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Health & Fitness

Follow Me On the Road Less Traveled

Introducing a new bi-weekly travel adventure blog from author, photographer Bruce A Raisch. If you like Indiana Jones movies, you'll like my books and blog. They are non-fiction, real life adventures.

My adventures, it’s been that way for me my whole life. It started when I was born in Tripoli, Libya during the Suez Crises. My first trip to Yellowstone was at the age of five. I climbed my first pyramid in Mexico at the age of 10.

While in the Boy Scouts, I went spelunking, or caving, for the first time, at age 11. For my 12th birthday my father sent me into the woods with a rifle and a handful of ammunition. The instructions were simple: go into the woods; find legal game; kill it; bring it back; clean it, cook it and eat it. I came back with a rabbit, two fish, three squirrels, four quail and five bullfrogs. Then I gave my father back the remaining ammo. I had used just three shots. He gave me the rifle. I still have it. 

When I was 18, I enlisted in the Missouri Army National Guard. By the age of 20, I volunteered to be my unit’s demolition and explosives expert. And I kept on volunteering. Six tours on state emergency duty, five NCO training academics and four overseas operational deployments. I volunteered and served two tours in the first Gulf War. This is where I got a flat tire in a minefield. It was a wonderful day, and I took a photo. On another occasion while in the service I had a pepperoni pizza delivered to my foxhole. 

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With hundreds of stories like these people have always told me I should write a book. So far I’ve published four. They haven’t been written on my military experiences yet. Instead I’m writing travel and adventure books about the American West.

My interest runs from A to Z, from Archeology to Zoology. I pick a subject, research it and travel to its different sites. Example: I write about “Ghost towns,” abandoned western mining and railroad towns. I visit the site, photograph it and spend the night in its cemetery. 

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There is a lot more to it, such as research, the actual writing, the book tours, etc.  I spend four to six months on the road every year. These stories and more will fill my new blog. So, please join me on my adventures, on “The Road Less Traveled.”

Just wait till next time when I’ll let you know what new adventures my publisher has me doing.

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