Evolving

12/4/23 Evolving... just gotta. Myself, probably like and probably worse than most; as a guy I get a direction and I hate to turn back or deviate. It is a trait of the Y chromosome group. It proves well in many adventures where giving up is simply not an option. But on a trip for fun it can be a bad attribute. I have had this idea of going to the southwest and being warm when the northeast is locked in the jaws of ice storms and cold wind. Just thinking of a warm sun trip in February was like a vacation. Then, I discovered the truth and no amount of will or stubbornness would alter the reality; that the southwest in winter above 3000 feet is not sandal weather. In fact I'd be better off staying home with the wood stove blasting. So age does finally help one to turn back or even change course when no amount of determination alters the fact that it is a stupid idea. 

So, sure, glad I was convinced of this now with time to investigate the new possibilities before heading out. Plan on coming back and doing the southwest in the fall months another year. (As we are planning on another AK trip in September (airplane) in 2023 it will have to wait until 2024. Getting out the other map books and even reevaluating crossing the border again to Mexico. We will probably first push west to Borrego Springs area in CA and then decide to either wander around lower elevations in California or turn south and have a real new adventure. 

But this does require some extra planning. Crossing the border requires insurance, visa, dog papers, and specific "T's" to cross ahead of time. More investigation into safer routes with clearer daily destinations until we are more experienced in winging it. My Spanish is passable as long as folks don't talk too fast. I screw up my verb tenses a lot too. But I feel okay in being able to ask for help or make myself understood in a situation requiring knowing what is going down. My Spanish education came from my two years living in Paraguay in the late 70's and early 80's. Then later in my classroom in the states I had many hispanic students who were patient enough to let me practice...though I had the trouble of mixing in Guarani words.  It got worse when I lived in Japan for a few years and came back and I mixed up three languages all at once at times. I figured at that rate if I kept traveling I'd be illiterate in no time, scrambling all the languages together like in the Sci-fi Blade Runner movie in the future. (though I was thankful the pronunciations in both of those languages was based on the Hepburn vowel sounds).