Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
A quick Post as I sit in my room at the Hilton Garden Inn somewhere in Phoenix, return flighting early this morning and, with the benefits of a little time dilation/rollback, should be back on terra familiara by the end of the afternoon.
clarks really are an odd bunch, non? Would a scott or a roger:
- study the maps covering the area to be travelled, knowing fully well that there will be a GPS with the rental car
- spend nearly 8 hours in the car and (an average) of 15 minutes at each tourist attraction(s)*
- enjoy the driving even more as the weather conditions went bad (and we mean really enjoy as in ‘get excited and laugh and look for the video camera)
- look upon the entire process (of travel and road trip) as possible evidence of a life well spent
- compare what they have accomplished to people they know, not to feel superior to but to feel worthy of attention/ interest?
No, I gots a feeling not.
And, even by this blogs standards, the above should not resonate too strongly even with other clarks. There is some weird kind of after-effect that follows travelling out of my comfort zone. Not entirely bad, not simply good… it’s complicated. …you know, clarklike.
In any event, back to the grindstone. Will catch up with everyone beginning of this week.
Naturally we will have a location appropriate video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzC7_im4_ac* actually the Meteor Crater skewed the numbers, Winslow was about 5 minutes (not counting stopping in the gift shop conveniently located across the street).
About clarkscottroger
Loved this Eagles song to round this one out. Wishing you safe home now and loved this short Sunday post from you!! :)
Haha! Funny you should mention that…I don’t like those GPS thingys, so I always read the map when going somewhere new. Map books are great. They’re solid, they don’t have glitches. Sounds like you had a great trip! :)
@Melanie
I mentioned on one of the videos how ‘sense of direction’ is a clarklike trait. (For me) reading maps is like reading music before you play, you can picture where you are going and when you get there, there is a ‘placement’ in your head that lets you know where you are, relative to where you are going. Funny you should mention glitches! On my way back from the Petrified Forest, the GPS wanted me to turn left and I knew that turn right was correct. Now the difference in a direction like that is obvious to anyone (rogers and scotts), the difference was, I turned right because I believe my own sense of direction before I would believe a machine. (A distinction, scotts and rogers would not, especially rogers, who have as bad a sense of direction as we have good.)
More vids to follow this week.
I love the act of driving. I have always felt “one” with my vehicle – like it’s an extension of my own damn self. You know when it’s not “right”, whether it’s performing better or worse than is typical. (Yes, really…fuck you…fine, clarks are weird…like I care. LOL. Channel Bill Murray on that last one)
There is nothing more wonderful than travelling to new geographical places. Mind altering in a way drugs can’t even touch. It has the potential to alter one’s life. At least perspective on. Or kinda like you stated above:
“There is some weird kind of after-effect that follows travelling out of my comfort zone. Not entirely bad, not simply good… it’s complicated. …you know, clarklike.”
@Denise
yeah… it’s the goal to perceive your own worldview as ‘a worldview’ not easy, but if anyone can do it, it’ll be a clark.
I could relate to everything you said. I actually thought it was normal to do that. It’s not? LOL… Safe travels and am looking forward to the full post.
@Cyndi
Totally… btw brush up on ‘the Right of Hat'(search ‘Treaty of Tordesillas and a Side of Fries’ in Posts) Wait a minute! I just googled ‘Treaty of Tordesillas and a Side of Fries’ and it came up first in ‘the goggle’ …lol damn!
…film at 11
I had another thought: I like to travel, but being in the car actually scares me a bit. It’s because I don’t trust other people. I guess I’ve seen too many accidents. I don’t like flying, either.
But, I make myself travel because I love seeing other places and getting out of my comfort zone. But yeah…maybe I’d enjoy it better if I had a big, burly van. I have a tiny car…and I always feel like a little bug. LOL
@Cyndi
Tell us Cynidi* does it make a difference if you are the driver as opposed to the passenger? Flying for me is a mixed thing… one thing I really hate is to be in a public situation with no control of my position/location/whatever, I need to know that I can leave at my choosing. Flying is kinda not that, but I have developed a certain ritual of non-involvement that makes the time pass (we clarks are *so* our own worst enemies, lol)
Will try to get the vids up today… there are like 6 ‘takes’ for each of the two (Winslow and the Meteor Crater).
