Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Heading Home
My last hike: a visit to some of North Carolina's hidden treasures |
Atlanta, Georgia---It is day 130 and today I am driving home to Daytona Beach, Florida. I know, the name is 100 days but that's because it sounded better than 130 Days Across the USA...
Not all my stories are written but they are in my head and will have to wait until I get home.
Four months is one month longer than I originally intended but I let the road lead the way, still as I have continued to "friend hop" the prevailing thought looking back is: "there was not enough time."
In this coast to coast road trip, I have driven close to 12,500 miles so far. I have visited 293-ish people, however taking out a family reunion it still leaves me with well over 193 people.
Even with extending my time, I had to cut out going to the upper Northwest and the upper Northeast, two areas I would have loved to have gone. So Sheila, Noemi and Anne, I'm sorry I missed seeing you and where you live.
There are so many people's stories I did not write about because they were too personal. I hold them in my heart and I am honored you shared them with me. Your life's challenges were unexpected and yet I am amazed at each of you who have made it through and can look back at it all. A few who are still going through rough times, I urge you to hang in there and I earnestly believe in prayer so you've got mine.
This has been an incredible journey. Much, much more than I expected when I dreamed it up making my list of people I wanted to find. Between the geographical beauty of our country and the incredible people and their stories along the way, I am blessed and a little overwhelmed by it all.
There have been people that I tried to find but couldn't, lost between my aging address book and land lines that no longer exist. So Con, Carol, Kathy, Fred, Ransom and Kevin, I tried but couldn't find you.
I am looking forward to going home and job hunting. I am ready to dig in and have a direction.
I realized when I was hiking in North Carolina a few days ago and put my hand against an enormous solid rock protruding out of the side of a cliff, covered with moss and water cascading down its side from the highlands above, that the past three years since I left my business, have been a land and sea discovery. In my case, the sea came first. My year crewing on sailboats feels equal in relevance to these four months seeing America. And I would not have thrown caution to the wind in this case if it were not for the year of running the little oceanfront restaurant and bar after sailing, that drove me to want to get far, far away.
Waiting for me at my home are two roommates that I could not have done this trip without. Before I left I rented a room to someone I had recently met through business. She took the challenge of taking care of my house and has contacted me to read me mail that looked important and kept me updated on house issues. A month after I left another woman moved in. Together they have been a blessing because I know they are watching over things. They were really challenged when my house was being swarmed by Carpenter Ants and I was in Utah trying to buy pest control service. So to "The Roommates": Thank You.
I still have eight hours on the road. I have been blessed by protection along all these miles and pray that the home stretch will be safe.
One way or the other, I'm heading home.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Insidious Invasions of Privacy
Washington, District of Columbia, USA---“Despite the protection
against invasion of privacy afforded by the Fourth Amendment to the
Constitution, bugging is so shockingly widespread and so increasingly insidious
that no one can be certain any longer that his home is his castle---free of
intrusion,” the magazine article said.
“The government has been electronically spying on its
citizens for years. The Internal Revenue Service, for example, has admitted
bugging public and private phones and even rooms where IRS auditors called
businessmen for questioning, on the theory they might reveal something when IRS
men left the room,” it continued.
“…How to safeguard individual rights in a world suddenly
turned into a peephole and listening post has become the toughest, trickiest legal
problem facing the U.S. today,” the article said.
I’ve been on the road for over 100 days on my Coast to Coast adventure and I am now in the
country’s capital city: Washington, DC and everything about it feels so
powerful. It’s been years since I made frequent trips here to see a friend and
knew the Metro like the back of my hand, but here I am, driving the streets in
MY vehicle, thinking things like, “Oh look, there’s the Pentagon.”
And since it’s been nearly four months that I’ve been away,
I have not watched the news on a regular or frequent basis. I’ll catch NPR when
driving and when it’s available. But with five to eight hour drives as the average
between friends, the radio station constantly fades out. There is an ignorant bliss about not
knowing what’s going on in the world some times. I do miss it, but still after
three years away from the 26 years of working around a newsroom, it just feels
good to have my mind on other things. But in and out of this trip has been the reoccurring subject of privacy. I’m somewhat of an open book and can truly say I myself am on the FBI’s most unwanted list. But one thing this trip has taught me is to wake up, grow up, and pay more attention. That there are some things that I brushed aside as paranoid or conspiracy theories that are truly real because some stories along this trip I can not write.
One place that I made time for in DC was the Newseum. Open to the Public in April of 2008, the
Newseum relocated from a five year history in Arlington, Virginia which had
closed in 2002, to the prominent spot on Pennsylvania Avenue with an amazing
250,000-square-foot "museum of news" that shows five centuries of news history, exhibits
and hands-on technology of today. Having
spent time around the newspaper business for so long and having a deep love for
the media in general and newsprint in particular, I was equally excited to go through it as I
was saddened that newspapers jumped off a cliff the day they put ads on the
front page and there is a spiraling decline in the news business and the
attention span of the American public. That the hunger for those deep investigative
news series that powered every young journalism student’s imagination and
played out in real life so many times and so many Pulitzers ago, does not exist
at the same level. I believe that the news business is still the
best check and balance system towards our government and who knew that de-powering
the news would not take censoring or enacting laws against it? Instead the
internet simply diversified the news gathering to a point of super
fragmentation and human overwhelmingness (yes, I made up that word) so that we
all end up a little like me right now. Somewhat clueless as to what is really
going on.
