Connections

What do you do when a couple of bedraggled hikers walk up your drive and ask you if they can set up their tent on your airport?  One of them looks like an old man working really hard to stay young at heart, and the other looks like Grizzly Adams without all the culture.

I used to think that many people would say something like, “We’re really sorry. We’d like to help you out, but the FAA and DHS just won’t allow us to do that kind of thing. Thanks for stopping by.  There’s probably a church of firestation in the next town up the road (ten miles away) that can probably help.

That’s not what happened.  What happened was they said sure, and Kate invited us into the house for dinner.  It’s the first home cooked meal that Dad and I have eaten since April 26th.

Kate, Rick, Snapper, and Jello - New Friends

During dinner we talked about love and loss, pain and survival, guns, cars, war, politics, faith, food, cars, airplanes, walking, places we lived and places we loved, challenges, victories, and how we all became the people we’ve become today. We shared.  We connected. We became friends.

After dinner, Rick led us to a hangar.  We weren’t going to sleep in a tent. We were going to be inside.  The accommodations, though modest, were perfect. We blew up our air mattresses, laid out our quilts, and had a great sleep after sauntering twenty four miles earlier in the day.

The Hangar - a Five Star Airport B&B

Catching some much needed rest - I wouldn’t have traded it for a room at the Ritz

We woke up early the next morning, packed up, locked up, and headed out.  We’d all talked about meeting for breakfast at a diner about four and a half miles down the road, and I found myself hoping that our generous hosts would show up.

As we approached the entrance to the diner, I heard a yell of greeting from my right and whipped my head around just in time to see Rick and Kate pull up on their Classic Softail Harley equipped with a sidecar. Over breakfast, the ties we’d made the evening before were deepened.

Dad strapping in for his spin around the block in the sidecar

We spent a couple of hours over eggs, toast, coffee, biscuits, and sausage.  Our new friends introduced us to the owner of the diner, and offered to give us a spin around the block in the sidecar.  The whole twelve hours were a completely unique and unforgettable experience.

Our departure was bittersweet.  The road heading off to the west called us, as it always does.  As we said our final goodbyes, I was left with hope that the great powers of the Universe would see fit that we all should cross paths again.

Thank you dear friends. Words alone are inadequate to express our gratitude.

Fishing on the Menominee River

This is likely my last trip to Marinette, Wi.  The opportunity to combine my evening walk with a brief fishing outing on the Menominee River proved too much to resist, and I spent a very relaxing couple of hours chasing the sunset as well as a some fish.

Like the last time I was hear, I only landed one small mouth bass (colloquially known as a smallie in this area), but it was a bit better fish than I landed last time.

Smallie - Menominee River - Marinette, WI

This little guy put of a good fight, and the thrill of the catch was worth the cost of getting set up for the opportunity. Spending time out on the river was deeply relaxing, and I'm glad that I've gotten to the point in my life that fishing is a much bigger draw than spending any time at all on watching television or some other form of on screen entertainment.

After hooking this one, I spend about the next half an hour largely practicing my casting, and was rewarded at the end with another great sunset.

Sunset on the Menominee - Marinette, WI

The air has a hint of fall in the air, and there was not a breath of moving air. The sky and the river became one at the close of the day, and if it weren't for gravity, it would have been hard to tell them apart.

Today was  an exceptional day.  Safe travel covering over one thousand miles, the opportunity to pit my wits and technology against some fish, and a sunset that is really quite unbelievable when I look back at the photos. I'm not sure what tomorrow may hold, but I'm looking forward to taking another crack at another good day.  Goodness is all around us. I have not always recognized this fact, but now that I do, my life has gotten much better.  It has become a life centered around the experiences that I have...or even make...rather than the things that I own. It's a lesson that I knew once, forgot for a time, and am relearning as I grow a little more seasoned. I grateful for the relearning that's gone on over the last several years, and I continue to greet each day with the respect for the the opportunities that the day will provide if I'm open to seeing them.

