunted. Everything from Aboriginal art to hokey boomerangs painted with Australian flags. The best way to get there is take the overhead sky rail up & the scenic train(pictured) back down to Cairns. It costs roughly $90.00 AUD & the tour operators pick you up at your lodging, give you a brief history of the sky rail(designed by an American by the way) & drop you off at the sky rail. They also tell you to be back at 4:00 sharp or you will be finding another way home. Fine by me as I'm never late. I board the sky rail with a nice Dutch couple who are pleasant. The sky rail takes about 30mins from start to finish & you can get off at a couple places to explore the rain forest. I forgo this as treasure hunting is on my mind. I depart the sky rail & make my way to the nearest pub Fanny O'Reilly's Irish Bar & Grill. I knock back 3-4 pints to quench my thirst & head into the Kuranda markets. I am amazed at how fast i spend money at the really good markets. I duck behind the markets & find some off the beaten path artists. I meet Charlond who is an aboriginal woman who is very pleasant & we trade contact information. I bought a nice cross necklace with a garnet stone in the middle. I buy Cairns highland coffee, Queensland honey, a ceramic penguin, ear rings, a alligator magnet made out of a macadamia nut & an original aboriginal painting. It was a banner day in the treasure hunting business. I hate to leave but I'm spending money like an addict in Amsterdam. I head back to the pub for some food & of course more Aussie beer. I met the owner Barry & we talk about an opportunity he has. Some many possibilities to import back to the U.S. I stay as long as i can but is getting late. The train is unable to go down the mountain due to a landslide so I ride it as far as they will let us then back on the sky rail. It is a beautiful journey over the rain forest with spectacular views of many waterfalls. The rain forest is so thick that you don't get to see much in the way of wildlife except for birds. I make it back in plenty of time for the ride back to Cairns. Tip of the day....if you are in Cairns, do yourself a favor & take the day trip to Kuranda. I give a money back guarantee that you will be glad that you did.
Cheers,
Rip
http://www.onmeway.com/

Land of the free & home of the Idiots....sometimes

I've been fortunate to travel outside of this great country numerous times & I'm constantly amazed at how obnoxious my fellow Americans can be. The number one issue with the locals seems to be....we want everything to be like America! Why? I'm soooo happy that there isn't a Starbucks or McDonald's' on every freaking corner. I love walking around aimlessly in a new town & just seeing where i end up. One of my favorite things to do in Australia is leave early in the morning & go on a pub walkabout. Bars in Oz have all sorts of different permits to serve booze so I can always find a bar serving at 8 a.m. if I choose. Amazingly, when I walk into one of these early morning spots, it is usually pretty busy with fellow functioning alcoholics. I learn so much from just asking the locals where to eat, what is a must do when I'm here in town & the next great pub. It makes for a great day & an early evening if you know what I'm saying. I never expect these countries to be like Nashville, what fun would that be? I am polite, courteous & I tip well.(which isn't necessary in Aussie pubs) It is funny the stigma American tourists have but I find after about 5 minutes of them taking the piss out of me(Aussie term for giving you a hard time), they accept me for what I am....a very large American who could kick some convict ass. just kidding, somewhat. So do us all a favor....when you are traveling abroad, be respectful of your surroundings & the people in them. If you are nice to people & get to know them.....they won't send you to the wrong side of the tracks!
Cheers,
Rip

Stick your head under the water & behold

I'm a scuba diver & I'm here to tell you, it is one of the most incredible experiences on our planet to suck compressed air & swim with the fishes. I've been PADI certified since 1993 & did my advanced open water in 1996 so I can deep & night dive. People ask me all the time where is the best place I've dove & i respond it depends on what you like to do. In my experiences I've found that the best drift diving is in Cozumel, although the Mexicans do nothing for conservation of their reefs or care about diver safety. The best wall diving was the Cayman Islands with Little Cayman's site "The Meadows" being spectacular! It started in 20ft of water then I swam thru a series of tunnels and came out on the wall which went straight down for 5000 ft. The best deep diving was Andros, the largest island in the Bahamas. I dove one of their legendary blue holes & at lunch the dive master was drinking a beer. I asked Jim if I could have a couple beers before the afternoon dive which is taboo....he said "Yeah, if you screw up they will never find your body, so what do i care" classic honesty. The Florida keys are good but thru the years all the hurricanes have shifted everything around. I dove the 585ft U.S.S. Speigel Grove & that sucker was huge. I also dove the H.M.S. Rhone in Tortola,B.V.I. & really enjoyed that except for it being jellyfish season. All these places are fantastic but The Great Barrier Reef of Australia is dear to my heart for many reasons. First, I don't know one single person from my neck of the woods who has dove it. Second, it is huge & stretches some 1,500 miles along the Queensland coast & can be seen from outerspace. Third, you see all sorts of species only found in the South Pacific like this giant clam pictured. I've seen Potato Cod(grouper family) as big as V.W. Bugs! I am at total peace under the water & plan on diving the U.S.S. Oriskiny(Vietnam era aircraft carrier) off the coast of Pensacola,Florida this summer. My advice to you is get certified & take the plunge. You will be amazed what mother nature has below the surface.
Cheers,
Rip
check out www.onmeway.com

Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, who knows?

