Some say...

I am NOT the Stig, nor have I ever really been on a racetrack behind the controls of any vehicle. I've always loved driving though, and in my youth would get in my car and drive just to see where I ended up. Truly, youth really is wasted on the young. In the past year or so, I’ve watched several episodes of BBC's Top Gear program, a ‘pokey motoring show’ where they review cars sometimes in a serious tone, and sometimes not as much. There have been several ‘Car vs. ‘races during the run of the program, and I was inspired by episode 6 in series 16 with Jeremy Clarkson's race against the sun (God) in a Jaguar XJ (the supercharged version, naturally).

He races the sun on the summer solstice from the westernmost point in England, Land’s End, to the easternmost point, Lowestoft. Although unclear how long the journey actually took him, or how far he went, but Google maps show the trip the way Jezza appeared to take it would take 7 hours and 50 minutes, and go over 430 miles. The length between sunset and sunrise that year on that night was 7 hours 22 minutes, so he supposedly already had a 28 minute deficit to overcome. Like most television shows, he was successful, and with some possible creative editing, just barely so, due to some apparently poorly timed red lights and traffic. None the less, it was a fantastic achievement, and it looked like a whole lot of fun, due in great part to the Jaguar and the driver, but driving past Stonehenge during the solstice, even though it would be during the dark of night sounds like a lot of fun.

The week before the solstice in 2013 I had the idea to drive from my home here in the center of Iowa to somewhere within a ‘competitive’ range on the solstice. Adopting the solar theme, I searched for nearby towns or cities with an appropriate name. I came across Sun City, Kansas, a very small, yet typical looking Midwestern town, with not much going on, if the satellite images are to be believed. I also wanted to try and drive across the state of Iowa on the solstice, but given that the westernmost and easternmost points were only about 6 hours apart, and since Iowa is a little further south than jolly old England, the shortest night is about 9 hours therefore not presenting much of a challenge.

I tried to think bigger. I started looking for the best places to see a sunset, and a sunrise. The first few that got my attention were Santa Monica pier in California, and then a sunrise over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. There may be some west coast bias in my research there, but it is only because ever since getting to Los Angeles in 2010 for a concert, I’ve wanted to go back so much.

The point of all this is that I've decided that I am going to drive from Santa Monica Pier (specifically Moohmat Ahiko Way, which if you look it up, it isn't a person like you'd usually suspect, it means 'Breath of the Sea' in the local Native American language of Shoshon) to Marine Drive, near Fort Point or the Golden Gate Pavilion in San Francisco, California. I'll leave June 21st from Santa Monica, and drive along the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) the entire way. I've read that some portions of the road can be closed at times due to construction, damage, and rockslides, or fog, let alone some of the coastal spray and weather that might come along. That night the sun will set over Santa Monica at 20:08 local time, and then rise over San Francisco the next morning at 05:48, giving me 9 hours 40 minutes of night to travel in, and the trusty Google shows that the route I've chosen will take 9 hours and 27 minutes, which represents a slim 13 minutes of 'cushion' there versus Jeremy’s deficit of double that. I'll be fighting the legendary traffic of Los Angeles and Malibu for the first section, along with the forces of nature along the Pacific coast and the geological and oceanic forces involved. Plus, it is a journey 2 hours longer than Mr. Clarkson's, yet only 30 more miles. I would blame our slower speed limits, since I’m unsure if Google Maps takes in to account the bendiness of the road (other than complete distance).

So, why do I want to do this? At first it was just because I could, and I wanted to, and it sounded fun. I don't have a 'pokey motoring show', or worldwide attention. I'm not even really doing it for the attention, just that I love to drive. However, a feeling has come over me lately that I should do it and involve some sort of charity somehow. I wasn’t sure which to go with at first, but then I attended an anti-bullying rally for the central Iowa chapter of Stand For the Silent, and heard Kirk Smalley give a message. Before going to the rally I admit I was a bit skeptical about the whole thing, I even may have mentioned I felt I was being ‘bullied’ in to going to it. Then I heard the man speak about losing his son, and something just hit me. I’d had this trip on my mind of course, and doing it for a cause, but at the time, the two just clicked. I have had my own problems with bullying, depression, and feelings of unworthiness, and through doing this hopefully I can get some attention focused on a big problem in our schools and with our children by doing this. It may sound a little cheesy, but I don’t think of this race as racing the sun any more, it is more about conquering the darkness, and getting through to another day. And if you can get through one more day, it will get better. More on this later.

To satisfy the history nerd in me, it will be the 50th anniversary of the renumbering of roads in California. Not a big deal, but it unified what we now know today as the Pacific Coast Highway or PCH, and gave the world a great road to travel on. I’m still in the early planning stages, kicking around the idea of maybe doing an indiegogo type thing, or the like. Watch this space for updates, or follow me on your social media of choice, as long as it is either Twitter or Google+.