Traveling to see how the social network views social networks.
Location: Here

“It’s the journey, not the destination.”

And so the official “I’m Here. You’re There.” travel map is complete… for now.

After nearly 20,000 miles and 4 months zigging and zagging across the country, the obvious next step was to lay out the path I took around. The wonder of technology is that I can create it and share it with everyone and anyone at the click of a button. Granted, it has a very different feel then the tactile sensation of physically placing the little pins into a printed map along with tracing the roads with a highlighter. That I’ve been saving for another day.

VIsually, even for myself, it was amazing to recount the roads and the route I took and to see it all come together as a whole. I often described it as a sloppy figure 8 that I was traversing, but after seeing the tour in total, it looks like 8 had a few too many drinks and collapsed on itself. I’ll have to figure a new descriptor for it. Suggestions welcome.

I’ve recounted near exact paths, leaving some exact locations out of the mix for privacy purposes and, because of Google map logistics, a lot of the shorter and general driving trips around cities have been disregarded. Those added up to a lot of the extra miles and some good little adventures that may make the light of day. For now, the overview remains. I’ve incorporated picture links in each of the cities and video interviews where they pertain. When memories are downloadable (in this next decade?) I’ll post those.

The field of vision for the overall map was often amusing to me in thinking that in some of those quiet, desolate and isolated swaths of asphalt, there was a GPS satellite floating a couple hundred miles above, tracking me just as I’ve tracked myself now. I often wondered what that blip looked like from high above in the silence of space, if satellites dream of electric sheep, to paraphrase Philip K Dick’s novel, as the red VW Jetta that was my ride was leaping from place to place on the journey.

And now you can see where I was when I’d say “I’m Here. You’re There.” Thanks for coming along for the ride.