I studied history at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. After college I traveled as much as I could. I worked as an exchange student in London and hitchhiked around Scotland. I floated down the Amazon River in Peru and Brazil on a Kon Tiki Raft. I taught English in Japan for two years traveling to Thailand for vacation. When I left Japan I took the long way home, journeying through Mongolia and Russia on the Trans- Siberian Express.