As I've mentioned previously, I am starting my own import/export company focusing on treasure from Australia & New Zealand. I can easily visualize what i want to accomplish but I've run smack into a huge roadblock called the business plan. It is daunting to say the least. It is a road map of where your business is & where it is going in the next 5-10years. Not so bad you say....well I'm looking to raise 150k in start up capital ideally, so the plan has to be written so lawyers, accountant & venture capitalists can say....What a damn fine idea, we want to give you money so you can travel to Australia & New Zealand, drink beer, scuba dive & import treasure! I'm stuck with entrepreneur's block for lack of a better term. I got off to a pretty good start but ran out of gas when it came to predicting sales for the first year. Hell, I don't know if I'll sell a damn thing but my vision has me making an ass load of money by importing art, crafts, jewelry, furniture & even wine from these wonderful countries. I'm just going to start scheduling 1 hour a day to sit down & if nothing else just look at the damn thing. I have been meaning to go to a small business class on how to write a business plan but my job conflicted with the class tomorrow. I'll keep on working at it & then get to the class ASAP. I've had some friends express interest in my Visionquest as i call it. Something weird about asking someone to loan me $150k to follow my dreams. Oh well, they say a sucker is born everyday. I bet I can find one & we can both be OnMeWay.

Cheers,

Rip treasure hunter

p.s. picture is of the back of The Baths, Virgin Gorda B.V.I.

No one knew where I was including me

Kangaroo Island Ritz Carlton.....not! No deluxe accommodations were part of this 2 day pure adventure. I was picked up at my hostel in Adelaide at 6:00 in the morning & was feeling a bit hungover from the night before. Had a 2 hour drive ahead of me in a small van, did i mention I'm 6'5"? Self induced so i just tried not to hurl. I'm half way around the world & the hot little Asian girl in front of me is from Knoxville,TN which is where i went to college. I was half expecting her to be a hit woman & do me right there so i could escape this hangover. We boarded a ferry & headed for the bar at 8:00a.m. I had 4 beers before we made it to the other side. I was told by one of our guides & the bartendress that i tied the record for such a short trip. I'll do better next time. Kangaroo Island is a must for anyone wanting to see unspoiled Australia. It gets very little pressure from the mainland & the wildlife is everywhere. We saw koalas, fairy penguins,enchinidas, fur seals,wallabies,kangaroos & possums. My group was alot of fun & the guides were entertaining to say the least. I was the farthest away from Nashville that i had ever been & i was LOVING it! I will go deeper next time. The picture is of our overnight accommodations. It was basically a bunkhouse with one bathroom & the animals just came & went when they wanted to. A couple people slept outside but I didn't see the need as i was already out in the middle of f____king nowhere. Had a blast & give Kangaroo Island my ***** rating!
Cheers,
Rip

Some things are better if you wait

I was involved in a wreck in 1992 & received only $2,800 for my mangled mess of a car. My roommate & best friend threw a Wheels & Deals down on the table. He pointed to a 1972 Olds Cutlass Convertible for $2400 & proclaimed"You have to buy this car, it is so you Rip" I had no idea how big of a moment this would turn out to be in my life. 1 of the top 10 for sure & i'll tell you why. First, this car personifies my laid back, easy going attitude. When i drive the Cutlass i am never in a hurry & i'll get there in due time. I try not to drive it in the rain as the top should be down always. Second, this car was a mess in reality & desperate need of restoration. The previous owner had wrecked it probably more than once & repaired it with Bondo. It is a convertible so water damage was also a factor. There was massive areas of rust throughout the car. I have a list of a 100 things i will do before i die & restoring the Cutlass was way up at #2 but it took me 14 years to begin the long & expensive project. The guy in the picture is Yancey Hale, husband of my former processor Jackie Hale. I'm 6'5" 280 & he makes me look small. Big men were needed for this job. Yancey advised me to sell the car for parts & with the money i was about to spend, he could buy me another Cutlass. I said Hell No, i've given up on many things in my life & i was never giving up on this car. He understood & set out to restore my YeloSub to as new as he could. It was the best $15,000 i've ever spent. This experience taught me that vision & persistence are 2 necessary traits that can help me in life. I was patient & driven to get the YeloSub where it needed to be. People can have their Mercedes, Lexus & BMW's but I'm an all American muscle car kind of guy & this car will flat out get it. If you ever see me driving around Nashville in the Cutlass; you'll understand. #2 restore the Cutlass-Done
Go topless whenever possible,
Rip

