N's Life: Unfamiliar Cities

Let me give you a scene:

I am walking alone down a main thoroughfare in an unfamiliar city.

I have my phone on me, but it's off. I roughly know where I'm going, but there's a difference on looking at it on a map, and actually going there.  Ask me how I know this.

After all, when you’re in an unfamiliar city, it can feel like you need Google Maps to go down to the supermarket. Likewise, when you've travelled a lot, everywhere just feels like Generic City™.  However, Google Maps is only a little less than two decades old. People have been navigating the world with their own two legs for far longer.

I’m also having a somewhat painful reminder that Generic Cities™, at least in North America, are not very walkable places.

They’re more designed for cars than for people.

Generic City, North American Edition™ are not a fun place to live if you don’t have a motorized existence.

That said, this specific Generic City is still better than any place I’ve ever lived in, visited or otherwise been to in Texas.

I have been to and lived in many Generic Cities in my life. However, there are differences between now and then.

Back when I was at peak road warrior, my working hours were spent glued to a screen.

My life at the time consisted of a mostly empty apartment, a few vintage computers, and armed with the best knowledge of how to exploit frequent flier miles to their absolute potential.

You can do some really crazy shit if you understand the rules and are willing to be flexible.

However, I also learned early in my career that an important work/life balance is important. This is something that I have always struggled with, for reasons both in and out of my control.

Staying all day at your desk staring at what is essentially a liquid crystal lightbulb can have adverse effects.

I didn’t always need glasses for one.

There are also some things you kinda learn the hard way. Here’s another.

The Internet can make a good facsimile of human interaction, but it can’t replace the real thing. 

It’s also good to sometimes spend time alone. 

Bike touring is an amazing hobby if you really want to get away.

Hence walking through an unfamiliar city with my phone switched off. It makes a difference.

Places that I’ve driven past, or visited with friends go by begin to slot into the mental map.

Along the way, I’ve seen one or two places that I’ve either heard from word of mouth, or were listed in the pages of WikiTravel and Lonely Traveller.

Humans have explored places for all of their existence with nothing more than the Mark-One Eyeball.

I am taking it on faith that I will find my way back home at the end of the night.

It was a good day out. I hurt that night something fierce.

All things considered, I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised that an old friend called me Frodo after hearing about my misadventures.

And yet, I always feel like the odd man out.

Then again, I don’t think most people have lived in six states and at least two countries for a time.

I think. Possibly more. Depends how exactly you define the words ‘lived in’.

At some point, it started to become “cities, states, and countries I haven’t been/lived in yet”.

Home, as I said before, is a relative state of mind. It's a mindset that has served me well through some really dark times.

My life at the moment has no solid foundation. I’ve been living out of a backpack for the last several months, and this is a situation I basically expect to continue throughout 2024.

While that might sound for cause of alarm, the only novel aspect for me is that I simply won’t have an address to go back to.

More realistically, it will be some time before I have what can be called stable lodgings again, although I do have something at least in the works.

That however is a problem for future me.