Hello, My Name is Leif

Hello, blogging world, my name is Leif Ecklert. My friend, Tim Clark has invited me to contribute to his blog.

Several years ago I met Tim in Louisville, KY. He was in town with his family for a basketball game, they are big Cardinal fans, #GoCards, Tim. I was in town with my family to fly underground at the Mega Caverns Underground zip line course. Which was amazing, by the way.

We were staying in the same motel, the Embassy Suites. We met waiting in a long line for drinks, Natasha, my wife, and I were standing in line Nancy, Tim's wife and Tim. The line was long, but the drinks were free so it all worked out. 

Tim's wife started a conversation with us, and since we were all stuck together it just kind of grew.

We sat down and talked, turns out we were both Grateful Dead fans. He was more Live Europe 72 and I was more In the Dark. But the Dead is the Dead, right? We both loved the underground zip lines, and we both enjoyed bourbon on the rocks.  Here is the weird part, though, we are both "born to write." It was like we were brothers, without the animosity of being related.

After a few drinks, the lines were long, so we drank slowly, we said good night, and went our separate ways. But, the next morning we ended up in the omelet line together. We sat and drank coffee, and ate too much breakfast. And had a good time.

We stayed in touch a little. Life is a busy place, and drift happens, and we didn't really know each other that well anyway. But, we managed a few messages, a quick email, random, occasional contact.

Here is where it gets weird, though.  We both ended up writing for the same magazine The Wild Word.  Here is my latest post. After he saw that he felt it almost a necessity that I join his blog, Life Explained, Sandusky, you know.

So many things, so much in common, so many coincidences. Tim thought it might signal the end of days. So we decided to try the omelets and free drinks at several Embassy Suites around the country. What better way to face the apocalypse? He said the one outside Omaha is fantastic, and I told him we could stop at the Embassy in downtown Peoria on the way there, I thought it was first rate.

We may try to find an old VW bus, and tour the country trying Embassy Suites, listening to the Dead, and writing tales of daring escape and fantastic discovery. Ken Kesey and Hunter S. Thompson taking a walk on the mild side, ibuprofen instead of acid, and bottled water instead of pot. It will be end up a collection of our greatest hits.

 Of course, if he's wrong our wives are going to be furious.