The Wonderfully Fantastic and Sometimes Curious Life of John Patrick Rausch

 Last week was a wild week. Here's a full breakdown of everything I did that does not include getting paid to stare at a computer screen.  Monday - Mass and group ride with the boys then indoor volleyball. Towards then end it all started to click and I was making really good sets and spikes.  Tuesday - Almost crashed in the Tuesday Crit when my tire exploded in downhill corner with 3 laps to go. Then got locked out of my house for 2.5hrs. My neighbor Amanda and Husband Bobby (on the phone) and I tried picking the lock with an actual pick set. I got at best 4 out of the 5 pins and couldn't get it. Luckily a former roommate ended up having an old spare.  The lockpicks in action Wednesday - Road trip with Tommy down to StGen to watch him sing in a quartet featuring an accordion and a priest. Then I got to try the famous StGen pork burgers which as it turns out are quite delectable. Tommy showed me around the family farm which devolved into blasting around some trails on...

It's been a while since I last updated my bucket list.....Considering I made good progress on the last one. Here is the new updated one! Hike some 14ers in Colorado Try Para gliding Track day with motorcycle (try racing?) Sky diving Scuba Diving Buy Life Insurance Finish my Will and Testament Gambler 500 (Missourah Endurah)  Smoke a FAT stogie after bossing a bike race  Perfect Spiking a volleyball in sand Learn to serve Spikeball ambidextrously  Try riding a dirt bike Sport rock climbing - DONE Learn to belay and lead climb - DONEish Recite poetry I've written from the tops of Mani Sauk falls to a beautiful woman at sunset Go busking with Joe Meyers and also not go to jail that night Convince Father Anonymous that we need to take out the rogue bunnies in my yard and enlist his help killing them with his pellet gun Improve my salsa and swing dancing Make sourdough bread pizza Show 10 more people Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1 down) Go to a shakespear play Convince an Ital...

   three days of water and sun catching up in dark isn't fun bonfire is my only beacon Gondor calls for john sleep on the cold sandy shore raging fire warms their core T-bones sawzall for the win Everything wet when dew sets in Hermann lowkey kinda far spikeball on that sandbar four brothers and four kayaks after deli, nothing lacks cayman jacks, summer shandy Gentle river is dandy our Sunday rule is to rest cooling dips are the best barges suckin and scoopin we arrive in New Haven gifted the sun's color show mass in the AM, time to go three days of water and fun sunscreen stoped the sizzling sun sardines packed in the taco B & G calls from Jeff Mo

Cliff diving and drive-ins  Float trips and wide grins Tan skin and a long day Fun starts in May Stargazing and smores Ice cream and hearty roars Long nights with good friends Wishin' summer never ends Sand dancing and cold beer Memory of a good woman near Moonroof open with bestie on aux  Sunset on the lake of rocks Vagabond John and Co Minivan of adventure in tow Mountain man and river rat Two years wearing freedom hat Work all day and chores galore Labor hard and don't be a bore Summer of 23 is here Cheers to all its a good year

Proud head cast downward Rain drips off creased brow Two steps, make a yard Push on, prove a vow Started 'fore break of day Switchback upwards for hours Summit is still so far away Georgia trees are towers At 5000 feet, the temp drops Rain turns to pure snow White up to boot tops! Pushing worries low Daylight grows stronger Land below peeks out not much longer!  effort bests doubt A bad day to hike weather not ideal A good day to hike the summit surreal

Proud and mighty Oaks towered in the meadow Recalling nurture and growth begun ages ago Dad loved to nap in their refreshing shade One afternoon sky darkened with a sudden storm Twisting summer tornado began to take form Against rings of wood did nature invade Running from basement to his lovely trees Finding only splintered limbs he fell on knees Once peaceful meadow strewn by natures grenade A swift and savage motion he never foresaw His heart broke as he carried his chainsaw Pressed into the labor of a lumberjack The lifelong lesson of love and loss stain In sawdust and broken bark which remain and the dense firewood stacked high outback As the years passed and the trees proved warm He started what he was meant to learn When the time was right, he passed along "Son, You plant the seeds and prune the trees Cherishing lovely days in the summer breeze Naïve to what comes in the next dawn So you can fester in anger or heartbreak Rebelling from God's plan you shan't retake T...

       So while I was driving home on Christmas Eve a thought occurred to me: If 2023 was my last year alive, how would I spend it? The usual wanderlust sand daydreaming that plagues my life melted away into an honest conversion about something more than “New Years resolution” or “new year new me.” It became a simple conversation of who am I, what should I keep doing, what should I stop doing, and what do I want to accomplish if I only had one shot at life (spoiler alert: everyone only has one shot.) Tha planning for next year has already gotten underway but I’d like to lay out my plan for 2023 for all to see. The plan is going to be ambitious. I wouldn’t do it any other way, but I will say that I genuine hope to accomplish everything and look back next Christmas and see what happened. Now the age old adage about “How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plan” might well take effect so let’s start with the things that I can 100% reliable commit to and then go from th...

Merry Christmas to all! As the year draws to a close I wanted to look back at some of the highlights that made this year crazy and awesome!  January - March for Life in DC, best friends Tristan and Maria got married! Big Denver road trip.  Last Semester in Rolla- had a blast goofing around with friends, invested a lot of time at the Newman center, had fun with the Funhouse Gang, made some solid memories.  May- Graduated from Rolla with my degree in Mechanical Engineering, solo kayaked 300 miles on the Missouri, visited a bunch of friends all over Missouri. First time going to a wedding of friends from Highschool (what a blast!) Read Fellowship of the Ring June - worked the family farm for Blueberry Season, reconnected with old Highschool friends that were still in the area! July - spent the month living on the road traveling 5000 miles around the US hitting a ton of fun spots and making incredible memories. Read Two Towers.  August - moved to St.Louis to start my new...

