Overview

Every individual must look within themselves to decide what will make their life truly spectacular. For the author it is all about travel: the excitement of discovery and learning along the way and capturing those moments in an equally spectacular image. This book tells the story of the author's travels throughout his life with an emphasis on his love of photography and the national parks. It traces his journey from childhood, when he first experienced the time-honored road trip with his parents, through his military service, overseas and in the U.S., along with his many years in corporate America, each presenting him with new and unique travel opportunities. The wake-up call of a cancer diagnosis set him on the path to his most exciting adventures yet. He left his job, downsized his life, and moved into an RV to make travel his full-time focus rather than a thing he did only on vacation. He set a goal to visit and photograph all fifty-nine (at the time) national parks. Well on his way toward this goal, he experienced a major setback after an early-morning fire destroyed his RV and all his possessions, forcing him to rebuild his life to stay on the path to finishing his goal.

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9798989222407

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Reviews

"In Spectacular in a Losing Effort, author Jerry F. Pillarelli takes the reader along for the ride in such a descriptive manner that you will think that you were actually there. Reflecting on the remarkable highs and lows of his life, Pillarelli's journey takes you to every corner of the nation, world, and even up to the stars. This book is 'spectacular' in every way! - Marcus Heerdt, author and travel writer A travel memoir that grabs the reader's attention from the opening scene and doesn't let go until the last line. If you're ready for a ride on the truly wild side, read this funny, moving, and occasionally revelatory memoir. It's the journey, not the destination, Pillarelli reminds us, and when we have the courage to follow our dreams, the trip will be spectacular. - Kelly J. Beard, Award-winning author of the memoir, An Imperfect Rapture ""Did the fire department come or not?"" I asked myself this question at the end of page four of Spectacular in a Losing Effort. I received the answer many exciting and entertaining pages later, in which Jerry gives deep insights into his life and his thoughts. He tells the story of his life to date, starting with his travels in his early youth, his time in the military and his professional life up to the present day, with a great deal of humor, lively and vividly - at times I had the feeling that I was right in the middle of the action. In his stories, he skillfully combines his travel reports with information that can be helpful for your own travel planning, this also applies to his photo tips. You can really lose track of time when reading his adventures - at least that's how I felt. And did the fire department come? Well, read for yourself! - Sabine Gehrig, Travel Blogger from Germany, Sabine on the Road"

Author Information

Jerry F. Pillarelli was born in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of twelve, he moved with his family to Tucson, Arizona, where he attended the University of Arizona for one year before enlisting in the U.S. Army. During his four years of service, Pillarelli spent a year stationed near the 38th parallel in South Korea, where he worked on helicopters as an avionics specialist and doubled as an M60 machine gun door gunner. He transferred to North Carolina, where he had deployments to Panama and Alaska, and then moved to Stuttgart, Germany, for his remaining service working on the OV1 surveillance aircraft. While based overseas, Pillarelli toured sites throughout Europe including a thirty-day backpacking train trip through the Continent, working his way through the likes of Rome, Paris, Athens, London, and Amsterdam.When his enlistment ended, Pillarelli joined a local Tucson aviation company where he worked on biplanes for the movie The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper, starring Robert Duval and Treat Williams. After a year, he returned to the University of Arizona to pursue a bachelor's degree with a double major in accounting and management information systems (MIS). Upon graduation, Pillarelli moved to Houston, Texas, to take an MIS job with Shell Oil Company. Next, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to become a stockbroker with Raymond James & Associates for one year before going back into computing with Stockholder Systems, Inc. (which later became Servantes and Fiserv). Over the following seven years, he would hold several management positions with Mirant Corporation before returning to Fiserv. During his twenty-two years in Atlanta, Pillarelli would also hone his photography skills as a sports photographer for the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 2015, a cancer diagnosis inspired him to retire early and move back to Tucson, where he set up his current life as a full-time RVer, traveling the country visiting and photographing national parks. While on the road in 2017, in La Grande, Oregon, he escaped a 3 a.m. RV fire and had to put his life back together to complete his goal of photographing all fifty-nine (at the time) national parks. Since 2015, Pillarelli has traveled the U.S. from Alaska to American Samoa, Maine to Florida, and many points in between, visiting national parks in all fifty states and several U.S. territories. Motivated by Pillarelli's love of photography and national parks, this book is a compilation of his lifelong experiences as a traveler, whether interesting, poignant, embarrassing, or simply too amusing not to share. Although he is an experienced and published sports photographer, and has designs on developing travel and sports photo books in the future, Spectacular in a Losing Effort is his first written book.

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