5/3/14
Indianapolis, Indiana
I suppose that today would be considered the day of passed by
opportunities. In order to do my Lincoln
Run, I passed up on four opportunities, three of which would have been worth a
trip on their own, and the fourth something fun that time just did not
allow. However, I had the freedom to
choose how I wanted to spend my day. In
fact, I have the freedom to choose how I spend every day. In order to maintain my lifestyle, I am
obligated to weekly devote around 40 hours of work time to my company and 10
hours to my studies. I need to sleep for
maybe 56 hours a week to properly function on an ongoing basis. Meals take up another 10 hours a week. That leaves me around 50 hours a week to
spend however I want. I probably spend half
of those 50 hours with a cigar in my mouth and a good deal travel planning, but
those are choices I am free to make. I
am free to set my own bedtime, eat whatever I want, and go wherever my passport
and available funds will take me. Of
course, I have to deal with the consequences of my decisions. If I decided to sleep 4 hours a night every
night and go on an all cupcake diet, it would not be good, but I am free to
make that choice. If I wanted to tell my
company to go to hell, I would be free to make that decision. I would have to find another way to make
money and fund my travel, but it is a choice I am free to make.
When Lincoln freed the slaves, he did not end
slavery. There are people all around the
world still enslaved. There are people
living under totalitarian regimes who are not free to think however they want. There are people so indoctrinated by
religious beliefs that they are not free to act however they want. There people who are actually enslaved. From forced marriages to sex trafficking,
slavery still exists. Freedom is the
most important thing in the world.
Everything else flows from it.
What good is having a philosophy of love if you are not free to love the
person you choose? What good is
condemning racism when it is enforced by the state? What good is it know what gives you
fulfillment and enjoyment if someone is stopping you from leading a fulfilling
or enjoying life? These were some of the
thoughts coursing through my mind as I engaged on my Lincoln Run.
Lincoln did not even end slavery in the
United States. I am not talking about
how the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to the states in rebellion. I am talking about today. I will start by discussing all of the people
jailed for stupid crimes. In my book,
there are only two crimes: fraud and the initiation of force. Fraud is shoplifting, perjury, embezzlement,
insider trading, etc. The initiation of
force is the only other time where it is acceptable to take away someone’s
freedom. Murder, robbery, rape,
assault. Those are all very good reasons
to lock someone up and take away their freedom.
Non-violent drug offences, prostitution, and other “victimless crimes”
are not acceptable reasons to take away someone’s freedom. What force or fraud did they commit?
The government does not get to decide moral
values. Every individual person gets to
decide his own moral values. Once you
impinge on that right, you take away their freedom. I will not go into Rand’s position of
taxation as slavery, though I will sum it up.
She basically says that by taxing us to pay for welfare programs, it is
no different than slavery. If we do not
pay our taxes, we got locked up or our property gets forcibly taken away. I know that I will find very little agreement
for that position, so I would rather talk about other kinds of slavery we still
find in the United States. A large
number of people in this country are enslaved to their religious beliefs. It dominates their life, prevents them from
thinking on their own, and causes them to try and use force to get others to
follow their views. Another type of
slavery are people who are in abusive relationships. I do not just mean physically abusive relationships,
which obviously impinge on the victim’s freedom. I also mean emotionally abusive
relationships, where the victim is so afraid or complacent that he will go
along with anything his spouse wants.
Where is the freedom there? The
term is even the same as for slavery: “whipped.”
Any person who is not free to make his own
choice on any matter is a slave. There
is no way around that statement. Whether
it is a child who cannot chose his own bedtime, a husband who cannot chose his
own wallpaper or a taxpayer who has to give 40% of his income, maybe 1000 hours
(2 months) a year, they are experiencing a minor form of slavery. Another form of slavery, which can be found
in the works of Nietzsche, is slavery to morals. People have a hive mentality when it comes to
morality. Sure, they might differ on the
finer points, but almost everyone considers charity and compassion to strangers
as a virtue. I consider it a vice, the
very poison that has been destroying our society for millennia. As long as laws against force and fraud are
enforced, there is absolutely nothing wrong with looking out for only
yourself. Society will not collapse. People will not start dying on the streets in
droves. People will show compassion to
other people to the extent that the relationship is mutually beneficially. They will engage in profitable economic trade
and trade will flourish. It is when
people engage in unpredictable, irrational, self-destructive behavior that society
collapses. When such behavior is forced
by the government, it collapses even faster.
