Ready to hit the road!
Projected Route
As I’ve noted before, my plans are always fluid, but this is the best guess of the route I’ll be following from Lausanne to Jerusalem. My best estimate is that I’ll walk 4000 km (2500 miles). It’ll probably wind up being more than that, once I factor in all the times I get lost and have to backtrack.
When I arrive in Istanbul I’ll take stock of my physical and financial health, and also the relative safety of the regions along the rest of the route. I dearly wish to celebrate Pascha in Jerusalem, but I’m willing to head home early if that seems to be the wisest choice four months from now. If I have any sort of motto for this trip, it may well be “No Sentient Risks.”
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Dulles
I’ve arrived at Washington-Dulles airport. After looking at various options, my host kindly offered to take a large chunk of his day and drive me up here. It was a nice leisurely drive, although the Friday afternoon traffic away from DC may not be quite as relaxing.
It has been a wonderful ten days of travelling and seeing old friends. I’ll have slightly less than a fortnight in Toronto to get my affairs in order before heading off on my next adventure!
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peregrinus
Latitude:37.78745
Longitude:-79.44006
GPS location Date/Time:09/19/2014 11:33:35 EDT
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Cyrus McCormick
I freely admit that I’d have never heard of Cyrus McCormick if not for my friend James. Yesterday we visited old Cyrus’ farm, Walnut Grove. This is where, in 1831 at the age of 22, he demonstrated a mechanical reaper. His father had spent more than twenty years working on the idea, and when he gave up working on it, Cyrus stepped in. He built on this and the designs for a similar machine developed b y Patrick Bell of Scotland. Assisted by the family slave, Jo Anderson, Cyrus continued to refine and develop “his” reaper but didn’t sell one until 1841. By 1847, they moved production to Chicago — until then, each reaper was built by hand in the workshop we saw today.
The choice of Chicago was brilliant. As a railway hub, the vast agricultural markets in the Midwest were readily accessible. Shipping through the Great Lakes made raw materials for production cheap and also opened up the international market. In spite of several patent challenges from rival inventors, the company founded at this farm in Virginia went on to become the largest manufacturer of farming machinery in the world.