The World At Large

Previously:  I returned to the United States with hopes that I could find a job with relative ease to save up for a new adventure.  Upon returning I did not look as hard as I should have and as the US economy slide further into it’s recession I could not find even the most basic of employment.  My friend Jason was in the same situation and now having nothing left for either of us in North Carolina we began to talk of getting out.  Getting out, making an epic roadtrip west and staying there.  Around the middle of February we set this critical date as March 1st 2009.

G.K. Chesterton once said: “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.”  That is exactly what I did last September.  I had been away just long enough, and been living such a different life that arriving back here was nearly as foreign as any country I had visited on my way around the world.  And of all the countries I had visited I unfortunately found it to be one of the least agreeable, and with less freedom than I was now accustomed to.  Some people will undoubtedly be dumbfounded by those last couple of words so let me give you a small example.

Upon returning I had just run out of disposable contacts.  Previously I had always bought them online and, for reasons unknown to me, if you had a military address you didn’t need to provide a doctor’s information to get them.  I had enough boxes remaining after I left the military to last me until Thailand where I bought them freely from optical shops.  I give them my lens power and my money and they give me a box of contacts.  The end.  When I returned to the states however, things took a turn.  I was running out of contacts so I went about trying to buy a new box.  My prescription still worked fine and hadn’t changed in years, so I didn’t need an exam, but I had long since lost my previous written prescriptions.  Since I knew my contact lens prescription by heart, I naively thought that I could go to an optical center, give them money and they would give me a box.  In fact this concept seemed utterly absurd to every person at every store I visited.  This is because what I wanted to do was actually illegal, as it were.

It had been mandated by my government that, to purchase contact lenses, it should require basically the same procedures as the purchase of oxycontin or percoset.  That is to say, you visit a doctor, he writes you a prescription, you produce said prescription and are allowed to purchase drugs.  In the United States of America, for me to be able to see—to function, I am legally required to visit an eye doctor, pay him upwards of 60 dollars to tell me something that I already know and to write this something on a piece of paper.  Then I must produce this piece of paper to a clerk at Lenscrafters or what have you and I am then allowed to buy something that I utterly require.  I am allowed to see.  Well gee thanks Uncle Sam.  That sure is mighty kind of you.  Boss.

Luckily if you go online and provide a doctor’s info, however old your records at that office may be (I hadn’t visited mine in 6 years) , they will still ship your contacts.  At least they did for me.  I could, very literally, score cocaine faster, easier and probably cheaper than contact lenses bought legally in this country.  What possible reason could they have for placing such restrictions on contact lenses?  What business is it of theirs if I want to have fuzzy vision or headaches by buying the wrong kind?  Can you overdose on them?  The only reason I can come up with is that eye doctors really like that little bit of extra income that they get for selling me a piece of paper with their signature on it for 60 bucks.  I don’t really want to believe that even eye doctors have lobbyists for this kind of thing, but would it really be that surprising?  No.  And that’s the problem.  Lady Liberty is draped in red tape.

I’ve tried to readjust to this “American” way, but I’m afraid I may no longer be able to live what is so widely considered a “normal” life here.  Not with the knowledge that so much more exists out in the world.  Having tasted such real freedom, simply knowing that it exists and that it is indeed attainable…  it changes things.  It feels like the best I can do now is “play along” and pretend that I understand why people accept these things.  Pretend to understand why people can’t stop watching their televisions or buying useless crap.  Because not understanding seems to make me very odd indeed.

Admittedly, though, I haven’t seen as much of my own country as I have the rest of the world.  Perhaps I’m not qualified to make such sweeping judgments.  This is about to change though as I now find myself standing on the cusp of a new adventure: The Great American Roadtrip.  This time my journey is on entirely different terms.  Terms I’m not all that comfortable with; in fact in other situations I probably would not have accepted them.  Over the past few years I’ve become extremely independent, possibly even to a fault and the thought of having to depend on someone else for anything makes me very anxious.  I positively hate the feeling of not being able to do something for myself.  It can frustrate me into a sort of depression.  I’ve never been in debt and I don’t like the idea of owing anyone anything, especially money, but desperate times require desperate measures and these times are desperate indeed.

Even so, I am excited as I am before any adventure.  I can’t deny that the thought of returning to a life where I can’t know what the next day will bring is exciting regardless of circumstance.  Even if it is only for a while.  And thus this blog turns once again to a travel documentary.  The aim this time is the great American road trip.  My friend and I are going to criss cross the USA and end in the west hopefully with a new place to call home.  Where exactly that will be is anyone’s guess.  I’m just glad to be moving again.

-Tyler

“Ice age heat wave can’t complain
if the world’s at large why should I remain?
walked away to another plan
gonna find another place
maybe one I can stand”

-Modest Mouse

I know what you’re thinking: “Wait… this isn’t current.  Your roadtrip is already over.”  True, but its time to play catch up and start telling the story of what happened on this trip since I wasn’t able to while it was in progress.  Better late than never.  The stories and updates are coming and to help keep you tuned, I’ll give you some statistics:  We drove over 12,500 miles, crossed 32 states and 2 provinces of canada and our car was searched 3 times by various authorities.  We met good people, scary people and thoroughly insane people.  We gained new perspective on our native land and slowly, day by day, we realized that it was perhaps time to leave it behind…