Departure Eve

"The bad news is life flies. 
 The good news is you're the pilot"
- Michael Althsuler

11 years of college, med school and residency are complete, and in celebration I'm treating myself to a little road trip.  Though, little is not the best word for a trip that will take me over 8,500 miles through 25 states, 17 national parks over a course of 40 days and 40 nights.  

The planning for this trip can be dated back to June two years ago.  I was flying back from Seattle having just completed my intern year of residency reading Backpacker magazine. In this issue there was a map of the US with all the national parks.  Bored on my flight and not completely feeling my appetite for travel satiated I began to connect the green spaces on the map and came up with course.  All I needed was the time.  Fortunately that time has arrived.  

40 days is quite a long time to be on the road, but there was just so much I wanted to see and do, that to do any less would be too short.  Plus there's something nice about the number 40.  After all its the highest number ever counted to on Sesame Street (allegedly per wikipedia).  Its also the number of spaces on a Monopoly board (so day 1 is officially GO).  Religiously speaking, its the number of days it rained during the flood in Genesis, the number of days Moses was on Mt Sinai, the number of days Jesus fasted in the wilderness, and the number of days from Jesus's resurrection to his ascension.  For the atheists out there it's also the number of days Josh Hartnett had to go without sexual contact in 40 Days and 40 Nights.  Perhaps the arabic proverb "To understand a people, you must live among them for 40 days" explains it best. For the next 40 days I'm going to get to know America by experiencing its shores, mountains, deserts, lakes, rivers and its iconic cities.  I'll be sharing this experience here and on Facebook, so stay tuned.