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.

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.

I Forgot

Yesterday was a really long day getting ready for the final push to complete the move/downsizing that we recently experienced. I had access to the internet, but it wasn't convenient. I did not watch any television. This is a good development, and it's one I hope to find a way to extend to our broader home way of living.

I woke up early this morning and headed for the airport to catch a ride down south. Due to some IT glitches, the travel agent was unable to get me ticketed, but with an hour in advance of the flight arrangements were made and we departed Baltimore just after sunrise. After clearing the clouds, I snapped this photo from my window.

Airborne shortly after sunrise - Climbing out of BWI

This photo's been doctored more than a little, so strictly speaking this is not the sight that greeted me, but it captures the mood that the scene evoked in me after clearing the clouds. The air was clear and the sky clean a blue. Multiple layers of clouds captured the light and shadow in a myriad of interesting ways. The cold front headed our way was churning the atmosphere at multiple levels. The view was glorious.  I didn't post this photo to social media because of the heavy handed filters applied. The explanation for doing what I did is not really in keeping with my social media photo philosophy where I try to render a more realistic and less artistic view of things I observe.  That "philosophy" is probably worthy of a post all its own, but I'll leave it at that for now.

On the way back down out of the sky, I glanced out the window and saw the shadow of our Airbus A321 cast on the clouds that we were rapidly descending through on our path down to Charlotte, NC.

A321 Shadow on Clouds - Descent into Charlotte, NC

Other than cropping and some light adjustments on exposure and highlights to bring out the shadow, I posted this one to Facebook. The photo very quickly racked up more commentary from a wider variety of participants than I'm normally used to seeing. It was a head scratcher, and though pretty interesting, I was initially a bit worried that this photo would not be well received at all.

The I remembered that today was the day we've been told we'll Never Forget. September 11th. Several weeks ago, I decided to fly on September 11th because I'd forgotten that fifteen years ago today the United States was attacked with airplanes in a graphic and horrific way that would shape the balance of my career in my day job from that moment to (a lesser degree) now.

It's not that this photo is particularly good or unique. It's that more people are sensitive to imagery associated with airplanes on the fifteenth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the heroic end to United Airlines Flight 93 in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

I'm going to go against conventional wisdom and suggest that a bit of forgetting is good for the soul. When I look back on the last fifteen years, I'm not sure that we've made the right decisions on how to address these attacks when viewed through the prism of opportunity cost. This is little doubt in my mind that the trillions of dollars spent and the wars that have been fought in response to this attack have improved the physical safety of most of us from a martial perspective. I do wonder if we've unknowingly sacrificed security in equally important, but not so memorable or dramatic areas that we may want to consider going forward.

What's done is done, and there are folks now who are learning about this chapter of World history without having experienced the raw emotion of living through the events of the last decade and a half. Perhaps a little forgetting is in order so we all can move on and address the legion of issues that might be helped with a more balanced expenditure on security.  I don't know, but my elbow is itching a bit, and this is often a sign for me that we may want to pause and ask some hard questions.

My flights landed safely, and toward dusk I found myself in the familiar and welcome embrace of Fairhope, AL. The sunset was muted in keeping with the tone of the day, but it was beautiful nontheless.

Dusk - Fairhope, AL

We'll have to wait and see what the next fifteen years will reveal, but I'm hopeful as always that tomorrow will show us all another new set of new and adventurous challenges.  Till then, and per my usual habit, I'm looking forward to it.

Fellow Travelers

Today, I connected with fellow travelers.

Fellow Travelers Boarding the Plane at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport

I that interaction with my fellow travelers is something that I really try to avoid, and I'm not really sure why I take that particular approach. Today, on the first flight leg, that proved to be impossible because one of the guys in my row enthusiastically exhibited his clearly extroverted tendencies and engaged the whole row in what turned out to be a relatively jolly and wide ranging discussion that covered topics of work and golf interspersed with oblique references to love-making. All this occurred while hurtling through the higher levels of the troposphere at a little over 400 knots.  In spite of my initial skepticism, the boisterous banter helped pass the time and proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Crawling out of the ashes of my first career over the last two days had left me in a place where I really needed that kind of fun-filled diversion from the slow smolder I'd allowed myself to stoke in my head. When I let it, the universe has a way of delivering just what I need at just the right time.

Before I left for the trip south, I attended to the daily practice of minimalism and parted ways with ten pair of worn out socks and five shirts. You're probably thinking, "Who the hell keeps ten pairs of worn out socks?"

Minimalism Day 15

This guy.

Today was a good day where the physical and mental baggage that I've managed to collect in the past (even the recent past) got a little bit lighter. I never would have thought that getting rid of material possessions would help me cope a little better with setbacks that aren't directly related to having too much shit in my closet that I don't need, but I believe that the last two weeks of moving on from my material past has had just that effect.

The practice of deliberately walking forward from material things that meant something to me at one time but have outlived their utility has led to a subtle shift in my mindset. I understand just a little bit better that I'm not so closely defined by the things or events or any number of outside circumstances that the universe puts in my path.  I truly believe that just two weeks of this practice positioned me better to cope with some disappointing, though not necessarily surprising circumstances.

People ask me how I'm doing, and I can honestly answer that I doing real well. Being able to say that and feel it has proven to be a great relief.

We'll see what tomorrow has in store, and I'm looking forward to whatever may come. It will be an adventure to say the least.

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.

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.

The Benefits of Air Travel

I found myself on the road again for work. More accurately, I took to the air and in a surprisingly short period of time covered over 1800 miles on my way to lower latitudes. Although a bit on the pricey side, airports are one of those places where you are easily able to access anything that your heart might desire.  They really have become highly functional as well as artistic facilities. Those features are all on the public facing side of an incredibly complex and effective logistics enterprise that moves thousands of people and thousands of tons of cargo across the country (and the world) quickly and efficiently everyday.

Sunrise at Charlotte International Airport

Part way to my final destination, I found myself back in the land of what one of my friends calls the "Panther Plane" for obvious reasons.

Vertical Stabilizer of the "Panther Plane"

I also stumbled across this blast from what I assumed was the long forgotten past of a different sort of air travel.

Piedmont Airlines Offices

I always assumed that Piedmont Airlines was one of those regional carriers that had vanished into the mists of time.  There were some major changes after they merged with US Air in 1989, and here is some of Piedmont's earlier history. It turns out that they are still operating under the American Airlines group, and their headquarters is still in Salisbury, MD.  Charlotte International Airport is one of their principle hubs.  I do like their logo.

Arriving in my final destination for the day, I slowed down my pace quite a bit, and I put in just over eleven miles on the ground. As sometimes happens, I really wasn't too very thrilled about the prospect of that kind of distance after a day of travel, but when I got to about the halfway point, my outlook had shifted, and I was glad to be out on the trial.

Statue of the goddess Daphne in front
of the Daphne, AL City Hall

This statue is one of my favorite vistas along the thirty two mile long Eastern Shore Trail that runs from Spanish Fort, AL to south of Fairhope, AL. It is especially striking at sunset, and I caught it at just the right hour this evening. That was a fortunate piece of good luck and entirely spontaneous. It's a lesson for me that good things will happen if I'm willing to put in the work.

US Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Office in Daphne, AL

This was my turnaround point this evening about 5.7 miles into the walk. Overall, it was a productive and fulfilling day in the air and out on the trail.

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.