What exactly am I doing on the road, in a van with a Rottweiler, wandering around America interviewing people about what makes them “stay hungry” for more? Call it a mid-life crisis, call it an adventure, call it inspiration. It’s all of those.

When my father died in 2006 I took to the road to cope with his death, to re-evaluate my own life, to find freedom and release on the asphalt ribbons that wound around the Rockies. My then excellent adventure became a year of homelessness as I refused to give up my Rottweiler and cat simply so I could afford an apartment. I worked full-time, but lived in my van. It was an eye opening experience for me, a journalist, to live on the streets of Denver, CO from April 2006 through October 2006, then in Tennessee until April 2007, and in Virginia for another month or two when I was finally able to find an apartment that took Rottweilers.

I worked for a major newspaper before becoming an independent freelancer in 2008. Along the way I won a few writing contests - like Daniel Pink’s Johnny Bunko contest for the “seventh lesson,” in his best-selling career guide, “The Adventures of Johnny Bunko,” and ended up in Oxford, England, speaking at TED Global 2009 about being invisible and part of the working homeless. Inspired by the response to my TED talk, and my awakening realization that we all really do create our own reality with the stories we tell ourselves, I’ve decided to take to the road again.

The difference between this trip and the last one - is the knowledge that reality is what we make it.

This blog is a collection of the stories I discover along the way - stories about people who “Stay Hungry,” - meaning they don’t settle for what life has put on their plate. If you’re one of those folks, please feel free to post your story here. Thanks for following the adventure!