Going the Distance

We have been astonished at how often people exclaim in horror over John's commuting time to work. He takes the train, which is a two minute walk from our house, and arrives in Eastbourne forty-two minutes later.  If the weather is good, he then walks up the hill to his office, taking him about twenty minutes....not bad for a middle aged pre-pensioner. If the weather is less than stellar, a bus gets him to his office in ten minutes. From door to door, the whole exercise is about an hour. To us that seems completely reasonable. To our new neighbours and friends, we seem a bit like circus freaks.

We live now only about sixty miles from London. To be fair, that would be the  "as the bird flies" distance. Apparently not one single roadworks engineer or planning commissioner consulted any birdies when designing public transport routes to and from London, however. Actually getting London takes more like an hour and a half - two hours depending on mode of transport. Cool. Still not so far to me. Their are folks here who have NEVER been to London! I kid you not! Even more astounding, there are many folks who have never travelled beyond about twenty miles from home. Wow!

For us an hour or less commute is something to brag about and cheer about, and apparently write a blog entry about..., but I digress. Anyhoo, when we lived in the metro DC area, a commute of two hours each way was not unheard of. I drove our daughter over an hour each way to school. Every day.  And for a teenager that must have been excruciating to be trapped in that tiny steel cell on wheels with her mother. She slept.

John's longest commute was from Georgia Southern University to North Augusta, SC. For an hour and forty-five minutes he dodged deer and avoided speed traps in every little bitty podunk town in rural Georgia. If he were lucky enough to get behind a logging truck or hay baler, the trip took more than two hours. And to think he kept his (relative) sanity! On the plus side, he could pick up quite the selection of AM radio stations.

Tomorrow we are meeting Lauren in London to go over her housing contract for next year. We will all take our local trains and meet up in one of the large stations in London proper. We don't have to deal with road rage, or traffic jams, or those annoying folks who park it in the left lane going one mile under the speed limit. With their blinker on.  We will get to see the gorgeous countryside as we ride in seats much more comfortable than those designed for lengthy plane rides. We actually have room for both of our legs on a train.  In less time than it takes to watch two t.v. shows, I will get to see University child's face and enjoy the city with her.

I cannot imagine not exploring the area around me. I guess I have always had a bit of wanderlust. We went on Sunday drives when I was a child just to discover new places and find new adventures. Every place I have lived since, I have driven, ridden, flown, biked or hiked to see the marvellous world around me.  I am excited to live in a part of the world where so much is nearby. I am ready to go the distance!