In the weeks leading up the this tour, whenever I became overwhelmed by stress, stupidity, or some combination of both, I found comfort in repeatedly saying to myself, “I don’t think I’m coming back”. Sure, one could easily dismiss this as a childish reaction to unfavorable situations, and tell me to quit whining because running away won’t solve anything, but that doesn’t work with my story.
Sitting at work one day last week, my mind wandered and I started to think about where the furthest place on Earth (from Chicago) might be and if I could actually go there. After a quick Google search, the answer was only a few clicks away. All I had to do was select my starting point on the map, and then click “dig here”.
As a child, the folklore was always that you would end up in China if tried to dig through the Earth. And why wouldn’t that make sense? If you spin a globe and look only at the northern hemisphere, China, or maybe Russia, would be the on the other side.
But that’s not what I was looking for. I’m talking about driving a giant fucking stake into the ground at the corner of Huron and Ada to see exactly where it comes out on the other side, at the bottom of the Earth.
Well, like I was starting to suspect already, the furthest place on the planet is not in China at all, but approximately 1,200 kilometers south west of Perth, Australia, in the Indian Ocean.
Check it out here:
http://map.talleye.com/bighole.php?lat=41.89454679127386&lng=-87.66119956970215
So late last night, a little drunk and happy after the show, we went to a beach near the house where we were staying. Standing there in the sand at the edge of the Indian Ocean, staring up at the stars, we were as close to the furthest place on Earth from where we started, at least, as close as geography was going to allow.
Yeah, I know it’s not that difficult to do if you can afford the airfare. It’s not like we discovered the source of the Nile, or were the first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that we, at least I, was experiencing a moment of inner peace and harmony with the world knowing that I could, figuratively, go no further. And that one step in any direction would only take me one step closer to home.
Okay, sorry for getting all emo on you there. Not really. ;)
