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This is a copy of an email I sent out. Most of you probably got it and read it already, but if you haven't, here it is. I've edited it for sake of "safety." IE. I didn't want everybody in the world to know my travel plans.

As my subject alludes to, I am getting closer to my home, my home in America that I haven't seen in two years. By home, though, I must be vague. I'm not sure where my chips will fall once I get there. As per my style, I am flying (almost) by the seat of my pants. I do have a slight plan in place, slight may be an overstatement.

And, I thought, as all of you are my family and friends that I care about, whether or not I show it often or at all, I wanted to let you know where my life is headed in the next...well, on June 6th at least. Some of you have been family all of my life. Some of you have been family for only part of my life. The remaining bunch of you have been friends for a some time. All of you have influenced me in some way that I have considered enormous, whether you know it or are willing to admit it.

For those of you who are out of it, or don't remember who I even am, hehe, I have been in Kazakhstan for the past two years. I still, after many emails to many groups of people, get letters asking where I am and why people don't hear from me. This is my answer.

I am not the best at anything, least of all communicating with people. For this I can only apologize. I think it is genetic, or at least the result of a scattered mind. The many times as I have tried to change this fact is the number of times I have failed to do so. I blame it on a stone cold heart and a really bad access to any kind of decent communication routes. But, I have tried in one way to keep everyone who was interested updated in my...progress, if you will.

Since I have been here, I have kept a journal, a blog, which can still be found at www.timsjournal.blogdrive.com. This journal began on the 26th of June 2004. I don't know when or if I will stop writing in it. I think there are somewhere around 110 entries, which typed in MSWord would equal somewhere around a 120 - 150 pages. This is more than I thought I would ever get posted and about a third of the things that have happened to me that I wish I had typed and posted. There is a lot. One of my goals within the first six months after I get back is to create a website complete with all of these entries (and the photos that go along with them) in a chronological order. I may need more than six months.

As per my style, I seem to have rambled away from the point of writing this letter. The point is I am coming home soon. In 18 days, I will leave on a plane from Uralsk to Almaty. I will spend the following four days working on completing paperwork and other such requirements (Physical, medical clearance, etc.). On the 6th on June, I will leave from Almaty * *** *** ** *** **** *** ** *** ** **** **** **** *** ** *** *** ** ***** ** **** *** ** (this is the info I took out...)

I am not asking any of you, nor would I expect all of you, to be at the airport to meet me. Indeed, I think I would be slightly overwhelmed if all of you that I am sending this to were to be at the terminal when I got through Customs. Overwhelmed, I think, is putting it politely, especially seeings as how the 6th is a Tuesday. For those of you in Chicago, or who know Chicago, I would like to know, for those of you who know Chicago, where would a good place to go for a steak and baked potato and as well as having the chance to see some live music, good live music.

I was planning on taking a trip to Ireland for a while after my contract finished, but that plan was scrapped when I found out that my brother would be getting a vacation around the same time. (He has been in Iraq.) He was to head back before I would have arrived from my Ireland trip. I decided that I would rather see him than take the trip. The trip can wait for another year or two.

Since I have cancelled that trip, I have decided to spend the money, instead, on a trip around the States. I plan on hopefully including the following states: Illinois (of course) Indiana, Ohio, New York, Vermont, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky (very eastern), Florida, Lousiana, Texas, Montana, Wisconsin, and anything that I have to ride through to get to there places. Yes, I did say ride. I will be taking my motorcycle and making up for the past two years that I haven't been riding. It will not be a whirlwind trip. In fact, I plan on taking my time. There will be no interstates and very few maps. (Think I can do that?) Anyway, if you would like to see me, let me know and I will try my best to stop for a moment and share a little bit of my time with you. If you couldn't tell from the above email, I don't have a solid plan which means I don't know when I will start (for sure within 1.5 months after landing) or when I will stop (probably around the time what little money I will have runs out).

I've rambled again. I guess that's about all I really have to say right now. I hope that you are all happy to read this. I hope that whereever your life has taken you in recently, the last two years have been less of a roller coaster but every bit as satisfying as these past two years have proved for me, maybe (well, in hindsight for sure).

p.s. If you have anything you wish to ask of me, you may do so knowing that in the next two months I will answer whatever you may ask...Ahh, regular internet, phone lines that work, electricity, no language barrier, food that has a variety, indoor toilets, decent customer service, family, friends, motorcycles, open roads, freedom to move when I want to meve...here I come!