The Spirit of Iowa

Over the weekend, I found myself watching 'cheesy' movies, as my wife put it. It was a mostly rainy weekend, and other than getting some much needed yard work done on Saturday, the rest of the weekend was much better suited indoors or as a duck. The first movie I caught the latter part of was the classic 'The Spirit of St. Louis' starring James Stewart in another one of his iconic roles. I hadn't seen the movie since my early teens when it was on cable a lot, when there were just a few 'classic' movies. I decided to watch it, because I have a weakness for Jimmy Stewart movies for some reason. OK, for those that don't know how to use IMdB or a search engine, the movie is about the life and times of Charles Lindbergh leading up to and including his historic first Trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927. As I watched, I couldn't help but draw some similarities and of course vast differences between my trip and Lindbergh's. He was pretty much doing his trip to prove it could be done, and to win a cash prize, similar to what the 'X-prize' is today. He flew alone, reckoned by the stars at some point, and used a periscope to see out of the front of the airplane. There was a lot of thought when they built the plane to lightness to save fuel and such. The entire flight took 33.5 hours, of Lindbergh already having not slept several days before the flight take off.
I, however will be going on a road many have gone on before, with my friend Kirsten, in a car complete with GPS, cell phones, and a big wide windshield to look out of. I'm doing it because I can, not because nobody told me I couldn't. Well, other than that old voice inside my head that always tells me I can't do things. However, with time and treatments, that voice has become a lot smaller and less believable because of the support of my friends and family, and especially my wife. The thing I am most concerned about is of course staying awake the entire time at night, but hey I'll have a lot of stuff to do, as well as someone to talk to. Thanks again, and remember to get your nail polish on Thursday!