I first met William when I was recently-relocated to Belfast, Northern Ireland, in early 2011. I was in my late 30’s, and my kids still counted their age in single digits. Although I’d been with the company for many years, I’d only ever worked in the US. William was new to the company, period. He was much younger than I was, and he was on the team that I was taking over. While William’s tenure with the company was not fated to last very much longer, it lasted long enough for William and I to become friends. When William moved on, our friendship had room to grow . And even though my time in Belfast was not fated to last as long as I’d expected it to, William and I maintained our friendship across the Atlantic Ocean. When I returned with my wife and kids to Belfast last summer, William and I got our families together. We spent a day reconnecting and enjoying the simple pleasure that comes from sharing family with good friends. Over six years since we first met, I still count William among my closest friends.
One of the first things that William shared with me when we started to get to know each other was his dream of driving along the United States’ legendary “Mother Road,” Route 66. I hated breaking the news to him that Route 66, while certainly enjoying a revival, is more legend than anything these days. Apart from officially being decommissioned and removed from the national registry in the 1980’s, significant portions of the road simply no longer exist. They have been “realigned” to other major arteries such as Interstates 55 and 40, torn up and replaced with either modern roads or nothing at all, or simply renamed and absorbed into the massive web of roads that crisscross the United States. Undaunted, William’s dream persisted. I remember telling him about the portions of Route 66 that I knew well as a result of my living and driving around the Chicago area. In fact, I had just moved to Belfast from Joliet, IL, home to one of many Route 66 museums along the old path of the Mother Road. I promised him that, one day, I’d at least get him to the start of Route 66 in downtown Chicago and take him as far as Joliet. If nothing else, I could help him get part of that experience. The twinkle in his eyes somewhat diminished, we moved on to other things. However, I never quite forgot William’s dream or my promise.
Years later, that whole I-80 thing happened, and I set my sights on I-90, the Mother of All American Roads. Then I thought about William.
When I originally wrote the I-80 post, I started talking to William about making I-90 the new Route 66. While not taking that Michigan Avenue-to-Joliet leg of Route 66 off the table, I went about the task of explaining why traversing I-90 is actually a pretty sweet idea. From West to East, I-90 begins in Seattle, WA, and ends in Boston, MA. It covers 3020 miles and traverses 13 states: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts. It incorporates two of the longest floating bridges in the world. It reaches a peak height of 6329 feet while in Montana. It hugs the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. Dig in. You’ll find lots to love about I-90. Why not tackle that challenge and drive the United States from coast to coast? That sounds like a reasonable, epic undertaking to me.
He bit. I slowly turned the reel. It didn’t take much, honestly. He was “in.” I’d found my co-pilot.
Now, on to planning the epic…
Illuminate Possibilities 