Treasure from Down Under

I have always enjoyed going to flea markets as an adult....not so much as a child, it bored me. Everytime that I travel to Australia i get excited at the possibilities of finding new, one of a kind
treasure at the many flea markets in just about every city. The picture shows some Huen pine treasure from Salamanca market in Hobart, Tasmania. Huen pine only grows in Tasmania & it has a incredible smell to it. It can be very expensive but no one I know has any pieces. Whether it be opals from Coober Pedy, Aboriginal art from Kuranda or Popglass jewelery from Sydney; you will have unique treasure from Australia. Let's face the facts, less than 1% of the population of the U.S. will ever travel to Australia or New Zealand. This is the basis for my company OnMeWay,LLC. Nashville is a great city but very trendy. Everyone is trying to keep up with their neighbhors whether it be houses,cars or which private school their kids attend. I look forward to bringing back one of a kind treasure & reselling to the Jones so the Smiths will have to have the next bigger & better thing I import. Have you been someplace that has great treasure & maybe scuba diving too? Let me know & if I import from there, I'll give you a cut. Gotta run. Until next time...remember treasure is everywhere. Cheers, Rip the treasure hunter

Peg Leg Porker for Life

Here I am taking a cheap shot at one of my favorite guys.....Carey Bringle of the Peg Leg Porkers. Carey lost part of his leg when he was young but he has an amazing attitude that is truly infectious. We are charter members of the BBQ cooking team The Peg Leg Porkers. I do the heavy lifting & run the Ice Luge during our annual Memphis in May World BBQ cooking competition. We were 17th in the WORLD last year! If you have never been then you are missing one of the great spectacles of our time. It is nothing but the B's for mez.Beer,BBQ,baseball & babes(disclaimer-I'm engaged now) No one wants to know how many calories of Que or how many cold beers are consumed. Every year i walk down to the banks of the Mississippi River & proclaim "I'm going to swim across this river". Every year Warren Sanger proclaims "You will drown you dumbass". So I walk away until next year. Every year is a different chapter with new stories of fun, horror & embarrassment. We compete in shoulders mainly but we have some real serious sponsors including Lobel's of New York. They provide steak "that would make a rabbit smack a hound dog" it is that good. Check out our sight & read more about Carey Bringle The Pitmaster.www.peglegporker.com Cheers, Ripper

Football Time in Tennessee-SEC Championship

Since I was a small child I have told people that I bleed Orange for the Tennessee Vols! There are few things that inspire me to the passion level that UT football does. Some of the best days & worst days have been the result of these football games. Our team is 9-3 0verall & 6-2 in the SEC East, tied with Georgia but since we thumped their ass early in the year; we are going to Atlanta to take on the LSU Tigers!
The picture is of Neyland Stadium which holds in excess of 107,000 screaming brain dead rednecks all hopped up on bourbon. What a sight i can tell you. Our stadium is a vertical stadium meaning it goes up instead of out; this makes it amazingly loud. I have been coming to games in this shrine since I was 9.(32 yrs) I have traveled around throughout the SEC & no one has a stadium as impressive. Yeah Florida, Alabama & LSU are loud but their stadiums don't intimidate opposing teams the way Neyland does. There is NO place I would rather be on a Saturday in the fall than Neyland Stadium....home of the University of Tennessee Volunteers. GO BIG ORANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I dare you to come in here....

Back to Australia. Growing up in the South, you see all kinds of crazy looking animals. You also see some pretty crazy ones on Saturday morning cartoons as well. This little fellow is the Tasmanian Devil & he is ferocious. You won't find many tourists getting close ups or cuddling with this carnivore. He is nocturnal as most Australian creatures seem to be & when he feeds he lets out a piercing scream that is disturbing to say the least. This one was taking at a wildlife park on Phillip Island about an 1 1/2 hours southeast of Melbourne. Phillip Island is also home to a fairy penguin rookery that is a must if you make it to Melbourne. Every night at dusk thousands of tiny penguins come ashore from a day of feeding at sea & waddle back to the same nest. The park ranger advised us not to take pictures as it frightens the birds....so....i took a picture & it was the only one on the roll(old days) that didn't turn out. As Earl would say...."Karma is a bitch" The opportunity to see such incredible animals changes my itinerary every trip. I love saying I saw a Tasmanian Devil or fairy penguin, not many people ever will. There were Tasmanian Tigers(yes it's true) until around the 1940's but they were killed off by hunters but some people in Tasmania believe they still exist in the mountains of "Tassie" I hope so, maybe I'll be lucky enough to see one of those one day.