Many people may consider my travel methods to be irrational, but it is
not. I just value fulfillment over
enjoyment, as I discussed in a previous entry.
It does not matter what I choose to value, so I long as I make those choices,
and I rationally pursue those desires.
That was why I embarked on this Lincoln Run. I woke up before my alarm, and I was well ahead
of schedule, getting breakfast and, of course, forgetting my suit on the way
out. I packed the car, which I left in
the garage, and headed to the Capitol. I
was rearing and ready to go for what I knew would be a crazy day. Three places where Lincoln lived and three
state capitols. 10 hours of driving for
about an hour of activities, standard practice.
I took my picture at the Illinois Capitol, did my business at the VC,
and decided that taking a tour of the home, Lincoln’s only surviving home,
would blow my chance of hitting all three sites. I took my picture outside the home, which was
surrounded by a replicated village of what Springfield looked like when Lincoln
lived there, which was really cool. I
grabbed my Hoyo de Monterrey, walked toward the car, stopping when I got in
view of the Capital, and tried to light it.
I say tried because, without a torch, it was very hard to get the cigar
lit. I joked to myself that the Cuban,
the easiest part of the Complete, was going to stop me from saying Illinois
Complete. I did manage to get it lit,
said, “Illinois Complete,” adding some sentiment about the day to come, and
went back to the car. It was 4 hours to
the next site, and I was kind of tired.
I knew that the drive would be brutal.
It was. I was also starving, and I
did not want to make a meal out of Atkins bars.
When I stopped for gas, I also got a bratwurst, which filled me up for a
bit. I lit up an Undercrown and got back
on the road, looking well on schedule to complete the Lincoln Run. I am constantly impressed by the features of
this car. It has a feature where it
starts beeping if you drift out of your lane.
When you back up, it gives you a grid on the rear-view camera, showing
the direction you are going. Soon
enough, I was at the National Memorial in Indiana, the whole reason that I
decided to do this crazy run, the only one of my 30 Goals served by this
trip. The VC was designated an NHL
(National Historic Landmark), and it even had a plaque out front. These NHL plaques have become my new
obsession. There are over 100 in NYC,
and I want to spend a weekend tracking down as many as I can. I took care of my business at the VC and then
proceeded to the cabin site. There was a
big no-smoking sign, which I proceeded to ignore as I lit up my Carillo. It was an actual farm with functional historic
buildings, such as a blacksmith. I took
a bunch of pictures and quickly turned back.
I was not on a time crunch, but I wanted to make sure I allowed enough
Dutch Time.
As I was leaving, I tried to
imagine what Lincoln was like as a boy.
Did he aspire to greatness? Did
people who knew him think he was something truly special? Did anyone predict just what he would
achieve? I doubted it. The next site was his birthplace, a NHP
(National Historic Park) in Kentucky, which had recently been upgraded from a
NHS (National Historic Site). I had wanted
to see that site when I went to Kentucky last time, but I did not have the
freedom to do that. I was the only one
in the group who wanted to do it, and I was unwilling or unable to go off and
do it on my own. As I was making my way
to the NHP, I saw the sign for Mammoth Cave, and I laughed. 2 years ago it was such a big deal for me to
be able to go there with my family, to get the new state and the WHS, and now,
I didn’t even think about stopping there.
I could have done Cahokia, which I passed by leaving Springfield, and
Mammoth Cave in one day. I easily could
have arranged a weekend trip. Yes, 10
days of travelling in 2012 could have been reduced to a weekend the way I now
travel.
I made it to the NHP with enough
time to take care of my business at the VC and then walk around the site, which
was good, since they kicked everyone out right at 4:45 PM, which was 3:45 PM
Springfield Time, just 7 hours after I left.
My plan was to be racing to get there and get my stamp right before 4:45
PM, but that plan would not have worked.
They had a little memorial building at his birthplace with a
reconstructed log cabin. I like to say
that after, having seen Jesus Christ Birthplace WHS, no other birthplace can
compete. Abraham Lincoln Birthplace NHP
came close. I could not smoke inside the
memorial, but I walked around the cabin a few times, thinking about the
greatness that came from that little baby.
