what's going on

It's finally time to explain what's up, because I imagine some folks are wondering why I haven't been tromping from place to place yet. Instead, I've spent three nights in Blaine and will be spending a fourth one here-- possibly even a fifth.

Without going into too much detail, I can say that the situation before the walk began was somewhat up in the air. What I had wanted last year, when I began planning in earnest, was a Point A-- a place that would lodge me, talk with me, and then tell me where my next stop would be and how to get there. With Point A established, the ball would, in theory, be rolling.

As you know, my good friend Nathan had offered to help out with arranging the first part of my journey. I was originally to start from his house because he lives in Coquitlam (pronounced "koh-KWIT-luhm," I discovered, not "koh-KEET-luhm," as I had assumed based on the Frenchness of the name) and, if possible, visit a Sikh gurdwara before crossing the border. For a number of reasons, many outside of Nathan's control, none of this came to pass, which means I've had to engage in the search for a Point A myself.

To be sure, this wasn't for lack of trying on Nathan's part; I don't want to give people the impression that he spent the last eight or so months doing nothing. To the contrary, Nathan made up PR fliers and did his best to contact his Sikh friend along with various places of worship in Blaine. Juggling all this with the demands of family and a tough ESL market in Canada hasn't been easy for Nathan, and I can't say that I did anything to ease his burdens.

End result: this past Tuesday, I crossed the border into Blaine with nothing but the address and contact info of the Unitarian church in my hand (my thanks to the commenter who originally left the UU church's URL-- you saved my life).

Once in Blaine, I waddled across town to the Anchor Inn Motel and booked two nights there. It was during that time that I (1) visited the Unitarian church and met Tom Dorsey, the church's hardworking sexton, and (2) first got in contact with Rev. Nan Geer of the Unitarian church. That first meeting was by phone, but Rev. Geer was very friendly and offered her outbuilding as a place to stay. I took her up on the offer yesterday (the 29th), which is when I did all that weeding. (Can't say I'm all that proud of the halfway job I did.) It turns out that FCU's pastor likes hugs, which is always a good thing in my book.

Because Rev. Geer was originally too busy for a sit-down (I'm going to try to trap her into one, anyway), I followed a lead she gave me: Pastor Rieke (pronounced "REE-kee") of the local United Church of Christ. Alas, Pastor Rieke was finishing up a sabbatical, so his answering machine referred all calls to a Pastor Walter (I think that's his name), who has been Pastor Rieke's temporary stand-in. I called the number for Pastor Walter, left a message, and never heard from him. He might have thought, with some justification, that I was just some frothing prank caller. Anyway, silence from the local UCC.

This led me to wander up the street, two days ago, to Christ Episcopal Church. I was hoping to catch the vicar and schedule an interview, but by that point I had begun to despair of meeting any soul face to face. I was in luck, though: Reverend Jay Rozendaal, who has been the vicar of CEC for only a year, was in. Not only that, but he told me that he had indeed received Nathan's missive. Before I could throttle him and bellow, "WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU RESPOND TO IT?" (never the best way to open a dialogue), Rev. Rozendaal explained that life's been extremely busy for him: he teaches classes at a nearby university, and the bishop's visiting this weekend. As is true of most people of the cloth, his days are almost completely booked.

Somehow this notion that "the bishop is coming!" conjured up visions of Rev. Rozendaal in a Darth Vader suit, striding through a massive gray landing deck alongside a wizened, corpse-pale figure in a black robe. The Vader lookalike rumbles to the Emperor lookalike, "The Death Church will be completed on schedule." (Having chatted comfortably with Jay for a bit, I'm pretty sure he'll understand my sense of humor.)

The vicar and I had our religion chat right on the spot, which was both fortunate and unfortunate: it was good that I was finally conversing with someone, but bad that I hadn't thought to bring along my voice recorder in order to free myself up from the need to take notes. I had also neglected to bring along a copy of my "10 questions," and when I tried to access them through my BlackBerry's browser, I was taken to my blog's front page. Reaching the proper post would have meant scrolling downward with the BlackBerry's teensy tiny trackball for literally minutes. Because I had only a few minutes with the vicar (whose picture I took, but whose photo failed to upload yesterday), I stuck to taking notes. I'll discuss the content of my conversation with Rev. Rozendaal in a subsequent post.

The vicar contacted a Sikh gurdwara in the city of Lynden, which lies about 15 to 17 miles east of Blaine. The gurdwara itself is about a 16.7-mile walk from Hagen House, the old parsonage that now belongs to the Unitarians and sits right next to their church. Hagen House is the outbuilding in which I'm currently lodged. There's no bed, but the floors are nicely carpeted, and with my foam pad, sleeping bag, and a bundle of clothes as a pillow, it's perfectly serviceable.

Yesterday, when I came back indoors after a long day's weeding, I emailed Rev. Rozendaal's Sikh contact, but have yet to hear back from him. I'm going to call the contact momentarily; I'd like to be on the road by tomorrow morning, if at all possible. It's time to ramble on, like Frodo or Forrest Gump.

Rev. Rozendaal also has Zen community contacts in Bellingham, which according to my dad's online map research lies south of Lynden. If Rev. Rozendaal is able to get the Zennies interested, I might have my Point C all prepared. That would be nice; it would mean the ball was truly and finally rolling. And if we get all this established by tonight (a big "if"), that'll give the Zennies, and whoever they choose as my Point D, more time both to prepare for my arrival and to find a Point E.

One commenter noted that it would be nice if I could give readers a more specific idea of where I'm headed, so that they can see whether they know any interested and charitable parties along my probable path. If I recall correctly, this commenter also said that knowing my route in advance would allow people to anticipate where I'll be and intercept me (to say "hi," etc.).

I agree, but as I've said, this is a self-planning route, so I can't predict where I'll be next unless the people at my upcoming stops work very quickly to arrange the stops that lie beyond them. It's conceivable that the people at Point C will be able to lock down a Point D right away, and that the Point D'ers will quickly find a Point E, and so on. If this happens, I'll blog the upcoming addresses so that you, Dear Reader, can have some idea of whether I'll be swooping by your area.

Another commenter wondered whether I plan to plot my routes on a map. I seriously doubt I can do such a thing from the BlackBerry, if what you're looking for is a constantly updated JPEG image. I need to see whether either MapQuest or Google Maps has some sort of publishable (that's key-- it has to be bloggable) "plot my course as I navigate it" function. I do have a GPS "Spot" device, and whenever I press the "I'm OK" button, it can send an email to a limited list of contacts, who can then follow a link to an online map site and see where I was at the time of the signal, accurate to within a few yards (when I pinged my location while at home in Virginia, I laughed when the Spot declared that I was actually next door!). But the Spot is for a select group of emergency contacts, so it's not much use to the general public. I suspect what will happen is this: I'll discover that an online mapping service does indeed have a "my path thus far" function, and I'll use it to plot major points like cities, not every single meter of my path. That really ought to be enough for my readership, because I'm pretty sure that no reader is going to try retracing my exact route across the country!

Wow. That's a mouthful of a post for you to have chewed on. Thanks for bearing with me. Now you understand, more or less, where we are and what needs to happen next. As always, feel free to leave comments.

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