Every Now and Then...

You get an opportunity to experience something spectacular. Today has been one of those days where event after event proved more fulfilling than the last one. Take those chances. I think you'll find that if you're awake, aware, and participating, days like the one I had today roll around more often than you've come to expect.

Back at BWI - Headed out on the road again

Today started off right with a quick hop skip and a jump on Southwest Airlines down to make my connection in Atlanta. The air was warm, but the sky was clear. I'd even remembered to check in yesterday just a little after the twenty four hour mark hit. For those of you who fly Southwest know, your seating will largely depend on getting checked in just as soon as possible. I was a little late, so I ended up in a middle seat. I did have room in the overhead bin for my backpack so that was a plus. I also had plenty of relatively svelte folks to choose to sit between during the flight. A good start to the day all in all.

Art on Display at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
Atlanta, GA

My layover in Atlanta was characterized by a walk a little over a mile long through the tunnels connecting the terminals. I've found that airports are pretty good places to see emerging contemporary art, and Atlanta proved to be the rule rather than the exception.

Leaving Atlanta - Bound for Florida

The typical afternoon thunderstorms were just getting started when we left Atlanta headed for Florida. The embryonic cumulous clouds were shaking awake and marching together to form the cumulonimbus playground of giants.

Thunderstorm Breaking on Final Approach

Thunderstorms have an untamed and wild beauty about them. Rain crashes out of the heavens and lightning smites the earth like a hammer. The legends of giants in the clouds seem well earned. These gods of the southern afternoon dwarfed our three hundred foot airliner and forced us to change our course a number of times in the short hop to Florida.

Lighthouse - Mayport, FL

I didn't really know where I was going, and got sidetracked quite a ways out of the way, and in the process I stumbled upon the St. Johns River Lighthouse in Mayport, FL. Originally constructed in 1890, the lighthouse has been out of commission for some time, but I'm grateful that it's still around. It turned an unfortunate sidetrack into an interesting drive.

Destroyer Sunset - Naval Station Mayport

I wrapped up the day with a spectacular sunset and a three mile walk on the beach. Today was a great day full of quite a few little adventures, and I'm grateful that I took the opportunity to experience them all. As always, I'm looking forward to see what tomorrow's adventure may hold in store for me.

Headed Up North

Another successful use of an aluminum tube powered by kerosene fueled gas turbine engines at about 400 mph and an altitude of 30k feet. Fantastic. As predicted yesterday, it's been an adventure, and the opportunity to take a look at some new skyscapes.

Skyscape - Marinette, WI

Good travel day, and I'm looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.

Glideslope Sunset

After a productive week in the south, I am home. The gifts that technology have bestowed on my generation are truly spectacular. I'm not at all convinced we're using this unique time in history to its greatest advantage. I'm struck by the wealth that is manifest all around me, and it makes me a little somber. With great opportunity comes great responsibility. It's hard to argue that we don't have great opportunity.

Sunset on the final approach to BWI

I am grateful for today and all that it's brought into my path, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow where I hope to live up to the challenges.

Catching Up From My Midwest Ramble

Last week took me to a couple of states that I have not visited in the past, so I think it's worth doing a bit of a photo recap.  Unfortunately, the connectivity during my travels did not support daily posting, so I'm taking the easy way out and leave you with some photos that I captured along the way. I already posted the first sunset in Michigan and the Green Bay Airport, so this series of photos will catch me up with the rest of the visit.

Sunset at 30K Feet - Aircraft Horizontal Stabilizer to the Left of the Photo

Sunset at 30K Feet - Somewhere over the Great Lakes

Skyscape on Climbout from Detroit, MI

Landscape on Climbout from Detroit

Airport Food - Detroit, MI

Apron - Detroit, MI

Packer Fanatic Fence #1 - Adjacent to Lambeau Field - Green Bay, WI

Packer Fanatic Fence #2 - Adjacent to Lambeau Field - Green Bay, WI

Packer Fanatic Fence #3 - Adjacent to Lambeau Field - Green Bay, WI

Lambeau Field - Green Bay, WI

Menominee North Pier Lighthouse - Mouth of the Menominee River entering Lake Michigan

It was a busy trip. I hope to do a little better job documenting the next jaunt up to the Wisconsin and Michigan. It's a new area for me, and I'm looking forward to more fully exploring all that the region offers.

