Almost Coasting

We originally wanted to wander up the east coast, but we've seen Savannah, we've been to Hilton Head and Charleston, so in the end we decided to dash instead of coasting up the coast. Hence we made it from just north of Jacksonville to just south of Virginia in one day.

Spent the night in a Holiday Inn Express near Roanoake Rapids in northern North Carolina after a day of seeing the countryside streaming by. We haven't seen any live wildlife, but did see roadkill possums, raccoons, deer, armadillos. In Kingsland Georgia, where we spent the previous night, the hotel was full of Forest Service staff who were there to fight a fire in the swamp, hoping to prevent it from reaching private land and eventually the highway. First time I've ever heard anyone hoping for a hurricane ... best way to put out a forest fire in powder-dry countryside.

Today should be a bit more exciting. We are destined for Washington DC, and will try to drop in for lunch at Johnny Rocket's in Arlington ... not that the restaurant promises to be all that great, but it is managed by our Honolulu friend Yoko and her husband Kevin Ryder. It will be fun to sit at the counter and see the looks on their faces when they recognize their customers. We may get a chance to see the Smithsonian, and would like to take a tourist's look at the White House. Then tomorrow, we head to New York, and get to see Tristan and Olivia, and our sublet apartment in Brooklyn. It feels like our adventure is really beginning now. Up to this point, it's been more of a vacation.

Emerald Isles

In our efforts to avoid tornado alley, we are exploring new territory. We spent Thursday night in Pensacola, FL, at a very poor example of what La Quinta usually is, then happily escaped to explore the beaches (in spite of it being the start of Memorial Day weekend).

First we walked around the historic part of Pensacola, which was interesting but ho-hum, then started out across the causeway and headed east along the white sand beaches. The sand is like the sand I remember we used to find in the bottom of ashtrays ... very fine, very white, and to carry the metaphor a bit too far, it was littered with butts. Thousands of them ... families, couples, college kids playing volleyball, and so many beach umbrellas that we could hardly get to the water to dip our feet.

After about half an hour, we got back into the car ... we're from Hawaii, we've seen beaches, and yes, the gulf shore beaches are nice, but ... well, as I said, we just came from Hawaii!

The road narrows, and on a holiday weekend, there were thousands of cars creeping along, parked in every square inch, half of them probably stuck in the sand, and the people were disappearing over the grassy dunes towards the miles-long beach. The parking stopped after awhile, and suddenly we were the only car on the road ... speed limit ranging from 35 to 20 mph and strictly enforced according to the signs, so we motored along enjoying the scenery and watching the nesting shorebirds in the Gulf Island National Seashore.

It was time for a late lunch by the time we reached Navarre Beach. Wyn tried some grilled fish, but discovered to her dismay that they used the same grill on which the did the blackened fish, which meant that the grilled fish was VERY spicy. Second try was a bit better. I had a New Orleans style shrimp poboy.

We then headed to Panama Beach, but discovered that all of the hotels were full, except for one that had a single room remaining at $169. We drove on, away from the beach, and ended up at a motel in Marianna. Tonight, perhaps we will dream of having dinner at La Mariana on Sand Island.

Brain Exercises

I spent a very interesting 24 hours in Houston. It was the big day ... I volunteered myself to be a guinea pig in a study to see if there are any early biomarkers for Parkinson's Disease (PD) in people who show no symptoms of PD, but have REM Behavior Disorder (RBD). RBD means that I physically act out my dreams, which can lead to some very interesting and at times dangerous circumstances. I figured anything I can do to help find a solution to RBD is a step in the right direction.

I went to the Clinical Research Unit at the Hermann Memorial Hospital and met the lead researcher, Dr. Schiess. She is the spitting image of my friend Ellie back in Honolulu. Dr. Schiess put me through about two hours of neurological tests, then sent me down to the MRI room. I did a functional MRI that lasted another two hours, then after a quick dinner, I went to the sleep lab for a long night of trying to sleep with electrodes pasted all over my head and body. In the morning, a quick shower under a shower head that provided nothing more than a slight drip, then back to the Clinical Research Unit, where I had a lumbar puncture. Most of the cerebrospinal fluid will be frozen for later research. Following the lumbar puncture, I had to lay flat on my back for four hours, then another eight hours of bed rest back at the hotel. I won't know everything until later, but for now, I passed with flying colors. On the PD scale of 1-200, I scored a low 8, meaning that I don't exhibit any PD traits aside from the RBD and a poor sense of smell (16 out of 40!!!).

So now, we are back on the road, trying to avoid storms and floods. We decided to try the southern route to the east coast, then follow the Atlantic seaboard northward. And as I'm writing this, the Weather Channel is warning about a possible tornado in Charlotte ... just west of our planned route.

