Time to Glide Home

Written 5-27-2016

Later this afternoon, I join the westward commute through the Gorge, and everything will be gliding home:

• Cars and trucks back to the big city
• Trains to commerce
• Electricity to usage
• River to the ocean

If you can’t tell, I have a new favorite commute! My new favorite commutes works for me because (A.) I’m heading home, (B.) I’m mostly driving downhill, (C.) I’m trying to catch up with the setting sun, and (D.) It works very well with both sensual jazz, or loud rock and roll music!

My new favorite commute is driving home twice a month from an away sales territory along the Columbia River through the Columbia Gorge on Friday evenings as the sun sets.

The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River. Up to 4,000 feet deep, the canyon stretches for over 80 miles as the river winds through the Cascade Range forming the boundary between Washington to the north and Oregon to the south. Average width of river – 1 mile. Average width of valley – 3 miles (rim to rim). Apparently, The Gorge was carved by the Columbia River about 12,000 miles ago. The highway through the Gorge started years ago however the segment between Portland and The Dalles was mostly completed by 1963, though it would take until 1969 for construction of the highway to meet Interstate highway standards.

While driving through the Gorge, the other commuters nearby include other cars and semi-trucks, barges on the river, long trains on nearby train tracks, and some electrical lines with fresh electricity from generators on the river. As the valley narrows occasionally you can raise your hand in front of you holding about an inch between your thumb and fingers while everything gets closer together, and try some mental calculations about the movement all around you:

• The world rotates around the sun at about 67,000 mph.
• The world spins around each day at about 1,000 mph.
• My auto travels at about 70 mph.
• The Columbia River nearby is flowing at maybe 12 mph while boats and barges are moving around 17 mph.
• Trains on the tracks nearby are moving around 35 mph.
• Electricity on the electrical lines nearby are traveling past all of us all around 186,000 miles per second.

It can make me dizzy thinking about all that twisting, gliding movement concentrated in such a small amount of space!

I’m lucky. Generally, I get to zip along at 70 mph in a bubble of music and thoughts. A lot of people have been able to enjoy such a commute since 1969, however the 1860s was not that long ago, and at a rest stop, there is signage that states that 500,000 people traveled from 1860 -1865 through the Gorge in covered wagons or horses on sad little dirt roads at maybe 3 mph. Their commutes would have been truly challenging!

How many of you have younger brothers or sisters? Wasn’t fun to race them when you were younger? Many times, you could invite them get Hugh leads only to real them back in with your superior strength and speed! At the beginning of the race, I would often say, “Go ahead start running! I won’t start until you get past that tree!” This early evening commute towards home often has me thinking back to those times. Back then I nearly always one. But, now, the setting sun always wins! It’s like I’m busy with work all day, and I’m telling the sun, “Go ahead start setting! I won’t start until you get past all those trees!”

Another fond childhood memory is riding a bike holding a stick as it rubs across a chain link fence. At times during this commute, it’s fun to imagine myself becoming a colorful anime animation with much longer arms holding a long, long stick that I can reach out the window and rub along the pillars to the guard rails or reach out a little farther to the Columbia River itself, and make some waves on the way home!

Listening to rambling music while driving on a winding highway towards the fading light though this timeless scenery, it’s very easy to think of one’s mortality – comparing childhood experiences to current events.

Perhaps it’s the baffling light through the dirty windshield, a dirty windshield that testifies that you’ve been someplace, or maybe it’s simply the haze of fatigue, or the powerful, seductive music. Whatever it is, for me, all the nearby traffic begins to symbolize goals and accomplishments. The traffic I pass symbolizes my major accomplishments. The traffic that keeps speeding past me are those goals I haven’t achieved yet! The setting sun reminds me that there is a time limit. Ultimately, time for all of us ends. At some point, the sun simply sets completely.

About the time my car starts to create shadows from other driver’s headlights on the blue mileage signs, I realize the commute through the Gorge is completed again, and I’m nearly home again.

Some commute, huh?!?

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With the help of the Gorge, I now have a personal All-Time Top Five Commutes List:

GREAT VIEW AT BOTTOM OF A CANYON (The Gorge, OR) – Driving home every other week through the Gorge, OR. (100 mile commute west on HWY 84 next to Columbia River through the Gorge; returning from away sales territory in Yakima, WA.)

GREAT VIEW AT TOP OF A CANYON (Grand Canyon, AZ) – Driving a van full of coworkers back and forth from the South Rim Village to Hermits Rest along the rim of the Grand Canyon (14 mile round trip commute; summer job in college)

GREAT VIEW AT BOTTOM OF A CANYON (New York City) – Walking back and forth from West 68th Street to West 47th Street down Broadway. (3 mile round trip commute for public relations photographer job with an office in heart of diamond district. I even had a special ID to be on that street after dark.)

GREAT VIEW OF BAY AREA (San Francisco Bay Area) – Driving across Oakland Bay Bridge from East Bay to South San Francisco, then later driving from North Bay to South San Francisco (100-120 mile round trip commute for Sales Coordinator job at CellularONE)

GREAT VIEW OF TRAFFIC (Los Angeles) – Driving back and forth from Ontario, CA to Santa Monica, CA (110 mile round trip commute for Customer Service position at Vivitar where I met Sharon! This is the commute that taught me its often faster to exit the freeway and immediately get back on the freeway to advance in front of 20+ cars!)