Acknowledging Some Upsides to the "Rat Race"

View of the Atlantic Watershed 0400 (EST)

View of the Pacific 1500 (PST)

Benjamin's Hand in the Atlantic Watershed

Benjamin's Hand in the Pacific Ocean

The series of photos at the top of this post is an attempt to acknowledge that there are some very real advantages associated with participating in the "rat race" that the N2N-TCP is meant as a mechanism to enable me some level of escape.

Almost two weeks ago, I found myself hanging out on a small beach just about two days of walking (so really not that far) from the Atlantic Ocean.  I was contemplating the lights of a bridge crossing a river feeding one of the main salt water bays that form the Atlantic Watershed.  It was 4 am, Eastern Standard Time.  

I hopped in my car for a relatively short commute to the local international airport, and thanks to the magic of Southwest Airlines and Budget Car Rental I found myself on the beautiful beaches of Coronado, CA a scant 14 hours later looking out across the Pacific Ocean toward Point Loma.

We live in a fantastic period of history where I could have very reasonably found myself in just about any part of the world in a timeframe that was not much different than it took me to transit most of the breadth of North America.  It truly is an amazing gift that the technology associated with this never-ending marathon of Rodentia Muridae Rattus.

The trip wasn't without its challenges.  I had to "endure" the loving ministrations of the Transportation Security Administration, though in all fairness to them, they have greatly improved the efficiency and lessened the annoyance in terms of them doing their job over the last several years.  I had to wait on my baggage for approximately ten minutes, and my shampoo was a little chilly from riding in the cargo compartment of the aircraft.  Finally, "suffering" the indignity of an off-terminal rental car lot was almost too much to bear, although, having the handy shuttle waiting and ready to pick me up almost made up for my hurt feelings.

One of the reasons that I find the N2N-TCP so compelling is that it represents a radical change of perspective.  I hope you can tell that the "endurance", "suffering", and "indignity" mentioned above is intended to communicate inconveniences in a very tongue-in-cheek fashion.  The freedom to travel from the Atlantic Watershed to the Pacific Ocean in a little less than fourteen hours, is a demonstration of technology and a leap forward for humanity that was essentially unimaginable 100 years ago.  The slights now (for me anyway) are indeed slight, but I find it easy to get caught up in the minutiae and forget about the big picture advances that make life so much easier and have turned real dangers into mere frustrations.

I hope that the N2N-TCP will facilitate a return to sanity.  After all, with looking down the barrel of 100+ thirty mile walking days has already put my one hour thirty-four mile commute in some manner of perspective.  The 5K that I ran with my kids did not seem nearly as long an arduous as it may have in the past.  In fact, the 10 min/mile pace seemed blistering compared to the 3.5 mile/hour crawl that I have turned over in my mind recently as a brisk move toward the goals of the N2N-TCP.  Perspective is what I'm seeking, and if I'm lucky, I'll manage to get some...good and hard.

Today, I'm off to make the 12 hour transcontinental hop once again.  During the N2N-TCP, Rory and I will have done pretty well in a three week period to have covered 650 miles.  That's truly an amazing juxtaposition.  Till next time...