Anyway, we left Houston and headed east, stopping in Lake Charles, Louisiana for lunch. We wanted fish, so got a recommendation from a local, ending up at a place that served catfish, crawfish, gator, shrimp, and gumbo. We went for the crawfish, shrimp and catfish in what turned out to be an amazingly tasty meal.

We then headed across the Achafalaya basin, witnessing the flooding from an elevated position along the Interstate, and decided to bypass New Orleans and stop for the night in Baton Rouge. The floods were not as impressive as the media make them out to be, but it is certainly a huge headache for all the folks who lost property. The only problem with our day's journey was that the hotel we found turned out to be pretty dodgey. In the room next to ours were a couple of gangsta types with droopy shorts and gang signals. They eyed us, then checked out our car ... we wouldn't have slept a minute, knowing that we were likely to wake up in the morning (if we woke up) with no car. So we got our money back, reloaded the car, and headed another ten miles down the road, where we are now ensconced in a very comfortable La Quinta.

I've been getting a good deal of brain exercise, but not much body exercise. We may knock off our journey early tomorrow and take time for a good long walk along one of the gulf beaches.

Houston, We Have Landed

We got to Houston, our intermediate destination. Today, I have an MRI, then a sleep study and a lumbar puncture, all as part of a study on REM Behavior Disorder (RBD), which is another way of saying that I tend to be very active when I dream. I'll be in the same medical center as Gabby Gifford, the Arizona congresswoman who is recovering from her gunshot injuries.

We stay in Houston until Thursday, then hit the road again.

When I say "hit the road," I mean that literally. We bought a car and will meander north and east. If you see a dark blue Honda CR-V doing some sight seeing, it may just be us! Not much else to say for the moment ... we are studying maps and trying to decide whether we would rather brave the slow flooding of the Mississippi River, or the storms of tornado alley. Eventually, we have to confront both.

Makin' the World Go Around

One of the most compelling arguments against moving also happens to be one of the most compelling reasons for moving. The argument boils down to one word: friends.

We are staying for a couple of nights with friends, Max Gail and Chris Kaul. I only really got to know them a couple of months ago, but it was a deepening of an old friendship that started many years ago. Chris is an old friend of the family, and Max is the sort who is easy to befriend, he has such a genuinely friendly nature. Max and Chris’s house at Point Dume in Malibu, overlooks the channel islands between LA and Ventura off the foggy southern California coast (at least it’s foggy this morning). It was the first time Wyn had met either of them, but hopefully she will find the friendship to be as easy as I find it.

Leaving Honolulu was made harder because we had to leave behind so many dear friends that we have accumulated over the past 26 years. But we have not abandoned the friendships, we’ve just moved them from our local friend list to our distant friends list. We had a farewell party where we got to say au revoir to many of them.

The party was hosted by Derek and Yvonne at their house on Oahu’s North Shore, and people came from all over Oahu, and we even had a couple (Howie and Gloria) fly in from Maui for the occasion. It was interesting to see the mix. We had to limit the number of people, but invited a handful of folks from the British Commonwealth Club (Barbara, John and Remy, Kathy, Pauline, Jerry), a few that we had gotten to know initially as parents of our son (Liz and Ray, Jean and Chester, Jill and Haim, Sophie and Mike), a few from our work lives who had managed to transcend the “colleague” sobriquet to become friends (Ruth and Norman, Lynette, Mary, Vicky) and a few who started out as friends of friends, but became just friends (Werner and Elaine, Joanie and Elizabeth, Rami). Some crossed the boundaries, touching our lives in more ways than one (Maggie and Fred, Will and Ellie, and several of those mentioned above). It’s like the old wedding rhyme … some were old friends, some were new, some were borrowed, and yes, judging from all the tears at our aloha party, some were blue. But it wasn’t goodbye, it was hana hou (“another time” in Hawaiian). These were all friendships that will endure. They have a long shelf life, and our phone numbers and e-mail addresses will remain the same. It may be that we can’t have dinner at the Shack every Wednesday night, and can’t walk up to Makapu’u Lighthouse to watch the whales in the sunset, but the memories remain, the friendships remain.

Another party, another entirely different group, was a casual dinner at Wahoo’s, where they specialize in fish tacos. We met several folks from IONS, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which has provided a long-standing platform for exploring deep thoughts and connections between people. I will look forward to getting to know the people in another IONS community.

When we get to the east coast, we begin assimilating a new group of friends, growing our circle rather than replacing it. There are friends, virtual and real, that we’ve met through various media and organizations … the Co-Creative Society, IONS, Tobri.com, the Shift Network, the English Speaking Union … most of them people we haven’t yet met face to face, but we will soon have the opportunity to see which ones we resonate with, which ones we want to invite over to dinner, go for a hike with, enjoy the beach, a concert, play golf with, meet for coffee and a casual breakfast. The social fabric may look different, but friendships are still made and deepened in the same way … heart to heart. And the heart to connections will endure … distance changes the texture of friendships, but not the value.