      I've lived in 9 places in 5 years, but I never figured that moving into St.Louis would be the hardest of all the moves....     Late on the last day of July I finished my month long road trip and moved into my buddy John's house in St.Louis to start my first job the next day. It was a hasty move and I just brought what I needed from home to survive. Over the next couple weeks I ran back and forth to home a few times grabbing my remaining items. I soon possessed what I needed for surviving, yet I was far from equipped for living.      In the following months the move to St.Louis and the foray into adulting proved quite difficult and it is only now at the time of writing that I feel myself coming over a bit of a hurdle. For the first couple of months I found myself driving nearly every weekend to Kansas City to hangout with my friends. After graduation is seemed that everyone moved to KC and I didn't know anyone in St.Louis. This began to drag ...

 Wow! Have I been busy. I've got some short articles in the works on my favorite beer bread recipe, how much progress I've made on the banjo, and of course the full story of my month long road trip in July. Stay tuned! 

       I’m gearing up for a big car camping trip across the west right now and thought I’d break this one up into a few updates since the trip will be roughly three weeks give or take. The plan is to hit glacier, visit some family and friends in Washington and LA, then the national parks in Utah. Roughly. I consider this my first “legit trip” because I actually built a bed, a little kitchen, and a shower into my Odyssey.      Well everything was going swimmingly until I encountered the single handed most frustrating thing that can happen before big trips: sickness or injury. Some of my biggest adventures have been foiled or nearly foiled by this. Last summer my first two racing blocks got off to a rough start when I unexpectedly lost about 15 pounds (165 down to 150) right before I left. This oddity resulted in a…bad time…till it got squared away later in the race season. It just so happened to strike again though. A handful of days before my proposed ...

       Sharply at 3:30 am I was awoken by a whirlwind blasting sand into the tent and covering me from head to toe in the course and fine abrasive I so hated. Little did I know the impending storm would be much worse….      This is the story of how I came to decide that kayaking 300 miles on the Missouri River, solo, and inexperienced, would be a good way to celebrate my graduation from college. It is also the story of how many people tried to talk me out of it. Lastly, it’s the story of an epic adventure that I’ll never forget and probably repeat pretty soon.      Sometime in early April I sat down to figure out my summer plans.  I knew that I had two weeks before Blueberry season home on the farm that I could utilize for roving. The original idea was to actually spend that time portaging and floating the Boundary Waters, but that proved to be too much planning and specific gear needs to meet my two week time frame. So after a brie...

      I was chatting with my good friend Claire the other night and she suggested I write about my bucket list. There are some pretty crazy and odd things on it. Of course there are adventures and accomplishments, but supplementing it are just odd things I want to experience some day. So take a look, comment on what I should maybe add or subtract. Or tell me your top bucket list items. Thanks!  Hike the Camino Hike the whole AT Hike the whole PCT Visit all the National Parks Race in a Category 1 bike race Learn to sail a boat Go scuba diving Hug a woman that is taller than me (not weird, I've just already hugged guys taller than me) Meet someone with different colored eyes Go to the Vatican Explore the world Sing Irish music in an Irish bar Learn to play the Banjo Visit a monastery and hangout with some monks Write a book Learn to make Kombucha  Write and sing a song Skydiving (duh) Go on an extended floating trip (portaging or source to sea kinda dealio) B...

       I was getting coffee with my old buddy Jared this morning and as we are both about to graduate in a little over a month, we started to reminisce and share about our feelings of melancholy. This kind of interaction has been happening between other graduating seniors and myself for a little while now so I thought I would compose my thoughts on this and share a little bit about what it's like to be on the "precipice looking over the edge" between what we culturally consider the defining point of college student and full blown adult.  Freshman year, after getting in a debate with the Chief Engineer for Clif Bars at the Chancellors house for dinner      One of the topics we discussed over coffee this morning was the comparison of how time seems to work. Recalling freshman year, in hind sight, everything seemed new. A new place, new friends, new experiences, new lifestyles, new habits, new freedoms, etc. This in turn creates a place in our memory...

       I thought I would take a quick second to write about something very near and dear to my heart: going on adventures. If you know me, then you know I've got a lot of crazy stories and odds are pretty decent that you'll never hear all of them. From absolutely ludicrous camping trips to epic feats of athleticism to well executed itineraries to 11 hour drives with no plan at all; I've had my fair share of adventures that went great...and not so great. Here is some advice I've picked up along the way. I hope that it can help you turn the TV off, get up, and get after it.  Sunrise on a trip last year 1. When it comes to planning, its optional.       When someone thinks about adventure and how cool it would be to do XYZ or go to XYZ they can sometimes get caught up in trying to plan every detail or fretting over packing each day with pre-planned activities. Now, I'm not trying to bash researching what you're doing ahead of time, its a great id...

       What happens when a well trained and highly motivated engineering student gets snowed in at school? Well sometimes they decide to cut loose, throw caution to the wind, crack open a computer, and let the scientific juices flow.       In just this scenario, I was trapped by an ice storm yesterday and instead of doing the responsible thing, like studying the second law of thermodynamics, I chose to check off a bucket list item. Create a robot to draw pictures, write essays, and pretty much do whatever I want (with a writing utensil and paper of course.) Now, at any given moment I've probably got enough spare parts laying around to build a spaceship or change the balance of power in the world. A curse and a blessing tis' having a fully stocked workshop in my bedroom.       I started off by working with my bread and butter; CAD modeling. For the uninitiated, this is an acronym standing for Computer Aided Drafting. Drafting is...