Pioneering

Thanks to clearing out some of the clutter, I realized about two weeks ago that I hadn't yet tackled Robert Heinlein's Time Enough for Love  even though it's been in my library for over a year. Launching off on the book, I found myself about half way through it today on my way back north.

Charlotte-Douglas International Airport

Heinlein's books affect me by both engaging my imagination and prompting me to look at the world through a slightly different lens than my habitual assumptions. This one causes me to think about the profession of pioneering with a sense of both longing and adventure.

There are still areas left to explore here on earth, but pioneering, the profession of exploring, taming, settling, and scraping out a living making an untamed wild more habitable for humans seems just out of reach. I'm not sure if that assumption is true, but it sure feels like it.

The last great terrestrial area to make an attempt to habitate rests on the floor of the world's oceans. For other pioneering entrepids, looking to the stars seems like the next logical leap.

I believe the world is ready for the next great challenge, and visionaries like Elon Musk and Richard Branson seem to be making a go of it. 

Sunset - College Creek

Walking distances has proven to be marginally effective at scratching my natural nomadic itch, but the opportunity to work with others to colonize the moon in my lifetime seems like a better outlet. That kind of pioneering would not necessarily be a one way trip like some of the more ambitious interplanetary goals will likely end up being, and a base on the moon outside of the earth's gravity well seem like the next logical step.

The moon is a compelling target, and it offers plenty of chances to hone our space pioneering with reasonable odds of success. 

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and moving one more step closer to the destiny that's calling out from above.

Back in the Mid-Atlantic for a Little While

Successfully made it back to the Mid-Atlantic states. Travel will continue until morale improves, and as such this is about a fifty two hour stopover, some relatively local travel, and then we'll see what shakes out.

I took to opportunity to get in some much needed rest this afternoon. As I get a little older and wiser, I believe I'm getting better at listening to the body tell me when I'm pushing too hard and adjusting accordingly. To a degree, I wish I'd learned this a little sooner.

Departing CLT

Nothing to terribly exciting on the picture front, although I caught the above gem on the window of the A320 hauling me to Baltimore after a quick trot through the airport to catch this connecting flight. It's good to be back and I'm grateful I managed to basically keep up with all aspects of the daily practice in one form or another during a relatively challenging time from a schedule and sleep perspective.

I read a quote on a running website the other day that I think has some real applicability. It said, "Motivation gets you started, Habits keep you going." That's speaking with Big Medicine  from my perspective, and it's more than a bit heartening to realize that I've managed to develop some of those more positive habits over the last couple of years. It's been quite a trip.

Looking forward to what tomorrow's sunrise will reveal.

Thinking on Oneness, and a Trip South

I skipped a dedicated walk for exercise today. Travel took up a good part of the day, and frankly, I am tired.

The day started early with fellowship with a good group of folks where the topic of discussion centered around resentments and how they work against healthy living. If I'm honest, I sometimes struggle to keep a sense of oneness at the center of my relationships with both people and institutions, so resentment may be an issue for me address. I don't perceive myself as bitter, but my suspicion is that like eating and exercise the fruits of the way I approach life is an incremental and cumulative process. I don't want to be a bitter or resentful person. I believe that capturing that sense of oneness may prove critical to that vision.

In other news, I headed back down to the land of alligators and fried pickles with a brief stop on the way in the land of early presidential primaries.

