End Notes

I learned a lot of things on this trip, the most important being the meaning of life. I’ll get to that later. First, I would like to write about time. For those of you who also read my first trip’s journal, you may have noticed a few changes in the format of this book. One of the more obvious changes is that I have not given an "hour-by-hour" account of this trip (at least not as much as the first one). There is a reason for that.

By August 1995, I had lost all concept of time. There was a reason for that.

Our daily lives are governed by time. We wake up at the same time each morning. Those of us who eat breakfast eat it at the same time each day. We go to work or to school at the same time each day. We eat lunch at the same time each day. We come home at the same time each day. We eat dinner at the same time each night. We go to sleep at the same time each night. We all look at the clock or our wristwatches at least once every day.

Why?

On my trip, I woke up when I wanted to. I ate breakfast if and when I wanted to. I went wherever and whenever I wanted to. I ate lunch and dinner whenever I wanted to. I slept whenever I wanted to. If I wanted to drive across three states at 2:00 AM, I drove across three states at 2:00 AM. If I wanted to go to sleep at noon, I slept at noon. The passing of time had no meaning to me by the time this trip was over.

Why?

Isn’t the time that we do everything critical in our daily lives? Or is it not relevant at all?

I got by just fine without worrying about the time.

Why do we live each day of our life worrying about the future, or regretting our mistakes in the past? The past cannot be changed. As for the future, we should deal with it when it becomes the present. Spending too much time thinking about what may or may not happen later is a waste of the present. Throughout this trip, I lived each day thinking about what I would do the next day. That was a big mistake. I missed out on the "today" while thinking about "tomorrow".

But there must be a logical reason for us to do that, otherwise we would not do it...

This is not a perfect world.

Human beings are not logical.

While I am on the subject of criticizing human beings, let me also say that Isaac Newton had it all wrong when he came up with the laws of nature. According to him,

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.".

No.

"For every reaction, there must have existed an equal and opposite action that preceded it.".

That’s the meaning of life.

On both my trips, a lot of days were "ruined" by the weather. About three days into my trip #2 (there was rain, snow, hail and a blizzard during those first few days), I realized that no matter how terrible it might have been to drive through all that, if it were not for rain, snow, hail, or blizzards -- there would be no reason for me to take this trip -- there would be no Rocky Mountain National Park, there would be no Niagara Falls, there would be no Blue Ridge Parkway. (In fact, without the rain, there would be no ME!). Since then, I started appreciating the rain for what it was rather than for what inconveniences it caused.

When I was crossing the great plains, the drive was extremely dull. There was nothing but farmlands -- for thousands and thousands of miles. Within the first few days, I realized WHY that entire region of the country is called "The Great Plains". But I still had not made the connection between the "greatness" of the plains and what that has to do with the meaning of life. On my back, (while driving from Wisconsin to Louisiana to Texas to Minnesota), it finally occurred to me -- there are more than 250 million people in this country. something has to feed them all!!! More importantly, something has got to feed me!!! That something -- what I was seeing extending far into the horizon and seemingly endless -- was exactly what kept me alive on this trip.

When I was at Shenandoah National Park and Blue Ridge Parkway, I went on several hiking trails. There were a lot of bees everywhere, which irritated me quite a lot - "Why do they have to be here NOW - when I’m here???" Later, on the Blue Ridge, I saw a lot of very beautiful flowers all along the road. Then I went on a few more hiking trails. More bees. More beautiful flowers. Then it clicked -- no bees, no flowers, no nice smell; yes bees, yes flowers, yes nice smell!!!

At Mt. St. Helens, I saw a lot of downed trees -- A lot of destruction of life caused by a single devastating event. The downed trees made the landscape look really different, and therefore, beautiful. The eruption of Mt. St. Helens was triggered by an earthquake -- another devastating event by itself. A lot of trees, animals, and people died by being burned by the hot lava and/or the hot air created from the blast, or by breathing the ash that lasted in the atmosphere for several days after the eruption. The eruption totally changed the landscape around the mountain. New mountains were formed. On those new mountains new forests started to grow. In those new forests new animals made their homes. A new deep-blue incredibly beautiful lake was created. Near the lake new people made their homes. The destruction of life, no matter how tragic it might seem, brought about new life. No earthquake... no eruption... no new mountains... no new life... no beautiful lake... no new scenery.

All things exist for a reason. We have to take the good with the bad. ’Cuz without the bad, not only would the good things not exist, but even if they did exist, they would not be appreciated.

I guess this is a perfect world after all!

that’s it.

the end.