the first post; explaining TurkeyBacon

So I really have no clue why I am suddenly deciding to create a blog. I guess I figure its a good place to ramble about my thoughts. So what's up with the TurkeyBacon reference? It all starts back many years while at Southern Illinois University (at Carbondale, of course). Up until this point, life was full of bad memories, horrible anxiety, low self esteeme and general lack of people skills. I was not very happy. I realy do not know how the world around me saw me, but I do know it wasn't spectacular. I needed to find me. The Appalachian Trail is what I decided I needed. I needed to explore the territory between Springer Mt in Georgia and Mt Katahdin in Maine. I needed to suffer through 2168 miles of mountains, ridge lines, rivers, creeks, freezing cold and horrible heat, dehydration and a week of non-stop rain, blisters, sore muscles, hiker hobble, "the hunger", bugs, sunburn, chaffing and even heat rash on the soles of my feet. I was hoping that somehow through all the suffering and living the good life I wound find inner happiness through the whole experience. Fortunately for me, I did.
One tradition of hiking the AT is the trail name. Some people choose their own and others let it come to them. Mine was given to me and regardless of how goofy it sounds, its very special to me. I am the only TurkeyBacon (the "B" is capitalized and no space between words) to have ever wandered the woods. I received it by lugging at Subway turkey with bacon sandwich for two day so that on the very first night on the trail, I would not have to cook. It sounds real simple, but while someone was suffering though his first trail dinner, he gave me my trail name. It stuck and I cherish it.
I started on my 24th birthday in a symbolic re-birth of sorts. Roughly five and half months later, I stood on top of Katahdin. I could not let myself get off the mountain. I had worked so hard to reach that point that I did not want it to end. So I decided to stop hiking but continue with my journey. For a couple of years after getting off of Katahdin, I lived and breathed the AT. I moved to Western North Carolina to be close to my beloved trail. But as years have passed, it leaves me with confusion. Has the journey ended by now? I can very easily argue that when I returned to Springer Mountain a couple of years later to propose to my wonderfull wife, I started another journey that has been equally rewarding and my journey started on the AT ended. But then again, I have never returned to the despair of my life pre-AT, so I feel like I am still living by what I learned that incredible summer and that journey still goes on. Regardless, I have not been called TurkeyBacon in years. I have moved on to other big plans, like a carreer, marriage, soon to be home ownership and even a child. I am ready for my life after the summer of 2002 when people did not know me as Scott, but TurkeyBacon. I am ready for even bigger and better things. However, if anyone were to call out TurkeyBacon, I will most definately respond.