Two years exactly - final 100goals blog post.

At around 10pm on 3rd August 2008 I flew out of Perth, heading for Dubai, and the first goal on my list of 100 challenges. I set myself a target time period of 100 weeks, and by 4th July 2010, exactly 100 weeks later, I had achieved 93 of the 100 goals.

It is now exactly two years since I set off on my adventure, and this morning I have sat and looked through all of the pictures that have appeared on the blog over that time. I am amazed that there are over 2,400 pictures that I have selected for the website, out of thousands more that didn't appear there. I made a slideshow of the photos, and even at a setting of just one second per picture, it takes over 40 minutes to look through them all.

Seeing many of these pictures gives me that wierd dual sense of time. Some of the earlier goals feel like they happened only yesterday, but at the same time, other photos from the same period feel like they were taken a lifetime ago.

I have crammed so much into two years, and as I look over the photos, I am reminded of so many incredible experiences, wonderful places and fantastic adventures.

But as the pictures scroll by, it is the people that continue to stand out as the high points of the journey. I have tried to include photos of most of the people I have met along the way, but have inevitably missed a few.

I see pictures of friends old and new all around the world, and I feel incredibly grateful to all who have been a part of my journey over these years. I have been honoured to be welcomed by people on all continents, from all walks of life, and have been given unique insights into places that I could never have hoped to gain as a traveller with no local contacts.

To everyone who has been part of this journey, whether in person, or online, I will be forever grateful for the opportunities and experiences you have offered. This truly has been the adventure of a lifetime, and it wouldn't have been half the experience without the people who have been a part of the story.

As I have quoted so many times now, from the movie "Into The Wild":-

HAPPINESS ISN'T REAL UNLESS SHARED
Thank you all for sharing this journey with me.

Ian Usher
3rd August 2010
Whitehorse, Canada






PLEASE NOTE:
There will be no further blog posts on the 100goals website.
There are a few more videos to be posted when I get around to editing them, including the jet fighter flight, the weightlessness flight, the final day in New York, and an edited highlights of the whole two years. These will be posted to YouTube as usual, and inserted into the blog at the appropriate places. I will let you know when this happens on the new blog on my new website at:-
www.IanUsher.com/blog.php

You can follow further travels and adventures there, and keep updated about the progress of the book, "A LIFE SOLD", which I hope to have in print by around mid-October 2010.

BlindsidedNetwork.com forum page complete.

The final goal of the 93 that I completed was signed off as achieved on 3rd July, just one day before the end of my 100 weeks.

I am very proud that this is the last of the goals that I achieved, as I feel this brings the whole journey full circle. It all started when I was blindsided back in November 2005, and ends almost five years later with a forum to support others who get blindsided by life's surprises.

On 3rd July the forum was up and working, and already had a few submissions, but I still had a couple of issues to solve that were merely to do with the look of the whole website. I am now pleased to have resolved these at last.

I managed to finally figure out why I couldn't embed the blog in the blog page - it was as simple as one tick-box in the Blogger settings that I had missed. But I couldn't sort out the colour scheme of the forum page itself without the assistance of a professional.

This is where Simon from "oolybooly" stepped in and offered to help. Debbie originally helped me get the forum working, and Simon completed the process by sorting out the colour scheme, so that it looks like it is an integral part of the site.

Thanks to Debbie and Simon, and to all others who have helped along the way, and a big "thank you" too to those who have contributed so far. The site has had around 1,500 visits so far. Please feel free to take a look at the forum, and make a contribution if you like too.

Click on the image below to visit the BlindsidedNetwork.com forum

Alaska road trip.

It's been an easy week since my last blog, but I wonder where the time seems to go, as I haven't got as much of my book done as I would have liked to. Time seems to disappear easily when sorting out the chickens, setting up the solar panel, hanging an outdoor shower, filling the water barrels, or any of the other things that so easily distract me here. I am thoroughly enjoying myself though.

This weekend I jumped at the chance of getting out and about when Moe suggested we go to Alaska to visit the Southeast Alaska State Fair in Haines. Her daughter Maible is away at camp, so it was just Finn with us this weekend.

It is about five hours in the car from Whitehorse. The drive is spectacular, and the weather was beautiful. We stopped for lunch at Haines Junction, a tiny place in the middle of nowhere, and we crossed the border into the States without any problems, and more surprisingly, without any paperwork! Our tent was set up in the campground well before dinner time, so we went for a look around.



Haines is situated on the coast on a large sheltered inlet surrounded by mountains, and is very scenic. The Chilkoot River flows into the sea from Chilkoot Lake just nearby, and we watched salmon in the river, and eagles glide overhead. I was hoping to see a bear, apparently there are quite a few around here, but unfortunately we weren't lucky enough to spot one.



In town in the evening we were extremely disappointed to have missed the opening hours for the intriguing Hammer Museum, but consoled ourselves with beer and pool in the pub next door.



The fair the next day was great. As I had hoped, there were all sorts of lumberjack competitions, including axe-throwing, running over logs dragging heavy cables, and sawing through huge trees with chainsaws! Brilliant.

Groups played on stage all afternoon and evening, and there was some great music. One of the highlights was the amazing "Nanda" - an all-action ninja juggling combat extravaganza.



The journey back was just as spectacular, and we stopped off for a snowball fight on the way. There is still plenty of snow around here, even in the middle of summer! Crossing back into Canada was just as easy as the border crossing on the way out, with a surprisingly minimal amount of questioning.



What a great weekend. It has been nice to do a little travelling again! Hopefully that will soothe my itchy feet enough to be able to sit down and get the next couple of chapters done!