OK. So it's getting down to the wire and I'm feeling… pretty good, really. I have planned and gamed this trip from just about any angle I can think of. I've memorized current windows, plotted weather patterns and mapped out route variances. I've done everything I can do without actually doing it. Which is all that remains, and I'm feeling ready for the push.
One thing that's hard to know is how often I'll be in front of a computer to update this journal. I think it will be fairly easy in most situations to find a connection, but it's impossible to be sure. I hope so.
Technology is so pervasive in the day-to-day; it will be odd (and oddly liberating), to not have the trappings of modern techno-life at every hand. There are those who take their laptops with them, who make daily sat-phone position reports to their "support teams," and who plot each paddle stroke on their GPS units and link their real-time progress to their sponsor's web sites. They're gone, but they still feel so close.
I do not mean to cast aspersions. It's just that I'm not one of these people. I'll stay as connected as I can, but then again, I'm not going to one of the wildest places in the Pacific Northwest so that I can catch up on my email. I will do all I can to make sure my family and friends know how I am and where I am, but I already know there will be times when contact will not be possible. That is one of the side effects of traveling along the edges of the map, and it's not a bad thing. In a strange way, I'm sort of looking forward to it.
Besides, how can they miss me if I never really go away?
One thing that's hard to know is how often I'll be in front of a computer to update this journal. I think it will be fairly easy in most situations to find a connection, but it's impossible to be sure. I hope so.
Technology is so pervasive in the day-to-day; it will be odd (and oddly liberating), to not have the trappings of modern techno-life at every hand. There are those who take their laptops with them, who make daily sat-phone position reports to their "support teams," and who plot each paddle stroke on their GPS units and link their real-time progress to their sponsor's web sites. They're gone, but they still feel so close.
I do not mean to cast aspersions. It's just that I'm not one of these people. I'll stay as connected as I can, but then again, I'm not going to one of the wildest places in the Pacific Northwest so that I can catch up on my email. I will do all I can to make sure my family and friends know how I am and where I am, but I already know there will be times when contact will not be possible. That is one of the side effects of traveling along the edges of the map, and it's not a bad thing. In a strange way, I'm sort of looking forward to it.
Besides, how can they miss me if I never really go away?
