At one time there was plenty of time to venture aimlessly, wonder the countryside, and explore; um, ...oh, that was yesterday. In the day, or 'back in the day', while my colleagues and I were discovering the new world, and looking for treasure, we had a way of traveling that isn't done much anymore. We followed the coin. There was a driver, a navigator, and a keeper of supplies. All very essential roles to the excursion, yet the navigator was in charge of the treasure hunt, and the coin. The driver is never the navigator, and seldom in charge of the supplies.
Finding treasure has many definitions to many different people, but for the traveler it is always the discovery of new found places, new territory, or a town of wonder. This is the treasure of traveling, and the marvel of exploration is usually unplanned, unimagined pockets of unforeseen fun. Its the unknowable execution of heading into one direction, and stumbling into a random events. Its going out looking for a yard sale and finding an art festival. Going to the hardware store and stopping for a parade. That's travelers TREASURE!
Following the coin is traveling by random chance. Flip the coin once, heads turn left, flip again tails turn right, and never repeat the same road once traveled. The object is to cover as many miles as possible or until FUN has been found. Never flip the coin in a town or city, and always follow roads with double yellow lines when completely lost. Yet the object of the coin IS to get completely lost! Usually fun is found by some random unexpected cause, event, or a newly discovered possible future destination.
If there is a destination to get to then, Rand McNally invented these things called road maps, and they are only to be used if traveling out of state, or more than two hours away from the starting point.
Unfortunately, most traveling today is just not that random. humans are wired in and programmed with GPS, and Satellite navigation systems. At any given time everybody knows exactly were they are in any given place. Unfortunately again, with cell phones, everyone is also track able; good for parents with children, bad for hide-n-seek. There was time when I remember my parental Earth mother was a CB'er. She belong to a club, a group of people who's only common interest was talking on CB radio. They would go out on weekends and play CB radio hide-n-seek. Driving in a certain mile radius with everybody chasing one car, who would park and hide, then give out clues for the others to find them. Sometimes they would hide near some party or event, and then everyone unknowingly would end up at the place to be. I believe the drinking of many beverages were involved, but I digress.
Nowadays, even the compass is no longer used to find a position on the planet. The real reason for that is GPS, or the Global Positioning System. Utilizing a series of at least 24 satellites that transmit precise signals, the system enables a GPS unit to determine its, speed, location, direction, and time.
What GPS hides and why it is globally necessary is that the poles of the Earth have shifted.
The following was published by National Geographic in 2005.
"December 15, 2005 Santa better check his compass, because the North Pole is shifting—the north magnetic pole, that is, not the geographical one.
New research shows the pole moving at rapid clip—25 miles (40 kilometers) a year.
Over the past century the pole has moved 685 miles (1,100 kilometers) from Arctic Canada toward Siberia, says Joe Stoner, a paleomagnetist at Oregon State University.
At its current rate the pole could move to Siberia within the next half-century, Stoner said.
"It's moving really fast," he said. "We're seeing something that hasn't happened for at least 500 years."
Stoner presented his team's research at the American Geophysical Union's meeting last week in San Francisco.
Lorne McKee, a geomagnetic scientist at Natural Resources Canada, says that Stoner's data fits his own readings.
"The movement of the pole definitely appears to be accelerating," he said."
Last winter another article was written again by National Geographic or maybe Time magazine. I have not found copies of the article, but basically the Earth has shifted far enough that the North Pole just isn't where a compass points, or it is, but it just isn't where global maps say it should be. Is this a sign of things to come? Some people believe in 2012 the poles of Earth will flip and end life as it exists today. Most of the Humans may not survive, but other Earth life will continue. The human survivors will then have to relearn how to interact with the planet, find clean water, plant food crops, and explore for habitable places to live. But, its okay.
These are basic human traits, survival, curiosity, and exploration. So, while there is still time, let's grab a coin, and go look for treasure.
Bumba, Dee, Da,...Happy Trails!
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