As seen at the Newseum: Actual taped Watergate door. |
Quotes from the magazine article talked about individual rights being the trickiest legal problem facing the U.S. today. Was this a story about the recent
events with Edward Snowden unveiling secrets of our government’s scope of surveillance
on its citizens and the world?
No.
I was quoting LIFE magazine cover story “Electronic Snooping
Insidious Invasions of Privacy” and the inside articles “Snooping Electronic Invasion
of Privacy” and “The Miniature Tools of the Eavesdropper’s Trade” by John Neary
dated May 20, 1966.
A purchase along my trip, one of the Presidential Libraries were selling LIFE for $5 each as a fundraiser. I took a small collection home including this one. |
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Photo Essay: Washington DC
Washington, DC---Exploring the Capital city never gets old. But many new things are here since the last time I visited. My cousin's Kid, Rachel and I visited the Presidential store near the Whitehouse as well as found a smart car and drove to the Newsuem. Awesome.
Presidential gift shop |
Part of the Berlin Wall (Newsuem) |
The actual door that was taped, starting the Watergate investigation. (Newsuem) |
A Florida voting booth (Newsuem) |
Complete with hanging Chads (Newsuem) |
OJ Simpson's suit from day of sentencing. (Newsuem) |
Mr. Big
Annapolis, Maryland---The TV show “Sex and the City” was an HBO hit series because so many women could relate to what the foursome clique of women were going through. Between their four personalities my friends and I would compare who we were most like and what we could best relate to.
For me, I had a “Mr. Big,” a man in the series that weaved
his way in and out of one of the girl’s lives. He was the one that was
emotionally bigger than all the other men that she dated.
My Mr. Big was someone I met at 21 and fell so hard and so
deeply for, he changed everything. After I met him, I changed my Spring Break
plans to go see him. When we broke up once I flew 1500 miles to fight for the
relationship. When I graduated I moved from Kansas to Florida to date him with
plans that we would get married. But his behavior on a day to day basis was
totally different than the one year long-distance relationship that we had had
and I ended it and he went on with his life moving far away.
Deep in my heart I thought he would change and come back for
me. And he did change, but he didn’t come back for me.
Years passed and a card here, a letter there. A wedding
announcement came and then a baby announcement.
But the marriage ended and we would have a loose connection
of infrequent texts or emails, crossing paths at various times.
I once watched him with his sweet yet feisty mother and realized he really did turn out to
be the man I once thought he was.
And now I’m near where he lives and after four months of
being on this trip I thought we would certainly go have coffee or lunch and get caught
up in person.
One thing about this road trip around the country of
following a path of friends and relatives and having my People Count at 226 so
far, is that I am being more open than I ever have been. And that means realizing that what might have once been a friendship is not meant to continue. That our connection was something to be left in the past. So yes, sadly there have been several people that I realized our time
was behind us and that I needed to let them go. Just that. A clearing of the cob webs of my life and making room
in my head for the new, positive, future of people I choose to have
around me. This is really hard for me as
I have been a "friend collector" my entire life. Putting someone
behind me is new to me.
So after sending a countdown of texts as I got closer to
Mr. Big, I am in Annapolis and anxious for him to come meet me. Then I get this text:
“Would you like to road-trip this
direction for lunch tomorrow? A couple of us have a Friday ritual, walk to
local farmers market and take back to office. Not much on the excitement scale
but pleasantly social and it is one time I can commit. My colleague is
diabetic, so lunch usually holds firm at 12 noon if able. “
My reply text:
“No. I do not want to drive 11,532
miles and be 30.7 miles away from you to walk to a farmers market at exactly
noon with people you work with and spend 30 minutes just to be around you.
Defining moments says it all. Good bye Mr. Big.”
This Defining Moment only took me 32 years to get. This was not an angry moment, not at all. I only realized something huge about me. I had made “Grand Gestures” my entire life for this person. That it was always me making the big effort. And although there is history, that still does not make it right or healthy for me.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Photo Essay: Annapolis Sailboat Race
Annapolis, Maryland---The Annapolis Yacht Club Wednesday boat races took place with between 110-120 boats participating. The finish line was only a few hundred feet from a bridge spanning the water so the finish line was very exciting to see multiple classes of boats drop sail and turn away.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Photo Essay: The Cottages of Stag Island
Stag Island, Canada---A tiny island between the USA and Canada in the St. Clair River, this special island has a long history of cottages that line the shore. Here are only a few.
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