Wil Beaucher

Gas Tank Diaries Wil Beaucher

Only when we look back on our lives, is it easy to see the pivotal choices that have led us to where we are today. For most, that list includes graduation, landing a job, and incremental promotions as years tick past, forty hours at a time while throwing out cliches like, "TGIF" and, "Another Day another Dollar." If that's you, then this story is the antithesis. It's like The Alchemist if Santiago ended up finding his treasure as far away from home as possible.______________________________________________________________________________ When Richard Rhodes was a little boy, his mother told him that we only have so much gas in our tanks and that we had a choice in how we use it. We could burn it all up traveling around and around in our little circle of life, or use it to live a life of adventure toward where our soul is happiest. Richard took this seriously enough to shred life's traditional roadmap and head out without a plan; only changing direction when his soul said to do so. Gas Tank Diaries is Nelson's journey from a typical Americana upbringing to aimlessly zig-zagging across the U. S., then finally realizing his dream of traveling through South America on a motorcycle with nothing but his gut to guide him. This isn't the feel-good, Travel & Leisure guide to South America's coveted destinations; it's a chronicle of his personal growth through experiences within those other cultures. From the inner workings of the brothels set high in the hills of Medellin to the stench of stray dog piss on the sidewalks of Iquique, Richard highlights the in-between bits of Latin America's beautiful underbelly while on a mission is to figure life out as he goes.