The second crappy travel event was on the heels of 9/11, I was headed to Sacramento, California for a MACS convention/seminar three weeks later. The flight out was fine, but my travel companion and I were pretty nervous. The fact that we were both martial artists was just a small comfort. Neither of us relished the idea of trying to fight potential terrorists. We certainly didn’t feel as brave as Todd Beamer and his crew. Anyway, we met our friends at the hotel and proceeded with the events of the weekend. Everything was going real well – until Sunday morning the seminar leaders interrupted our training to gather us together and announce that our military had just invaded Afghanistan.

Shortly afterward I was joined by the others in our group. We might cancel our flights and rent a van and drive back to the East Coast. We might do nothing. It was nerve wracking and I never wanted to be home with my family as much as I did that day. We ended up not changing any plans, salvaged the rest of the weekend including some hard training (nothing like some bad news to make you want to beat up your friends) and some hard tequila.

Mark Saleski

I'm not much for traveling. In fact, you could say that I hate it. It's my introversion run amok that keeps me from considering, much less enjoying, new and distant physical situations. No, I spend my time exploring the inner reaches of my gray matter through words and music. That's far enough.

So Sir Brewster is moving all the freaking way over to Shanghai, something I would never do. This is great news, as the Brewsters will get to expand their cultural horizons and I can benefit from the stories that will be sure to filter their way back across the Internet. That Mat may have to climb to the top of a telephone pole with his laptop and dial-up modem is no concern of mine.

In honor of this momentous occasion, I'd like to relate my one grand travel story.

Umm... except that I don't really have any.

Wait, how about the time I took a road trip through the mountains of New York State to audition a pair of speakers? Or, or...the time I drove all the way up to Bar Harbor and back (in a single day!) for a case of Bar Harbor Real Ale? No, wait...there was also the fourteen straight hours in the car from Haverhill, Massachusetts down to northern Kentucky to attend an audiophile get-together. That was a good one!

Ah, forget it. No matter what I come up with, it won't come close to Sir Brewster's future adventures. Good luck Mat, we'll miss you... even though we've never met you.

Josh Hathaway

All day long I've been repeating in my head, "In the land of China..." and going through the whole Forrest Gump carry-on in which Tom Hanks helps John Lennon write "Imagine." Maybe it's because I'm sitting behind a desk in Huntsville, Alabama and our own dear Sir Brewster is about to head out into the great unknown.