A month has passed since I arrived home.
My beard needs trimming and Dude has become a wild mustang once again. Two days ago he jumped the fence and spent half an hour putting on a bucking show around the farm. Frenchie and Bruiser watched unimpressed.
All three have smelly bellies from eating 24 hours a day – I am not far behind.
After spending so much time traveling, being in one spot for an extended period of time again is a weird feeling. But then again, I never enjoyed the monotony of a non-nomadic life. I am trying to stay busy! I have created a motivational speaking presentation and performed it in my home town’s theatre, was invited to participate in a Burger King commercial and have started writing my book. The presentation was amazing and I am already getting opportunities to tell my story for large companies in Brazil. The commercial is hilarious and I was forced to eat 10 whoppers to get the shot – almost died. As far as the book – I am extremely excited for its release in the beginning of 2015! I have moved to the coast of São Paulo with Emma and we are staying at a friends house. I write, we go over notes, ride bikes on the beach, swim. The ocean feeds my soul with creativity!
This shall be the last words I share on this blog. I want to thank everyone who has come along for the ride and always followed the blog and dispatches! Your comments have given me more power than you will ever know. Especially during those hard times. Thank you!
A special thanks to everyone at OutWildTV for all of their hard work these past 2 years! I wouldn’t have made it one day out of Calgary if it wasn’t for their support. I also need to thank all of the editors who have worked on the dispatches and done such an amazing job helping me share my Long Ride home! Love you boys and sorry you had to stare at my ugly face so much these past 803 days.
To all of my sponsors, The Long Riders Guild and all of the Long Riders who inspired me, I wish I could give each one of you a strong hug and a kiss, for without you, I would not have made it anywhere. I would have never even left. Thank you for showing the world that dreams do have a value and that even the wildest ones, do come true!
To those who hosted me along my journey south, I will never be able to thank you enough! Maybe, one day I will be able to host some of you in my home in Brazil, but even that won’t make due for what you all have done for me. I arrived on your doorsteps cold, wet, tired, many times scared and you welcomed me as if I was your own son. What a beautiful lesson you have taught me. I have regained my trust in humanity thanks to you. I may have studied Journalism at Ryerson but I got my bachelors in humanity from the Americas and its people.
Although with each passing day, computers seem to become more and more important in the 21st century, we are not machines. We have a heart, a soul, a brain from which to dream. Life is too short. I have seen several times during this journey that a small piece of metal is enough to put an end to a life. So please, please, do not let fear hold you back from living. Living is what you were born to do.
Like an adventure, there is no way to know what life will bring. But just like an adventure, when you work hard and do your research, in the end, everything works out.
On a cold and rainy day in southern Mexico, I rode Bruiser while crying like a child. I was wet from head to toe, I was extremely tired and with night quickly approaching, I couldn’t find a single place to stop. No farms. No ranches. No corrals. Nothing.
As the night creeped in, I saw an open garage with a gentleman working on an old fridge. I was scared and feeling hopeless from so many failed attempts of finding a place to spend the night, but I thought what the hell. I rode up to the man and asked if I could tie the horses to his trees and spend the night camped on his lawn.
“Of course you can son, you must be freezing in those wet clothes, let me make you a warm coffee,” he said.
Many times during my Long Ride I felt like the world was crumbling around me, but with time I learned to harness this feeling of fear and use the adrenaline to my benefit because at the end of the day everything works out – it always does.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming along on the ride of my life! I wish you all of the positive energy in the universe.
Ride horses and live out your dreams.
