The Trip - Outro
So, it finally happened. I broken down mentally, and abandoned all sense of reason and dignity. I took The Trip. At 9am Sunday morning, on April 22nd, I left Everett for parts unknown. The Trip is the longest journey I've ever undertaken, and as of 8pm Sunday, May 6th, I returned home.
I'm making this post to finally clear my thoughts and organize what I've learned. Taking this trip was instructive, boring, exciting, draining, and all together harrowing, in such a way I've never experienced before. To try to paraphrase the experience, I've kept track of a few things to discuss.
To start, I believe that some elements of our pattern recognition skills actually help us to be worse drivers than we normally could be. I noticed two things wherever I went.
The first is the way we merge into traffic. Time and time again, when I maintained a constant speed (thanks to cruise control), drivers that were merging onto the freeway would match speed with me in such a way as to come right up beside me, at which point they'd get stuck in a situation where they had to react quickly, usually decelerating to merge with traffic. When these situations arose, I never changed speed or position on the freeway, they had just managed to work themselves into a bad spot. Trucks are worse in this case, as they just barrel into the freeway and you've got no choice but to move over for them.
My second example is less of a problem and more an unusual coincidence. When I was slowly approaching a vehicle from behind, usually a semi, I'd have to wait because the person behind me (either directly or in the fast lane) would accelerate to pass us both. If I was behind a semi, this meant that I usually got very close to the semi before I had the room to move over into the fast lane. Were it a car, I'd usually have to decelerate to get the room I needed. Again strange, as I saw the same thing happen exactly over and over again, but ultimately not necessarily very dangerous.
I'm wondering if investigation into our subconscious driving patterns would yield worthwhile results.
I also discovered that if you're a Buddhist, Jainist, or any other sort of person that doesn't want to harm living things, you generally shouldn't drive anything but the shortest distances. Using naught by my windshield, I killed hundreds of bugs. This was certainly no surprise, but as I thought about the nature of what I was doing it all became clear. My crime was insecticide.
In planning my trip I also knew that I wouldn't be able to eat the way in which I was accustomed, impacting my health negatively. Now that I've spend a number of days alternating between an empty and overfull stomach, and all the while being hydrated, I know that I'll need to eat less and drink more on any future trips. When I'm eating properly I tend to not eat much at all, but even that is a bit too much when I'm spending all of my day in the driver's seat.
And last in my observations is that rest is more important than any other consideration. When I became drowsy in the least I found a place to pull over and take a cat nap, even if it was for twenty minutes. These naps were vital to my psychological well being as I don't think there's anything worse than driving long distances while you're exhausted.
In returning I find that I'm not that different. I may have returned in May, when everything was in bloom, but everything still looks different. Colors are brighter, and my home seems beautiful in a way I never understood before. Sure, some of this is a reaction to coming back after a long trip, but I think that I'm also reacting to having my eyes opened.
Beyond that, I feel much calmer and more patient, and now driving back and forth through the city doesn't seem to bother me so much. One strange element is that I'm also feeling much more anti-social, as I've generally not wanted to spend time with my friends, save for one or two situations. At this point I'm doing so because it seems appropriate to get back into the swing of things, even if I don't want to listen to some people's problems.
Travel is a strange beast. Pop culture tells us that we are being changed by everything around us, and that getting up and going somewhere else will impact our lives in a way we never knew possible. And if I know anything, I know that's stupid and wrong, and yet not far from the actual truth. I'm glad I took the trip, I got to see some good friends, big cities, and begin to be changed by the forces around me. I'm still me, but my eyes are a little wider now.
In particular I'd like to thank rollick, gillan, xamses, and devilindupriest, for being good friends and great company. I hope some day to make a journey like this again, but take much more time doing it, especially to be with friends.
My closing thought is a simple one, if born out of my education-by-film. I don't feel very different, but I know I'm becoming different. The world is a beautiful place, and I think I can accept that now. But most importantly, I wonder if I really went anywhere at all. I think it's said better by someone else...
No matter where you go, there you are.
I'm making this post to finally clear my thoughts and organize what I've learned. Taking this trip was instructive, boring, exciting, draining, and all together harrowing, in such a way I've never experienced before. To try to paraphrase the experience, I've kept track of a few things to discuss.
To start, I believe that some elements of our pattern recognition skills actually help us to be worse drivers than we normally could be. I noticed two things wherever I went.
The first is the way we merge into traffic. Time and time again, when I maintained a constant speed (thanks to cruise control), drivers that were merging onto the freeway would match speed with me in such a way as to come right up beside me, at which point they'd get stuck in a situation where they had to react quickly, usually decelerating to merge with traffic. When these situations arose, I never changed speed or position on the freeway, they had just managed to work themselves into a bad spot. Trucks are worse in this case, as they just barrel into the freeway and you've got no choice but to move over for them.
My second example is less of a problem and more an unusual coincidence. When I was slowly approaching a vehicle from behind, usually a semi, I'd have to wait because the person behind me (either directly or in the fast lane) would accelerate to pass us both. If I was behind a semi, this meant that I usually got very close to the semi before I had the room to move over into the fast lane. Were it a car, I'd usually have to decelerate to get the room I needed. Again strange, as I saw the same thing happen exactly over and over again, but ultimately not necessarily very dangerous.
I'm wondering if investigation into our subconscious driving patterns would yield worthwhile results.
I also discovered that if you're a Buddhist, Jainist, or any other sort of person that doesn't want to harm living things, you generally shouldn't drive anything but the shortest distances. Using naught by my windshield, I killed hundreds of bugs. This was certainly no surprise, but as I thought about the nature of what I was doing it all became clear. My crime was insecticide.
In planning my trip I also knew that I wouldn't be able to eat the way in which I was accustomed, impacting my health negatively. Now that I've spend a number of days alternating between an empty and overfull stomach, and all the while being hydrated, I know that I'll need to eat less and drink more on any future trips. When I'm eating properly I tend to not eat much at all, but even that is a bit too much when I'm spending all of my day in the driver's seat.
And last in my observations is that rest is more important than any other consideration. When I became drowsy in the least I found a place to pull over and take a cat nap, even if it was for twenty minutes. These naps were vital to my psychological well being as I don't think there's anything worse than driving long distances while you're exhausted.
In returning I find that I'm not that different. I may have returned in May, when everything was in bloom, but everything still looks different. Colors are brighter, and my home seems beautiful in a way I never understood before. Sure, some of this is a reaction to coming back after a long trip, but I think that I'm also reacting to having my eyes opened.
Beyond that, I feel much calmer and more patient, and now driving back and forth through the city doesn't seem to bother me so much. One strange element is that I'm also feeling much more anti-social, as I've generally not wanted to spend time with my friends, save for one or two situations. At this point I'm doing so because it seems appropriate to get back into the swing of things, even if I don't want to listen to some people's problems.
Travel is a strange beast. Pop culture tells us that we are being changed by everything around us, and that getting up and going somewhere else will impact our lives in a way we never knew possible. And if I know anything, I know that's stupid and wrong, and yet not far from the actual truth. I'm glad I took the trip, I got to see some good friends, big cities, and begin to be changed by the forces around me. I'm still me, but my eyes are a little wider now.
In particular I'd like to thank rollick, gillan, xamses, and devilindupriest, for being good friends and great company. I hope some day to make a journey like this again, but take much more time doing it, especially to be with friends.
My closing thought is a simple one, if born out of my education-by-film. I don't feel very different, but I know I'm becoming different. The world is a beautiful place, and I think I can accept that now. But most importantly, I wonder if I really went anywhere at all. I think it's said better by someone else...
No matter where you go, there you are.