Charlotte International Airport - Concourse B (on right) and Concourse C (on left)

Charlotte-Douglas International Airport serves as a major hub for American Airlines since their acquisition last year of US Airways. A friend of mine used to live in Charlotte, and I'm pretty sure I spend more time here than have over the last year. The USO in the airport has the largest collection of challenge coins that I've ever personally witnessed. One of the volunteers told me today that word on the street is that Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport owns a bigger collection, but Charlotte was working to catch up. I'm happy to report that I added two coins to their collection over my last two trips. I picked up a ham sandwich and bottle of water and headed on down the road.

An afternoon arrival in Mobile, Alabama led to a relatively late night in the office. By the time the end of the day arrived, the lights of the city were shining in all their glory.

Mobile, AL Skyline at Night

The colors displayed on the building have shifted from the Mardi Gras theme of purple, gold, and green since the last time I traveled down here, and I welcome the change. The picture really doesn't do justice to the grandeur of a big city infrastructure with a small town feel. If it weren't for the heat, humidity, and alligators I might imagine myself living here one day. Even those aspects have their charm. As another friend of mine likes to point out, "You don't have to shovel heat." This phrase seems to pop up just after the Mid-Atlantic region falls on the receiving end of sixteen inches of snow. Tough to refute that logic. 

Habit coerces me to admit that I'm looking forward to reveling in astonishment when the day after today is revealed.

Confronting Change

The truth of the matter is that no matter how hard we might try, avoiding change is impossible. The seemingly never ending stream of unique sunrises and sunsets, often of the same general geographic area, that I bombard my audience of almost no readers with every day should act as a testament to the fact that every month we endure, every week we put in the record books, every day that we face, and every moment that we live is a unique creative event.

Sunrise - Daphne, AL

Our brains seem to be wired to gloss over these vast differences and constant churn of ever changing events by finding patterns that give us comfort in the illusion of habit and stability, but the fact of the matter is that sense of stability is a fiction of our own making.

I got a book for Christmas last year titled Everything that Remains by Joshua Fields Millburn (with interruptions by Ryan Nicodemus) that I've been putting off reading since the moment I unwrapped it. The subtitles is "A Memoir by The Minimalists," and I put off reading the book because I was fairly certain that the story that they lay out regarding the value of minimalism would hit too close to home for comfort.

I was not wrong in that assumption.

Even though change is constant, and its definitively observable in the spectacular differences that I seem to be less and less able to dismiss at a whim, deliberate change is more difficult for me. The challenge for me is to heed the call that I've been building toward for more than a year now. My walking has been part of that path toward a less consumer driven existence. I first started the practice because I could not get the thought of how good it would be to slow down a little and live in each moment a little more out of my head.

The walking was a mechanism to address a sense of grown unsettledness in my life. Walking was the mechanism by which I literally took the first steps that have led me to this point.

Clouds - The Manifestation of Change - Mobile, AL

It is a point where my discomfort with maintaining the status quo has been balanced with my discomfort in pursuing a more deliberate path. The scaling back of materialism is something that I know in the very pit of my stomach that I'm going to have to try. At the same time, it was painfully difficult to leave the hardcover of David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell laying on a chair in the passenger terminal at BWI Airport after I finished reading it on my flight in to Charlotte, NC today. I wanted to save the book because it had impacted the way I viewed the world, but I know that I was unlikely to ever read it again.

The desire to keep a piece of that experience near me by keeping the book led me to carry it another 800 miles from where I'd finished receiving the benefit of reading the words.

If you want a copy of the book, I left it laying on a chair in the airport where it might change the way someone else views the world. I did what I knew was right but still felt like a difficult thing to complete. It felt good walking away from the book. Much better than walking up to the chair to set it down.

With the release of the book, I took another step on a journey where the path seems to be finding me. It's a different experience, and I look forward to seeing what road rises up to meet me tomorrow.

Sunrise to Sunset - Sunday Travel

Getting up this morning at 0430 was a bit of a challenge. The power had gone out sometime during the evening. I can only surmise that the howling wind that had lulled me to sleep had played some role in limiting the flow of electrons. I'd prepared the evening before, so getting out the door came off without too much trouble. A quick hop, skip, and a jump down to the airport, and I found myself on the Airbus 320 that was headed to Charlotte. On the way down the taxiway, the sun peaked up over the horizon.