Interesting question Clark that you asked Cyndi: “does it make a difference if you are the driver as opposed to the passenger?”
It made me think back to a trip I made with a friend of mine. We spent 2 weeks on a road trip in England and Ireland. Our only reservations were for our 1st night and last nights of the vacation.
We landed in London 1st. While in England we more or less took public transportation.
It was in Ireland that it got interesting. We rented a car. I drove first. Very cool challenge – steering wheel on the other side of the car, driving on the other side of the road….oh and the width (not) of the roads! Anyway…..my traveling companion confronted me one morning at breakfast. Seemed she didn’t care for me “monopolizing” the driving. Didn’t think I was doing that. She could have told me she wanted to drive. (Wow!! Just confirmed this very minute she is a strong roger. Always thought her a scott. Thanks again Wakefield Doctrine. LOL)
For clarks, I think it’s about the control (being the driver). And the notion that, for most of us we like people, we love to drive! Especially when it is a challenge.
My favorite part of a road trip is studying the maps, so I totally get that! Now with GPS (which I put on my phone) I can follow the little blinking dot across the map as we make progress. I LOVE it. I don’t know what I find it so interesting, but I do!
And i always prefer to be the driver. Sometimes I am willing to share if it’s a long trip and I’m getting tired.
@Amy
…still, though do you have an innate sense of direction? (It seems to be a characteristic of clarks) to have it, and the studying of maps makes this even more effective, you can hold the image in your head and (most importantly) make adjustments for the travel. I suspect it has a lot to the clarklike propensity for abstract thinking/visualization, probably also why most of the first people here to ‘get the Doctrine’ are either clarks or scotts/rogers with strong secondary clarklike aspects.
…yeah on the driving, as Denise mentions, there is surely an need to have control that is underlying this, plus we are damn good drivers. lol
Clark, So I’m a fool. I love driving … endlessly. My trip home from Arizona many years ago provided an accomplishment I still marvel at myself for completing. According to Mapquest, it was a 40 hour drive. Having an SUV loaded with captured rattlesnakes, and finding no hotel available that would allow their presence, I found myself behind the wheel for the entire trip, stopping only for gas, fast food drive up windows, and 20 minutes of sleep outside of a rest stop just West of Nashville, when I started experiencing depth perception problems. I made it home in 42 hours. I’d do it again, in a second, as the road provides me with solitude for thinking, enjoying music, and direction. Perhaps I should have been a trucker. lol Hope you made it home okay!
@Rich
Not sure why, but the common response of most Commentationers has been, on the road is a good thing. This is not to say that being at home is not a good thing as well, but there is surely something in all I meet here in the blogosphere that resonates with the idea of travel, independence and discovery of new things, places and (even) people.
Totally sounds like an epic road trip. WHat is it that causes us to want ‘to have had done’ something such as you describe? THe drive towards exceeding the limits? Perhaps an attraction to the outbounds. I suspect the two are not mutually exclusive.
Thanks for the hint of the direction for the next Post.
Actually, I’m weird. (we knew this, right?) But, I feel MORE comfortable driving and more skiddish as a passenger. But I like my husband to drive because I like to look at the scenery even though I always feel like he’s not going to brake for stop signs in time or something. But when I’m driving, I’m SO wary of other drivers. I don’t trust them. I’ve been in 5 car accidents, THREE of which I wasn’t even in the car. None of them were my fault – it was always someone else hitting me. :\ So that’s why I have trust issues when it comes to other drivers and probably why I don’t like driving as much as say…riding a bike. Hell, even THEN I got rear-ended by a car once.
Hell…I just don’t trust people in general. LOLOL
But…I still like to go see places and things. I try to put it all out of my mind and anticipate what I’ll be photographing or talking about with my husband or looking for that shot that I know will turn into a fantastic painting.
Wow…I really got into this post. haha
@Cyndi
…totally get it (well, the part about the anticipating not as much as the art thing, not being artistically inclined). Remind me to talk about the thing that clarks do… we call it ‘eating the future’, an important element in the self-evelopment component in this here Doctrine here.
Got to come up with something for tomorrow to give me an excuse to put up my videos …they didn’t come out that good, but it is about the fact that I actually do it (as a clark) that I get a kick out of.