First day on the road west

Hi Friends.   I made my start west this morning after finishing the last bit of packing and making it to Town Hall to vote in the primary.  After a stop in Pittsfield I really got underway about 10:30 and made it about 500 miles to Ashtabula, OH by 8PM.  Mostly drove I-90, part of which follows the Erie Canal and then dropped off the highway to follow the Lake Erie shore in NY and PA.  That was a good decision, nice to see the lake and drive mostly empty roads through the vineyards in both NY and PA.  Sorry, no pictures today.

The driving was nicely broken up by an interview with Andrea, one of The Wildlife Society's Leadership Institute members.  We discussed some of the elements of leadership in our profession as part of her assignment.  Her questions were really pretty tough, making me think about how I am going to continue to serve the profession after my term as President is over, what some of the big challenges are for wildlife conservation, and what I am going to be most proud of in my career.  It was a really good way to spend time on the highway and really good to get Andrea's take on the questions from her perspective a little bit earlier in her career than I am. 

The drive, again along the Canal, also was a good time to reflect on how much we take transportation for granted, especially personal transportation.  I drove 500 miles in less than 10 hours, amazing.  The Erie Canal was a breakthrough in transportation in the early part of the 19th century.  I'm reading a book now, The Bonanza King, about the Comstock Lode mining around Virginia City, Nevada in mid-19th century.  Part of the story touches on the completion of the transcontinental railroad and how it shortened the time to cross the continent from more than 3 weeks by boat, if you were lucky (from the east coast, to central America, then on another boat to California or vice versa) to about 8 days.  The author also touches on the completion of telegraph wires that allowed news to flow across the country in a matter of hours or a day, compared to the flow of mail by stagecoach, Pony Express, or boat.  Sitting in my truck, speed set on cruise control, listening to a podcast or satellite radio, with a cooler of soda on the floor, my adventure pales compared to routine travel not so long ago.  Still, this will be fun.