Sunrise Reflecting in the Terminal Windows - BWI

The early morning flights on Sunday are comfortable. I heard the flight attendant say that we had about on hundred and twenty people on a plane designed to haul one hundred and eighty. I had the entire starboard side of exit row ten to myself.

Sunrise at BWI - Turning for the Takeoff Roll

The engines spun up, the hydraulic pumps whined, and we lept up to thirty thousand feet in the blink of an eye. Five miles above the earth, and the buffeting wind was barely a whispering backdrop. The clouds flashed pink, and I took a quick catnap to catch some of the Z's that I'd left back at home.

Clipping South, Five Miles above the Earth

I put in some time at work when I got to Alabama, but I left early enough to make the trek (via car) down to Fairhope for the evening walk.  This was the starting point for the two day stretch when Rory and I covered a little over fifty four miles, and it was good to be back. It was also good to be back in April when the temperature was in the high sixties. Last July, I assure you, the air was quite a bit hotter, quite a bit wetter, and heavier. It sat on you like a damp, boiling elephant.

The reason for the trek down to Fairhope was hope that I could catch a picture of the sun setting behind a marble dolphin statue in a city park on the shore of Mobile Bay. I wasn't even sure if the statue was oriented in a way that would work for the shot I had in mind, but opportunities like this don't come along very often so I thought I would give chance a try. I was not disappointed.

Dolphins at Sunset - Fairhope, AL

With the cool breeze wafting in from Mobile Bay, I cannot think of a better way to wrap up a Sunday. I first saw this statue over a year ago, and I've been planning to try to get this shot since it first crossed my path. It was the perfect way to end a Sunday, except that it wasn't the end.

On the way out to complete this goal that's been in the works for a year, I passed another statue that I don't remember seeing before. The really interesting thing is that I'm almost certain that it's not a new installation. I've been past this spot probably ten or fifteen times, and I've never noticed the seahorse. I jogged back, and this is what I saw when I got back to the starting point of the walk.

Seahorse at Sunset - Fairhope, AL

The sun had set, but the seahorse stood in sharp contrast to the gathering dusk. What a glorious Sunday, and it left me with the gift of another goal. I have a feeling that I'll be stalking the sunset behind the seahorse sometime going forward. I hope it doesn't take a year this time, but I know that the chase, however long it may be, will be worth it. Sunrise, Sunset, and Sunday. I'm not sure it can get any better than this, though I remain hopeful. Tomorrow is a new day, and I can't wait to see what the universe delivers to experience.

Airport Boogaloo

Today found me sitting in an airport waiting to catch the freedom bird from where I was to where I was going.

Mobile Regional Airport

It was a pretty lonely tarmac when I left, and it was raining at my final destination. For reasons that I don't understand this struck me as a little sad, and I fell into a it of a melancholy state of mind. I did get a chance to walk and to read.  

The walking is pretty routine at this stage, but reading has become an increasingly rare luxury.  I got about halfway through The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (warning...plot spoilers). It's a book about a long walk that touches on a number of themes that have a personal familiarity that are a little unnerving. It's been a great read so far, and I'm grateful to have been introduced to it. I'm also grateful that at least I know someone else can imagine some of the things that I believe I've experienced out there on the trail.

If you're thinking about walking distances, I recommend this book because it captures what I've come to believe may be some of the more universal aspects of walking for a semi-spiritual reason. On the other hand you could just strap on some shoes and see what materializes. It's probably better to read a little and do a little because neither one of those activities will be entirely whole without the other.

Midday Flying

Flights that are early in the morning or later in the evening seem to be the most conducive to producing decent pictures in the airports.  Early, the day hasn't started, so planes can pretty reliably counted on to run on time.  Later in the evening, the chaos of the day has unfolded, planes are running late, but somewhere in the airport you can usually find a vista that provides a pretty good view of the sunset with some relatively interesting things going on in the foreground.