Cheers,

Rip

Happy Thanksgiving to all & especially our troops!

My name in neon...looks real GOOD!

I grew up the son of Leo, he was a pharmacist by day & night club owner by night. He had Leo's & it was the place to be in Nashville back in the 70's & NO it wasn't a honky tonk. Through the years I've run across 10-12 places called Rip's but never a straight up pub, that is the kind of bar i would like to own. Serve Schlitz regular as the main draft selection, which incidently you can't get in the Southeast U.S. anymore. Have all the crap I've collected over the years hung up everywhere. Have really good food & make the prices reasonable as well. Every 1000th customer gets his tab paid for & on your 21st bday...we buy you a shot & throw you out cuz you are gonna get out of hand anyway. No coffee, no clove cigarettes & i have the right to refuse service to anyone. I would have hottie bartendresses & 1 day a week i would get behind the bar & serve the masses. I bar tended a couple time back in the day & really like it for the most part. Add Rip's to the list of shit i will do before I die.
Cheers,
Rip

Australian beer is good!

I got off track a bit with the 2 articles...i apologize & let us talk about Aussie beer. I'm a big fan of almost all of it except Foster's, the Australia beer brewed in Canada for us. I did see a guy drink one in Adelaide i think. Well when in Sydney I always wander into the Fortune of War....it has been around forever. It has that old time feel & when you walk in everyone turns & stares at you or maybe it was because i'm BIG! Australians are very loyal to their state's beer with every single pub has it displayed. New South Wales is Toohey's, Victoria loves VB(Victoria Bitter),Queensland is XXXX, South Australia has Carlton & Tasmania has 2 Cascade & James Boag. This last adventure i stuck with Carlton Lager, it is crisp but fairly light & went down real nice. Met the bartender Greg who was a fairly stout fella as well. He played rugby & actually toured thru the states last year with Savannah, GA for St. Patrick's day being his highlight. Like the fine southern women as well. I live in Nashville & haven't been to Savannah....soon. I had a Memphis rugby team shirt back at the hostel that i promised him. I bought one of their shirts in XXL....more like a L to me after it was washed. Spent the afternoon drinking with a son & dad coal miners. They were alot of fun & bought me numerous rounds. Dad had actually been in Nashville back when Hank Sr was alive. I limped out of there around 5 & hit the subway for a return to the Bondi Beach Hostel. When in Sydney....go to the Fortune of War & tell Greg I said hello!
Cheers,
Rip

i've been published!

I retired from the mortgage business & decided to decompress for 40 days in faraway Australia. I arrived in Sydney & proceeded to Bondi Beach to be with all the pretty people. As this was my third time in OZ, i vowed to see harder to reach places which translates into using ferries & more air travel. It is worth it ! The mistake we make when it comes to visiting Australia is we don't take enough time to see this amazing country. I recommend no less than 3 weeks & plan on flying from city to city as Australia is approximately the same size as the U.S.
I took day trips to Magnetic Island from Sydney, Kuranda from Cairns & a 2 day overnight trip to Kangaroo Island from Adelaide where this picture of The Remarkables (a cluster of gigantic granite boulders) was taken. I boarded a tri-engine speedboat to jet around Bruny island in Southern Tasmania....what a thrill ride! I get a kick out of being sooooo far off the beaten path & that noone knows where i am. Another added feature is the abundant amount of creatures you get to view truly in the wild. You will see kangaroos, wallabies, koala & yes even Tasmanian Devils. 40 days & i'm decompressed.
Cheers.
Rip Pewett,Nashville
as seen in the travel section of the Sunday Tennessean...pretty cool stuff

Pulitzer prize winning article...NOT!

Get Off the Front Porch
By Rip Pewett


As a small boy I too, like Columbus, knew the world wasn’t flat but I believed it was a triangle. Nashville, Tennessee was at the western point, then Knoxville, Tennessee to the east and closed up by Destin, Florida in the south. What a wonderful pointed world it was! My parents showed me the round globe and this rocked my world almost as much as the no Santa Clause disclosure. Oh well, I still had the Easter bunny (oh right banished to Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean). A dysfunctional childhood for sure, but I like to think of it as a period of disinformation. I remember sitting on my front porch watching the same view everyday wondering what else was out there.

