Hi.
My name is Brandon, or as my friends call me, B Ray.
I’ve an adventurist and aspiring vagabond. I’m trying to live a life less ordinary, minimizing consumption in order to experience the world, and a few of the of the adrenaline rushes it has to offer. I want to help you do the same.
Mountaineering
Chasing the 7 Summits: 5/8
In 2015, the film “Everest” came out. My good friend, Shane Duffy (@shanerduffy) and I enjoyed this movie. In fact, after watching it, we decided we wanted to climb Everest. Then we realized (spoiler alert)… almost everyone died. Not being particularly interested in dying, we surmised that we should probably get some skills first. What better way to do that than by climbing other mountains? So, we recruited some friends – I’m looking at you, Eddie (@edwardnyc.ig) and Les (@lesesmore) – who are equally bad at making life choices, and thus, our quest to climb the “Seven Summits” was born.
We quickly realized that this was a bit of a yak-shaving exercise. We also needed skills to climb those mountains… So, now we find ourselves traipsing around the world climbing mountains, convincing other friends to join us when and where they can.
Travel
So many countries, so little (vacation) time: 91/195
I grew up in a small… Okay, I grew up in a tiny town in Texas. A kid couldn’t ask for a better childhood. I always had outside, and a lot of it, to play with. Outside was my favorite toy. This town was like many other small towns, however, in that the perspective you gain there is deep and invaluable, but it isn’t particularly broad.
When I was 15, I was lucky enough to travel with a friend and his Rotary Exchange directing relative to France for 3 weeks. While this trip opened my eyes in so many ways, there was one particular point of inflection that changed the trajectory of my life.
After exploring Paris for the better part of the day, we visited Notre Dame. When we finished walking around inside the building, outside the building, up the bell tower, we decided to sit in the plaza between the road and cathedral for a bit. A tour bus pulled up, and the door opened. Nothing happened. Nothing continued happening for a bit, until some geriatrics started glacially flowing off of this coach with their walkers and canes. They made it a few steps into the plaza, snapped some pictures, and then retreated, slowly, to their tour bus and drove off.
In my 15 year old brain, these people had saved their entire lives for this bucket list trip, and finally taken it when they were too old to enjoy it. I swore that wouldn’t be me.