Islands...May 9, 2007
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i was thinking yesterday as i was walking around Manhattan that isalnds have been a big theme with my trip so far. i left my island home of New Zealand about 2 and a half weeks ago and flew to a very small island of Tahiti. it was a tranquil little place, a small island where only about 3000 people lived, on Moorrea. now i have found myself on an island that is 180 degrees the other way from Tahiti. Manhattan Island has well over a million people living onm it, and it feels like most of them are walking down the street at any one time. like a science film explaining blood circulation, the ebb and flow of human activity pulses through the streets. pausing from block to block to let a sea of yellow cabs pass by.
i got down to business yesterday and found myself a bike. it was a relief to find something that is going to work well - it's a bit of an odd feeling to know that i'm leaving town on a bike trip and not actually own a bike! Andrew arrived into town last night and ended up crashing with me for the night, it was good to see a familier face and have a chat to somebody. in a city this big where even if you go to the same places you will never see anyone you know, having even the most basic chat with a friend is really great. we're going to spend the day getting ready for the ride and hit the road tomorrow.
it's going to be great to get moving down the road, as much as i have liked NYC, getting down to business is going to be great fun. we roughed out a basic plan last night, well not much beyond picking a thin black line on a road map that will be our path. Both Andrew and i have the same philosophy for this adventure and that is to make sure that the adventure stays in the equation. we are going to avoid overplanning wherever we can and let the journey dictate our actions, leaving ourselves open to the possibilities of the road. it's a tough mandate to stick to as it leaves us wide open for disaster. but sometimes that risk of failure, the risk of having to have a super long day to get to the next place to stay, or the risk of having nowhere to eat lunch is the whole reason for doing something like this...
have fun out there,
~Scott
