Freedom Junky
Anthrotrek Culture Through Expeditionary Travel
Biography
Brink Braggart:
At 33 Brink Braggart was the owner of a telecommunications company with offices in two cities and a customer base that spanned over a third of Texas. His defining moment or epiphany happened while sitting in a movie theater during a Tuesday afternoon matinee. “In the film, I don’t remember which one, a telephone rang and I could identify the phone system by the ring. Hearing that phone and recognizing it I said to myself, my god this is my life this is what I’ve become, a friggin phone man. It was like Brando said in Apocalypse Now, a crystal bullet hit me right between the eyes and I saw my future. A future of being the highest paid and most boring guy at the dinner table” Not five minutes after hearing that phone ring Brink left the theater, went to his office and told his employees “I quit” and that they could have everything in the place. He threw his stunned staff the keys, walked out and headed to Texas Tech University where he enrolled in the archaeology program to pursue what he always wanted. A life of adventure in exotic lands, a life way outside box Americana and a place as far away from the confines of consumption that he could get.
Returning to Texas after years in China, Brink moved into a Vietnam era army tent on 180 acres outside Boerne, Texas where he worked as an adventure guide in an underground river that snaked though several caves that ran below the property. "I gave up the caving gig when one of my partners died within reach of me while exploring a water cave known as Dead Man's Cave. Caves have incredible acoustics and listening to a buddy die in stereo turned me off the whole caving thing. I would rather take my risks with altitude, cluster bombs or an adventure in some whacked out exotic land than die like that."
Out of work and sitting in a local brew pub called the Dodging Duck, Brink had a conversation about his recent exploits in Cambodia and Laos with a local eccentiric whose family practically founded Texas. The man told him a tale of his ancestor Phillip Larston, a 16th century English privateer and his family's lore of the Larston Buddha. Over several pale ales and a bottle of white wine, Brink struck an accord with the wealthy eccentric to send him back to Cambodia in search of the fabled Larston Buddha.
Contact Home Page Tibet Laos Blog Larston Buddha Blog
At 33 Brink Braggart was the owner of a telecommunications company with offices in two cities and a customer base that spanned over a third of Texas. His defining moment or epiphany happened while sitting in a movie theater during a Tuesday afternoon matinee. “In the film, I don’t remember which one, a telephone rang and I could identify the phone system by the ring. Hearing that phone and recognizing it I said to myself, my god this is my life this is what I’ve become, a friggin phone man. It was like Brando said in Apocalypse Now, a crystal bullet hit me right between the eyes and I saw my future. A future of being the highest paid and most boring guy at the dinner table” Not five minutes after hearing that phone ring Brink left the theater, went to his office and told his employees “I quit” and that they could have everything in the place. He threw his stunned staff the keys, walked out and headed to Texas Tech University where he enrolled in the archaeology program to pursue what he always wanted. A life of adventure in exotic lands, a life way outside box Americana and a place as far away from the confines of consumption that he could get.
Returning to Texas after years in China, Brink moved into a Vietnam era army tent on 180 acres outside Boerne, Texas where he worked as an adventure guide in an underground river that snaked though several caves that ran below the property. "I gave up the caving gig when one of my partners died within reach of me while exploring a water cave known as Dead Man's Cave. Caves have incredible acoustics and listening to a buddy die in stereo turned me off the whole caving thing. I would rather take my risks with altitude, cluster bombs or an adventure in some whacked out exotic land than die like that."
Out of work and sitting in a local brew pub called the Dodging Duck, Brink had a conversation about his recent exploits in Cambodia and Laos with a local eccentiric whose family practically founded Texas. The man told him a tale of his ancestor Phillip Larston, a 16th century English privateer and his family's lore of the Larston Buddha. Over several pale ales and a bottle of white wine, Brink struck an accord with the wealthy eccentric to send him back to Cambodia in search of the fabled Larston Buddha.
Contact Home Page Tibet Laos Blog Larston Buddha Blog
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