Day 50: Reflections

Fort Bragg, California---It is day 50 on my coast to coast road trip. I am about half way in my plan to crisscross the United States and write. I have driven 5327 miles. I have stopped in Destin, Gulfport, Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Dallas, Roswell, Phoenix, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Vegas, Hermosa Beach, Carmel, Fresno, Yosemite, San Meteo, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Sausalito, Rohnert Park, Napa and now Fort Bragg, California. I have visited 39 people along the way.  I have stayed with friends that I met at 9 years old and I have stayed with friends I met 2 years ago at the Marina in Rabot, Morocco, Africa while sailing. The longest it had been since I've seen one friend was 38 years. The longest I’ve stayed in one place is 10 days, and five of those I was really sick.

I am at the half way point yet it feels like I’ve been gone for about 6 months. My home in Daytona Beach, Florida feels far, far away.

I’ve driven my Hyundai thru the Las Vegas strip, down town Los Angeles and in their rush hour traffic and on San Francisco’s steep hills while dodging the trolleys. At times I’ve felt totally committed to this journey and confident, but then I’ve also repeatedly had times when I’ve questioned what I am doing; driving around like this with no job ahead and not sure where this will all lead.

“Ish” has become a word in my vocabulary. Not knowing exactly when I will be where, I have emailed and texted people ahead that I would arrive in "2-ish” weeks. Or "sometime in the next week-ish.”  I am definitely sure that I will be somewhere in the unknown future.

I have witnessed people’s proud triumphs in their lives and seen their struggles. I have met husbands and children for the first time.

I have been at peace on a beach where my friend’s ashes were spread 13 years ago and have FREAKED OUT when I had to unexpectantly come to a dead stop on a 4 lane highway when a brush fire caught traffic in a white-out of heavy smoke; I was not able to see the front hood but able to catch glimpses of flames waist high a lane away.

On this trip, I have cried over the news of the sudden death of a college roommate, I have laughed at how much a newborn baby looks like his father that was posted on Facebook.

I do not know how I could have managed this trip without FaceBook, Texting, Starbucks' free wifi and my Hyundai’s GPS as well as my several stops at a AAA regional office to pick up books and hard maps of the areas I’m heading to next.

One thing became clear early on: my idea that everyone has a story and I would write about people’s life challenges and how they “overcame” was not going to work out.  It’s true, at this point in life everyone has a story of overcoming. But the stories were so huge, so personal, so profound that I could not write about them without telling heavy secrets, losing peoples jobs, and in one case even risking someone’s life.  I was not going to do this to friends and relatives even if I changed their names and locations, it was too risky.

So I had to change courses. Again. And let the stories come out as I came upon them. But being COMPLETELY open to anything and everything on this trip was the promise I made to myself before I left.  Unlike my year sailing when I was devastated when things didn’t go as planned.

God always has a better plan anyway.

But the most profound reality that I am seeing as I drive state to state is how absolutely beautiful America is. Completely and totally amazing. It looks really different when you see the land evolve from farmland to desert to mountains to forests to ocean. I wish everyone would be required to do this drive after high school or college. Pride in our country, understanding the cultural differences of states and regions, and seeing why it is so important to defend what we have, for me could not be as fully understood without experiencing it in person.

We need to keep our states united.

I have seen many, many things that reminded me of what I saw while traveling the world on sailboats and never staying in the same place for more than a week. But, now doing a similar thing, I am realizing that our United States has many places that is like no other place in the world.  All of this is wrapped into one country.

After having a business for 26 years, then crewing on sailboats around the world for a year, then running an oceanfront restaurant and bar for over a year, it would have been safer to stay home and dream up my next career move.  But then I would never have the memory of catching my first huge fish in Mississippi or seeing wild horses running along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, or watching the Sunset on top of a "Vortex Hill" in Sedona, or seeing the Tour de Pier on Manhattan Beach, or driving both the Southern California Coastline and the Northern California Coastline...

It is truly America, the beautiful…yet my road trip still has another half to go.