come one, come all

To the most erratically updated and sometime incoherent show on earth.

Those of you blessed with very basic deductive logic and the slightest disposition to care may have noticed the discrepancy between my planned 14k miles and my current 19k+. Honestly the original plan was 14-18. Now we’re looking more like 25-26 by the time it’s all said and done. So what does that do to my 10 month plan? Well it cuts it down to about 6. So again deductive logic, or just simple math means that I have about 2 months left on the road.

Two months that I hope to be the most exciting for me and for you. Let’s just look at what lies ahead. World Highest Navigable lake. (tomorrow), Worlds Most Dangerous Road, World Largest Salt Flat, World Driest Desert, Highest Road in the Western Hemisphere, World Southernmost City, Worlds Second Most Voluminous Waterfall (okay that one is a stretch) but I guess superlatives aren’t necessary when you can lay claim to those titles and I am visiting them all plus Patagonia, the Gran Chaco and if things work out right Antarctica.

So did I grossly misread my maps? Maybe. Did I not fully understand the size of some of the countries? Absolutely. I’ll try and come up with an allegory (or is I a metaphor? Does it matter? do you care?) or maybe just and example that will help explain my miscalculation. One I think a lot of you can relate to or understand.

Remember the first time you went to Moab. I do. I was 7 or 8. But let’s take it to the adult era when things like buying gas matter. If Moab doesn’t work for you pick a nice area in your state that you find truly amazing. Moab is about 230 miles from Salt Lake City. You figure you can run down there for the weekend mess around and come home 600 miles round trip tops right. Well as you begin the descent into town from I-70 you are suddenly and rapidly overwhelmed by the beauty of the red rock, the desert, the La Sals, the clean air. As you pull into town you cruise the strip to check it out, hit up City Market for Granny Smith Apples, Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter, some bagels and Coke. You overhear someone mention the artesian well north of town so you head out there to fill up your camel back. There you find out about the Moab Brew Pub. So back through town you go. Get some Jack Daniels Tri-tip and if you’re like me head out into the hills for a campfire and solitude before climbing into your sleeping bag. The next morning you drive north through town again to get to Arches to go see the park. Then back into town. Next morning you drive down to the Needles District of Canyonlands to hike the Joint Trail which you fall in love with and vow to return as frequently as possible for the beauty and to topple all the tacky and unseemly cairns the tourists have stacked up to prove they were there and ruin the desolation of the trail. Back into town for dinner and some nighttime wheeling out on Fins and Things or Onion Creek Narrows. Next morning you hit Dead Horse Point on your way out of town where you finally arrive home having turned 1100 miles on the odometer.

Now extrapolate that scenario across a dozen countries (with 5 more to go) and now you’ll know why my return is rapidly approaching. Long before leaving on my trip I told people it didn’t matter if my trip was 5 months or 15 as long as made it to Ushuaia I would be happy. I’ve taken the approach that I’m here to savor every minute and enjoy the experience, not extend my aimless wandering as long as possible at the expense of pleasure and enjoyment. So right now the thinking is after Ushuaia I will return to Chile and ship the truck home. To all those who contributed to my cause I can’t tell you how grateful I am. Your donations will allow me to ship Ruby back to the US with cash where as the original plan was to do it via CC and pay it off with whatever job I land upon return. I’m sure you can all appreciate the different between returning home penniless vs returning home over a grand in debt with no job right. Of course I still have a few stickers left to sell. Just enough to pay for the gas home from Cali or Galveston.

With this post I am vowing to each of you, my loyal and also my sometimes occasional readers, to update my blog far more frequently than the last few weeks and attempt to entertain as well. Quantity AND quality is the goal of Expedition Americas. So tell everyone you know that the roller coastes is approaching the apex of the first hill and the clicking of the chain is beginning to slow. The madness and g forces (nope they do not apply at ALL to this situation) lie ahead over the next two months and if you enjoy my blog I’m sure they will too. So come one, come all and I’ll do my best to make it worth your while. I hope to be caught up through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru by end of this week and can get back to present tense writing. I owe it to you and to myself to do so. Ideally I’ll get a high speed connection in La Paz this week and upload a few more of my 5000 photos for your perusal.