Midday travel didn't work out that way today.  Flights were late which led to rushing across the airport to make connections.  The sunset was missed by about an hour or so, and slightly washed out pictures were the result.  Even some of the backdrops that appear in the beginning and the end of the day (airplanes at the terminal) were busily employed elsewhere.

C'est la vie.

Here are the panoramas that resulted from midday flying.

Empty Gate - Mobile International Airport

The Aircraft Arrives, Late - Mobile International Airport

Mechanical Issues Being Resolved - Charlotte International Airport

Too Early to Capture the Sunset - Charlotte International Airport

It sounds a bit like there is some whining afoot.  That's probably a little true.  It was a bit of a hectic travel day, but I'm grateful I'm home and I'm grateful that I didn't have to drive the 1200 miles or so that the air travel saved me.  At the end of the day, my expectations of safe and mostly reliable scheduling have been met.  There was also the opportunity to consume two airport sandwiches.  They were actually pretty good...if you ignored the cost.

Travel Day

Today started off with an early trip to the airport for follow-on travel to the Gulf Coast.  While rumors have it that airline travel is not the luxury experience that it used to be, there is some evidence in my mind that this is just revisionist history.  For one, the airports themselves are far more luxurious than they once were, and this change has materialized during my lifetime.

Airplane Sculpture as an Advertisement for an Airport Pub and Restaurant

The airports that are part of my normal routine (just saying that is something to ponder) have become a combination of art and technology museum.  The artwork is fairly diverse including large and small scale sculpture, paintings, drawings, and technology centered art.  The technical displays are largely related to air travel, but it is not unusual to see space, ground transport, and political science displays as well.

This is probably not the most popular opinion, but I really don't mind going to an airport.  Even the Transportation Security Administration seems to have gotten their act together, and it looks like TSA pre-check will be widely available to even the casual traveller.  Lines aren't bad, and again, technology is making a real difference both at the ticket counter, the gates, and yes, the security lines.

It also doesn't hurt one little bit that I can get into and aluminum tube that travels just a little less than 500 mph around 30K feet (that's five miles give or take) and land largely refreshed and ready to go 1200 miles away from where I started in just seven hours.  The fact that this remarkable achievement has happened on a timeline where the first manned powered flight happened four short years before my grandfather's birthday makes the achievement all the more amazing to me.

After a quick hop down to the Gulf Coast, my pace slowed down and pedestrian activity ensued.  You know you may be back in the south when Spanish moss and American Alligator Warning placards begin to appear out of the woodwork. 

Spanish Moss Overhanging the Oak Ridge Trail at Gulf Shores State Park

I stumbled upon this trail after a quick jaunt down to Gulf Shores, AL to see what there was to see.  The walk turned into a 9 mile loop which was about a mile longer than I anticipated but rewarding nonetheless. The trail bordered a wetland, or what most rational people would call a swamp with the requisite warning signs for this type of area in the south.

American Alligator Warning Placard in Gulf Shores State Park

I approve of the advice to resist feeding the alligators. I know I have no desire to become their lunch or even mid afternoon snack.

Sunset happened about a mile before I wanted it to happen, but since stopping the spinning of the planet is not yet in my repertoire revelling in it a bit early seemed like the best option.

Gulf Coast Sunset #1 as Seen from the Middle of a Swamp

Even though I didn't get the full experience because of the swamp surrounding me and blocking my view, the high color of the setting sun seemed worthy of digital capture.

Gulf Coast Sunset #2 as Seen from the Middle of a Swamp

Today was very full, and strung together, it represents another 24 hour chapter in a very fulfilling life.  I'm grateful for the richness of the experience.

And So Ends a Week on the Road

Sunset. Mobile Regional Airport

Putting yourself in the way of beauty is a very fulfilling way to live.  Tiring, yes, but definitely fulfilling.