When I was about 8 years old, we lived in a wonderful house in a town called Calioaka, Alabama in Saraland, Alabama. Well, while there my mom bought a canopy bed from my aunt which I slept in. MIT was some Ethan Allen masterpiece to be sure, as my Aunt and mom are crazy in love with this type furniture. She also bought some Captains chairs from her as well, which plays into this a little later. Well, while playing, I would pretend I was sailing on my big ship (the canopy bed) and then once I would reach the natives islands, I would get in my dinghy (the toy box) and oar over to them, preach the gospel to them, see them saved, baptize them, and then off to the next place. I also had this idea of conquering them as well, but that was only when we arrived and if they were hostile toward us. I remember asking mom who sat in captains chairs and she told me captains which made me think of these big great ideas of captain Nemo and 20,000 leagues under the sea, which was also a movie I fell in love with and helped shape my life as a small boy.
Well, this was my life long dream and goal. I thought about my life long dreams and goals as I rode my bike across the United States in 2012 with blue belle my blue tick beagle. (Christopherlangham.blogspot.com). Many people asked was this a life long goal you had to bicycle across the USA? I'm would repeatedly say no,mount it did make me start to think about what my life dreams were and how to achieve them. I truly set out to ride across the USA for those who couldn't do it for themselves. For our wounded warriors who may need some help and inspiration to start again, and for those like my neighbor at the time who I loved very much; who had an accident on his bicycle as a child and was paralyzed from the neck down as a result. The ride was a success, and we started at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in Boston, MA and finished in Peugot Sound, WA at the (COCA) Center of Contemporary Art. I found that appropriate since I am a minor in Fine art, with a major in Physics, and Art has been a catalyst to help me overcome serious obstacles and disabilities in my own life. I am forever grateful to all those who helped make that journey possible, although I had hoped to raise much more awareness and support than I did for the Wounded Warrior Project, and for the ARC, DAV, etc... Yet during this trip one of the recurring themes in my mind was how God intended for us as people to grow, much like the trees. Strong roots, stable lives, branches and their number one objective in life is to continue to grow. That's it. Well, that was the beginning of this dream coming to life. Summer ended, I went and ran a 50K ultra marathon in the mountains of California, visited my father and mom, and went back for another year of University. I thought the dream would come alive by starting a charter boat company, but that didn't happen, yet this opportunity to go to the Virgin Islands did. I had applied for over 200 jobs, and the only solid one with any chance of future growth that was really an opportunity was the one I am in now. I teach Science (supposed to teach Physics) at the local High School in St. Thomas. So on 1/10/2015 just days before the worst blizzard in the history of Massachusetts I set off with blue belle to the Caribbean to teach. Well, I had secured housing in the public housing sector from putting my name on a wait list 5 years earlier. So my name came up the same time as the job, and off I went. No solid contract, no promise of an actual job when I arrived, only a brief Skype interview and an encounter with some administration from a previous visit to check it all out. Well, it was a culture shock to say the least. My first week there I walked up on a murder scene, and 9 more followed in the next weeks and months ahead. I walked up on another murder scene two months later. By walk up I mean literally hear the gunshots in my apartment, and while walking up the hill thirty minutes later see police CSI VANS, CONES WITH NUMBERS ON THEM AND OFFICERS RUNNING UP TO ME ASKING ME WHAT I AM DOING AND MAKING ME FEEL MORE UNCOMFORTABLE THAN I ALREADY DID. I decided then that is it. If the trash everywhere, strewn car parts, broken glass, muck and mire, assault rifles being fired off all hours of the night, loud music, ghetto life.... wasn't enough, then that was. So I started looking for a loan and a boat immediately. There is no place on the island I want to live unless of course I had a place with the other multi millionaires who seclude and keep out all undesirable life.....but I don't.... What I do have is a 1977 Catalac Catamaran that will be moored in RedHook and give me million dollar views on a piecemeal budget. Glory to God!!! He provides. He truly is The Provider. Well, so now here blue belle and I are in Scotland, having spent the last ten glorious days, waiting for the money to be wired which was paid out on the 22 June. Why they kept it that long and made me pay for a bed and breakfast, hotel, and food, is a mystery to me. I should have been able to live on the boat. But it is what it is, and now I am free, the money wired today, I am moving on the vessel tomorrow and the real adventure now begins as we are going to sail to the Canary Isands, and then on to St. Thomas, USVI. What a great life Blue belle gets to live!!!! So please follow along, enjoy the videos and pictures and after we are done enjoy the YouTube video of our journey. Consequently there is a video up on YouTube as well of our trip across America called (blue belle takes America by heart)... We will keep you posted, and in the mean time ENJOY!!!!!!
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