The Rabbit Hole

 

Elmer -- much like Alice (in Wonderland) -- might want to
stay away (Warner Bros)

I'm guilty of falling into some interweb rabbit holes.

Wikipedia? Oh yeah.

Baseball or Football Reference? Yup.

YouTube? That might be the worst of them for me. 

My routine after "Doubleheader" is over is generally the same. I edit and upload my audio of the broadcast to the archive.

After that, what I do depends on the day. In this case, I wound up on Facebook for a moment and came across a link to a user who spends his summer working in Alaska as a driver at Denali National Park. He also has a home in Kimberly, ID. That means James Davey ends his season -- around this time of year -- and makes the 3,016-mile trip from Alaska to Idaho. He said in a post that he has done the drive 11 times.

A year ago, he filmed his entire journey with a GoPro that he had mounted in his vehicle. The video is over three hours long with the footage sped up.

No, I didn't watch all three hours. I watched for roughly 40 minutes and was utterly entranced. The scenery intrigued me and I wasn't bothered by the lack of music.

Eventually, I saw a link to another user talking about her trip from Texas to Alaska. Over a couple of shorter episodes, I learned how this single mother ("Lidia Explores") was able to "be in the moment" and live her life.

Her daughter was going to spend the summer with the woman's former partner and she was going to do this intense drive.

Travel like that is discovery. It's very personal. Oh sure, you're discovering things to see and experience as you travel but you also learn about yourself. It's bold and somewhat nerve-wracking and also freeing.

I didn't watch every one of the episodes but I watched enough to follow along as she crossed into British Columbia then to Yukon (briefly back into BC) and then finally to Alaska. Her videos -- like that of James Davey -- show the stunning beauty of the Canadian and Alaskan wilderness. You get to see the lakes, mountains, wildlife, and road conditions that travelers experience (without snow).

Lidia's videos have more personality to them because she interacts with the camera and serves as a narrator. She shows the charm of some of the places that she stayed at (though she also camped many many nights) along with food, sites, and people she's met along the way.

James's video is just the drive. There's no personal touch to it. Even pulling into his driveway is quick before the video abruptly ends.

That's not to say one is better than the other. It's all personal preference.

Lidia's video might hit you in the feels because this journey is so personal to her.

I admit I ache to drive. I can't explain simply how priceless our summer journey was. Seeing new things (Buffalo/Niagara Falls, parts of West Virginia and other states that I've never been to) was such a blessing. I also have driven alone but never the amount of miles these two people have driven. My longest effort was from Mahopac to Charleston, SC back in 2012 and, in hindsight, was my favorite part of that trip.

Still, that wasn't the three- and four-thousand-mile variety of James and Lidia. Mahopac to Charleston was roughly 850 miles over a long day of approximately 16 hours.

But I remember it all so well. Feeling no guilt for waking anyone early, I was packed and ready to go just before 4:00 a.m. Only my own insanity (or OCD) kept me from driving away until 4:22 a.m. I'll always remember that time on that January morning.

I avoided traffic problems in New York City (yes, even at that hour) and stayed on a steady pace, driving briefly into Pennsylvania before stopping in Delaware for a moment. The journey carried me down into Maryland and Virginia, where I stopped and had lunch with John and Lori.

In the "you never know department," that turned out to be the last time I saw my friend Lori as she died a few years later, horribly too young to fathom.

I didn't want to leave them in Richmond but I also needed to get back on the road and, with rain pouring down, ventured south to North Carolina for the first time in many years. I go annually now but Hector, Kristy, and Evelyn hadn't moved there yet. 

I stopped briefly under the lights of South of the Border, grabbed dinner at a Chick-fil-A drive-thru in Florence, SC, and continued to Charleston. I remember thinking I had maybe energy for another hour or two of driving before I would have been done. I could have reached Savannah, GA but it was not to be.

Charleston it was. It's a great city and I'd love to go back.

And that's what is so wonderful about this rabbit hole. Watching the work that James and Lidia both posted got me fired up. 

Whether it's with Sean or someone else or even on my own, I look forward to that next adventure. It's coming for sure. I'm off to San Francisco in a few weeks for another conference, though that trip will be a "blink and you'll miss me" type. 

But we're working on something for early November. And I'm waiting patiently for winter sports schedules to plot a 2024 return to Florida.

By car.

And given I haven't driven that in its entirety since 1989 I can tell you that's going to be special.

These rabbit holes can be time-wasters and I know that. But, to me, this was no worse than watching TV for a few hours.

Plus these are content creators among the many who are putting good items online.

I was happy to find them.

I was happy to support them.