Eastward Bound: Day 6

Day Six of my drive was the shortest, but not necessarily easiest day.

I did not sleep too well the night before, despite being tired beyond belief.

My focus was mostly on getting to my destination – though there was some element of enjoying the beauty and the signs around me.

I thought a lot about my undergraduate U.S. History class. Our teacher talked to us incessantly about the idea of nature, and how what we see as natural is a constructed concept. It’s incredible when driving cross-country to imagine it as it may have been when the first explorers crossed this country. Bare, empty, covered in trees. Indescribable mountains loom high in the air and valleys stretch on for days. Imagine our land without the roads, the gas stations, the powerlines that stretch along interstate after interstate. Imagine nature.

But what is nature? Have we created this construct that anything not built by man is natural?

Thoughts ran through my head as I passed hundreds of thousands of trees. They lined the highway thicker than trees in Washington state.

As I got closer to Hamilton, I entered a grid of state highways, essentially just two-lane highways. Up mountains and down valleys.

I arrived in Hamilton, got a little bit lost – the main road has a five way intersection – then found myself. I made my way to the institution, met my supervisor and was shown around campus and introduced to people. Then I was shown where I’d be staying.

Unpacking my car took about 20 minutes. It was warm, but not unbearable. Probably one of the cooler places in the country right then. After unpacking, I went to the store to grab some groceries. My journies over for the time being, I settled in, made dinner, and rested up to start my internship the next day.