More Airborne

Yesterday was a pretty sparse day on pictures. Given those constraints, I'll give you something I caught on 20 November.  I'll get something fresher for the next post, but I love the freedom and adventure that travel represents and air travel is the ultimate symbol that's easily accessible for me.


Enjoy!

Airborne over North Florida

I don't know what tomorrow will bring.  I hope it's some rest, but if not, I'm as ready as I can be for what's to come. Cheers!

Back On The Road

I'm back on the road again, and truth be told I'm enjoying it. Selling a final product to a tough customer is just around the corner during my day job, and I really relish this type of think on your feet challenge.  It's gonna be epic.

Final Approach into Charlotte, NC

I've been listening to a biography of Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance.  It's a great book, and I think it provides an excellent feel for the highly competitive and technical nature of the work that Mr. Musk and his companies are currently tackling. 

Musk's way of working bears a striking similarity to the description of the way that Hymen Rickover  worked on the nuclear navy as related by Theodore Rockwell, related in his biography of the Admiral.

I sense that the effort associated with the N2N-TCP is somehow related to this high tech pursuit of conquering the challenges associated with surviving on planets or celestial bodies other than Earth for long periods of time.  I don't know how they relate, but the inkling is there for me.

I don't know how any of this will shake out tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

Look What I Found in the Library

Preparing for a thirty three hundred mile walk involves quite a bit of time out on the trail, but that's not the only consideration.  Today, I took some time in the local library to access some of the experience of the people who have gone before me in this same sort of endeavor.

I really like to read, but compared to some I'm a bit of a piker.  Jim Stavridis is an avid reader, and he's suggested that there are thirty five hundred years of history so there really is no excuse to make the same mistakes as folks who have come before us. That dovetails nicely with my "philosophy" of always trying to make new mistakes. To that end, in preparation for the pilgrimage I find myself in the nearest branch of the county library.

Look What I Found at the County Library - Annapolis, MD

This has been a busy travel month for me, and tomorrow, I believe I'm going to find myself looking at a vista similar to this one.

Airborne - Miami, FL

In addition to providing new and exciting places to get out on the trail for training, travel provides some dedicated time to read, and I'll be exploring the Appalachian Trail with some of the great thru-hikers on this next trip.

The path to the pilgrimage has been an interesting trek so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing what's revealed around the next bend in the trail.

Passion for the Trail

When I took my first walk to try to convince myself that the dream that has come to me about walking across the country, I walked seventeen miles without training. I had the wrong shoes.  I had the wrong socks. I didn't drink enough water. I didn't eat enough calories.  I had a blister at six miles. I kept going, and that was probably pretty foolish.  This was the result. I was down for two weeks.  I ended the walk with pictures of hamburger feet.  The idea of the walk persisted, and thankfully so did I.

Over the last two years, my life has been transformed by the trail. I see the world differently. My mind is less cluttered. I look to the sky, and I'm shown the glory of the universe on a daily basis.

Airborne - Charlotte, NC to Pensacola, FL

The first six miles of that first practice walk was filled with both boredom and anxiety. My mind was chattering to itself. I had not moved that slowly without entertainment for a very long time. The trees looked the same. The sky looked the same. The trail looked the same. It's because I had forgotten how to see. I'd become undisciplined in my thinking. I'd become addicted to the easy cotton candy entertainment of the television. I could no longer see what was right in front of my face.

 

Airborne #2 - Charlotte, NC to Pensacola, FL

I no longer bury my head in a book or a screen trying to hide from the people and the experiences around me. I can look out the airline window for an hour waiting because I know that the great moment is coming. The clouds will clear dn the blue sky will manifest. The river will shine in the sun, and if I'm not paying attention.  If my brain demands constant entertainment, I'll miss it, and the moment will be lost forever. I learned this patience on the trail trying to drive an crazy escape fantasy out of my head.

Fellow Travellers - Fairhope, AL

It took some time, but I learned to chase the sun. I learned to put myself outside during the golden hour and then wait. I learned to see again, and I'm hooked. Walking is not boring. It's one of the most passion filled aspects of my life.

Laid Back - Feet Up - Fairhope, AL

I had a couple of more miles to walk after this photo was taken, but one foot in front of another had taken me to this time and place, and it was worth a moment to soak it all in. I have no idea what the bottom of my feet look like today, but I guarantee they don't look like they did at the end of that first practice walk.

I continue to be amazed at what the universe brings across my path, and everyday my love...my passion...my calling for the walk grows a little stronger. My life is getting fuller, and I hope that one day this journey might help someone else. I have peace and contentment in abundance, and if you want some of mine you're welcome to it. I'd love to have you join me in this journey, and I'm looking forward to what tomorrow will reveal.

Airborne

Through a series of events that were beyond my control, I found myself taking the long way 'round to Alabama today. To be perfectly honest, I met this new earlier yesterday without a great deal of glee. Interestingly enough, as Anna Kendrick points out in "Cups" the long way round proved to be one of the routes with the prettiest of views. A couple of years ago, I would have boarded that plane with a chip on my shoulder, the window shade closed, and my nose buried in a book or perhaps, even worse, an extended round of Angry Birds. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently wrong with Angry Birds (particularly the Star Wars series which is quite entertaining) and reading is a great thing to do, but I would have missed out on seeing this view.

Airborne - Somewhere between Baltimore and Chicago

I was reminded today how large the world is and how small I am.  Within a couple of thousand feet of the highest I'm ever likely to get from the surface of the earth, the climate stretched for as far as the eye could perceive. All of this, is contained in the miniscule dust mote as seen from the Voyager Spacecraft from beyond Saturn. The worst thing that happened to me today was I had to spend about four hours in Washington, DC followed by four hours in Chicago.

What a gift. Today was spectacular. I'm looking forward to seeing what tomorrow will create for me to enjoy.