Hey Team,

There’s so much I didn’t get to write about last week that I would have loved to share but thanks to a near 72-hour driving stint I feel so far behind. I guess just one quick story and then we’ll have to pretend we’re caught up.

I made a pit stop in Pensacola, FL last week after that amazingly difficult trek to the lowest highest point in a state. (This may sound a little bit nerdy or lame but…) I was especially excited because of a peninsula that served as Pensacola Beach. Here’s the thing: a peninsula coming from a Northern Gulf coast city meant that I could pop on over to the beach and watch the sunset over the water like it’s supposed to.

I thought maybe I could just pretend I was back home for a couple minutes and go on about my business of being a homeless vagrant of an adventurer. But everything was just a little bit wrong. The sky was so overcast that I literally couldn’t even tell which way was west by the time the sun was going down.

Eventually darkness set in and I was wandering along the beach by myself in the pitch darkness. Which is something I would be inclined to do in California except thanks to light pollution it’s never all that dark around the LA and Orange County beaches (good or bad it’s just what I’m used to).

Even with the lack of light I could still tell there was even more wrong with the picture than I realized. Just walking on the sand felt wrong. Even blind I could tell I wasn’t on a California beach just from the density of the sand beneath my feet.

There were no piers and no seabirds.

No sound from passing cars.

All in all, the whole situation just felt wrong. And if ever there was a time I felt like I wanted to be back home that was it. Not because I’m not loving this amazing adventure just because it’s natural to want to escape the twilight zone.

If it were a COMPLETELY different setting it wouldn’t have bothered me at all. But it kind of felt like I was trapped in The Truman Show where someone had tried to build a beach just for me from nothing more than a vague description of what makes a beach a beach. It didn’t work.

In other news: I’m on my way to Zion National Park for a couple days. It’s too bad it’s right on the heels of my last cross country drive induced disappearing act but it looks like I may be incommunicado for a couple days. I’ll do what I can to ensure that doesn’t happen but that’s the skinny.

Thanks for sticking around, Team!

I’m done.

Brett.

I’m not sure how true it is but I hear homesickness has a very expensive cure…at least you can help out by clicking that button so you don’t have to feel so bad.

Thanks!

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 9:27 am.