World History I and Geography quickly showed me all I needed to know: the world was vast and there were billions of people just waiting to meet me. I took baby steps at first by getting out of my own state. I immediately fell in love with the decadence of New Orleans, the sunset celebration in Key West, the lights and glitter of sin city Las Vegas and the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The latter I credit for inspiring me to become a scuba diver. I saw thousands of different species of saltwater fish, rays & sharks that hooked me for life. This was also the first time I encountered penguins and to this day I still think they rock! The problem was, if I never traveled outside the United States I would never get to swim with most of these beautiful creatures.

The first order of business was acquiring a passport. This was easily accomplished by the good folks at the Acklen Avenue branch of the United States Postal Service. Four to eight weeks later I had the legal instrument to traverse the globe. In the next 10 years I would put that baby to good use. I traveled to Australia twice and dove in the Great Barrier Reef each time. I watched the fairy penguins of Phillip Island return at dusk from the sea to their burrows. (that was amazing). In Sydney I drank cold VB’s (Victoria Bitter) in a pub watching the USA play Australia in Olympic men’s basketball. I was the only Yank and the only winner in that place by games end. I spent seven weeks in Northern Ontario fishing for trout and dodging moose on the back roads. I visited Cancun twice and did some drift diving in nearby Cozumel before buying treasure at the numerous free markets. I got engaged on Andros Island in the Bahamas, got married on Grand Cayman, then honeymooned and scuba dived on Little Cayman.

I am currently planning my adventures for the year 2008. As always, I try to visit the old faithful destinations that I mentioned earlier. I will also embark on some new adventures, including at least one new major league ballpark. It is here, in the planning stages, that I truly find contentment. It took me 38 years of my life to realize that my business and my livelihood must be tied to the planning and execution of adventure travel. I am starting my own web based business to promote “Getting Off Your Front Porch” and finding treasure. Not sunken treasure per se but local treasure from all over the world. I will visit exotic and far off places like Papua New Guinea, Bali, Thailand, New Zealand and revisit Australia. When I get the green light, I will even discover the treasure of Cuba. You can follow my vision quest, as I like to call it, and see the treasure I discover on my website www.onmeway.com.

I want every reader to know that I am a native Nashvillian, as my father was before me. I truly love it here, but the world is a spectacular place and must be explored. Nashville will be the same great town when I return. I believe that every adventure helps us grow and see things through a different light. I make new friends in every new city or town I travel and they are kind enough to point me in the right direction and share their culture with me. Since Al Gore invented the internet (ha ha) it is simple to keep up with my new friends all over the world and maybe one day I can return the hospitality Nashville style.

The world is changing but we cannot live in fear of it. I firmly believe when it is my time so be it. I might just be lucky enough to see all the things on my list of 100 things to do before I die. I know one thing for sure and that is I absolutely must get off my front porch. Bob Seger said it best “these are the memories that make me a wealthy soul.”

Rip Pewett
Treasure Hunter

Welcome to OZ!

Well, i'm in Sydney for 5 days of decompression & the first thing i learn is...it is 8a.m., i've packed like a girl for the 45 days in Oz(Australia for the rookies) & i can't check into the Bondi Beach hostel until 2p.m. No worries. I throw my bag into the hostel storage, grab my traveling gnome Big Boy & head to the topless beach! Well let me tell you, this beach rocks & although it is the slow season, it is packed with people. Big Boy finds a board way too big for him but whatever floats his plastic boat. I don't want to damper his mood as he was tucked into a bag for the flight....it was rude but had to be done.
I decide that a little brekkie is in order so i pull up to a cafe & order eggs,big bacon, toast & potatoes. i order a beer & the manager informs me that his permit won't allow him to sell beer this early but he appreciates my zeal. I sit back & overlook the surf while reading the Aussie daily paper. My food comes quickly & i enjoy not having much of an agenda for the next 5 days. There is such a feeling of contentment when you realize your world is 12,000 miles away & no one knows where you are. Complete freedom.
I bought a 7 day combo pass(bus, train & ferry) after i cleared the Japanese customs agent(confused where i actually landed for a second), so i grabbed a bus, hoped a train & there i was at Circular Quay(pronounced key) with the Sydney Bridge on me left & the Opera House on me right.....next stop the oldest pub in Sydney, The Fortune of War!
Cheers,
Rip