February • I Get This Idea!

In February 1994, I was lost, depressed, and even having suicidal thoughts again. While all my friends seemed to have their lives in order, graduating from college, I was nowhere close to graduating or having a clue what I was going to do with my life. Kyle was getting married, Tim was engaged, Doug was getting commissioned into the Army, Curt was going to the Police Academy, everyone was beginning professional careers.

I, on the other hand, had no direction. I just knew I loved photography. I loved taking pictures, developing film and printing photographs.

Two years earlier, in 1992, I had lost my full ride scholarship to Arizona State University due to too much partying and not enough studying. I was a sophomore then.

Fast forward to 1994. After two years more at the University of Nebraska - Kearney (UNK), I was barely any closer to graduating. I was, however, living at the most infamous college party house in Kearney, “The Dome”, and I was making life-long friends with my roommates, “The Dome Crew”.

I worked at Bob’s Superstore, in the Camera Department. I had worked there since 1989, and worked there with my best friends Tim “Skratch” Skrastins, and Arlen Little.

As the Spring semester began, when it became apparent that this was our last semester together, that everyone was moving out of The Dome and on with their lives, I came up with a wild idea!

This idea came to me on a Monday morning at 10:30 am, when I was sitting in an absolutely pointless and insanely boring class at UNK called “International Travel and Tourism.” This class, that my Dad was paying for and I was required to attend to graduate, basically consisted of watching the professor’s personal slide shows of places he had visited around the world. It was pure torture for me.

So this wild idea of mine was to drop out of college completely and go experience the world myself with my camera!

“I’ll go to Europe and document the continent myself!” I thought. “I’ll get a backpack, a sleeping bag, heck, I already had a passport!”

I’d even been to Europe before, with my family, in December 1990, when we visited my sister Tracy. She was spending her junior year of high school as a Rotary exchange student in Belgium.

I knew for a fact I would learn more about the world by experiencing it firsthand than I ever could sitting in a sterile college classroom in Kearney, Nebraska. I had already proved this to myself when I spent my junior year of high school as a Rotary exchange student to Australia in 1988-1989.

As this idea gathered momentum in my mind, I realized I could go and visit my exchange student friends in Europe, the ones who had also spent a year in Australia as Rotary exchange students.

In fact, I could start my trip by visiting my “host-brother” Olivier Menjoulou in France. Olivier had lived with my family in 1991-1992 when he was an exchange student to Kearney. He told me his door was always open to me, and I knew he was telling the truth.

My plan was taking shape in my imagination: after catching up with Olivier and exploring France, I could get a Eurorail pass that would give me unlimited train rides throughout Europe! I could go and visit Katrine in Norway, Pernille in Denmark, Siri in Finland, Joe in Sweden, all my friends that I hadn’t seen since 1989 in Australia!

I could visit Dorte in Denmark, who had been an exchange student to my high school in Kearney!

I could visit my buddy Jeff. We knew each other since junior high. He was a US Marine who was stationed at Rota, Spain. Yeah, I could go visit him!

Of course everyone would be happy to see me!

Of course they would let me crash at their homes for a few days!

By the time the bell rang to release me from the prison of that International Tourism Class at 11:00 am, I had convinced myself.

I WAS GOING TO GO BACKPACKING THROUGH EUROPE IN THE FALL!

The first thing I needed to do, besides buy a backpack and a sleeping bag, was to make business cards of course. I already envisioned myself as an International Freelance Photographer, conquering Europe, meeting and photographing supermodels!

I got straight to work as soon as I got home from class, taking a self-portrait in the photo studio I created in the living room of The Dome for my business cards.

Once I got my business cards made, I needed to get a map.

Remember, this was in 1994. There was no such thing as the internet, or GPS, or Google maps, or Apple CarPlay. I needed an actual map to figure out where I was going!

This is my actual map.

“Sweet!” I thought as I looked through all the countries waiting for me. “This is going to be a blast!”

The next thing I needed was a journal.

This is my actual journal.

As I accumulated my gear and told my friends, very few people believed I would actually do this.

I invited everyone to come with me. Even if not for the whole trip, I suggested meeting up with me for a week or two. Unfortunately, I had no takers. To this day, however, almost every single friend I asked then said they WISHED NOW they had gone with me.

Anyway, the more people said no to joining me, the more determined I became to go alone.

The more people said I was crazy to do this, the more resolute I became to show them just how crazy I really was - crazy enough to do this!

I had some more planning to do, and a few months to get it all done.

I opened up the map and used sticky tack to stick it on my wall and I began dreaming.

Dreaming of escaping Kearney, dreaming of exploring Europe, dreaming of what I would see and what I would find…

I am SO HAPPY you are coming with me
through this virtual reliving of the adventure!


I ended up spending 100 days backpacking through 11 countries: Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, France, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy, and back through France.

I brought my camera, a bulk loader and a couple hundred feet of black and white film, along with a few rolls of color slide film.

I made friends, memories, and most of all, photographs!

Come with me back to a time of innocence and exploration. At a time when Satellite TV and Fax Machines were the primary form of global communication. Pay phones and international calling cards were how I communicated with the people I needed to reach, along with Air Mail postcards to my friends and family back in Nebraska.

Let’s explore Europe together through my Photographs and Journal Entries that have been safely tucked away in my parents basement for the past 30 years.

It’s time for me to see what I saw and remember what I learned. I am so excited to share my amazing journey to discover Europe and discover myself, a 22-year-old lost young man, with you!

Thank you for coming with me.