When I smoked my pipe at Jesus Christ Birthplace WHS, my thoughts were
probably about all of the great Christmas songs he inspired. Lincoln saved the Union and freed the
slaves.
I lit up my Arturo Fuente,
announced, “Lincoln Complete,” and headed back to the car to make my way to
Frankfort. I stopped at Knob Creek, another
one of his boyhood homes along the way, and, no longer on a time crunch, I was
able to relax a bit. I walked around a
bit and reflected on how relaxing of a place it seemed for our 16th
President to live. I had been told that
there was a KFC in Bardstown, which was only 2 miles off-route, and my GPS
confirmed it. Bardstown was the
self-proclaimed Bourbon Capital of the World, and I passed by this historic tavern. I knew that I needed to stop for a drink. They had dozens and dozens of different
bourbons. I asked for “bourbon, neat.” I did it as a joke, but she didn’t get it,
saying that they had quite a few different bourbons, ranging in price well over
an order of magnitude. I asked for her
best one, fully prepared for an outrageous price tag. She picked one out for me, and it was more than
I ever spent on a bourbon but less than what I had spent in Orlando on that
Cognac. She gave me a generous pour, and
I gave her a generous tip, more than the price of their least expensive
bourbon. It was delicious and worth
every penny.
As I made my way to the
KFC, I saw a souvenir shop, but it was closed early for “Derby Day.” Yes, reader, I was in Kentucky, on the day of
the Kentucky Derby, and I did not realize it until that moment. If I had, I would have rearranged the
schedule to allow for a stop there.
Hell, it would have been worth a trip on its own just to see the
Derby. I misestimated the distance to
Churchill Downs, and I might actually have been able to make it. If I had left straight from the NHP, I
definitely would have made it. I took
comfort in the fact that pipe show and the Derby are probably always on the
same weekend, so it would be easy to do a trip to combine them both another year. I got to where my GPS said the KFC was, but
it was just a cemetery with no KFC in site.
I parked across the street and checked my phone. No KFC, and I was starving. I was reminded of a joke from Seinfeld. A dying guy goes all the way to Germany for a
slice of Bavarian Cream Pie. They are
sold out, so he just orders a cup of coffee.
I considered going to a Wendy’s or something and just getting some fried
chicken there. I decided that I could
hold out until I got to Frankfort, but I saw a Wendy’s along the way. Knowing that the joke would be too good not
replicated, I pulled in, but I saw a more local fried chicken chain. They had all the same stuff as KFC, and it
was definitely Kentucky fried chicken, but it was not KFC.
As I left, I recounted all the steps I had
taken that would allow me to say Kentucky Complete, needing only the Capital
and the Cuban. I
then reminded myself that I needed gas. Soon enough, I was at the Capitol. I parked, grabbed my water bottle, and
announced, “Let’s do this, bitch.” I
took my picture and lit up my Partagas.
I announced, “Kentucky Complete,” adding, I think, “And how about
that? Too bad about Indiana. Next time, though.” When I first planned the trip, I had not
accounted for the time zone difference, which meant that I had to eliminate the
non-Lincoln NPS in Indiana, so I would not be saying Indiana Complete this
trip. I made my way to Indianapolis,
getting there just as it got dark, lighting up a Heisenberg en route, which I
finished just I arrived. Indianapolis is
a big city with big city traffic, in addition to the fact that the Pacers’ Game
7, my fourth passed up opportunity, was letting out.
I asked for a smoking room with a view of the
Capitol, but I was told they had neither.
They upgraded me to a suite. As I
was checking in, I realized that I had, again, forgotten my suit, so I raced to
the driveway, and the car was still there.
I got to my room, and it was freaking huge. The living room was bigger than most hotel
rooms, and I did not see the bedroom.
There was a nice couch but no bed.
For a moment, I thought that there was no bed at all, but there was a
separate bedroom with a view of a glimpse of the Capitol. I ordered room a burger from room service,
which was overpriced but less than I would have spent on dinner if I went
out. I checked in for my flight,
upgrading again to first class for the same modest price. I was going to do some work, but the food
came quickly. It was absolutely
delicious. I made some coffee, sealed
off the bedroom, set up a station in view of the Capitol, such as it was, lit
up my Avo, and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close so that I
can publish, upload photos, and get some sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment