Flying Solo

While sitting in the apartment this morning anxiously awaiting my quickly approaching departure I came upon an interesting if not somewhat telling detail about my travels.  Not sure if their's anyway to sugar coat this but I do believe ever past adventure had to do one way or another with a woman.  My trips to Denmark, Spain, and backpacking Brazil were with a girl who successfully ignited my love for traveling.  England was to spend time with another female, this time not so much to an exotic location, but to a city that could eat you alive in your sleep if you turned your back on it:  London.  And finally Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Montreal, Jamaica, Quebec City, and Panama with my wife sharing incredible adventures into some of the most unreal places in the Western hemisphere.  I mean really:  who would ever in their right mind decided to go to Quebec City for New Years unless convinced by someone else as equally delusional in your obsession to freeze to death all for a good night out? 

Anyway, today I realized that for the first time I would truly be flying solo, and making each and every stop the destination of my choosing.  I don't know how this happened to be honest, I've been so used to following other peoples itineraries for so long that I just kind of assumed that's what travel was all about.  But now looking at my spread sheets, and endless lists of what needs to done, researched, and destinations including mileage, travel time, and places to stay I find a great deal of satisfaction in knowing this one's all me (awkwardly winking at my computer for some strange reason). 

I realize that it's long over due so I should probably get to the general outline of my trip.  For all who don't know my incredibly brave little brother, Ian just got back from his first tour of duty in Afghanistan so while I'll be taking a winding road following the East Coast of the US to get down to this long awaited reunion in Texas, reuniting with him is the main objective of the first leg of the trip.  As of now the plan is to reunite with an old friend Jen and her husband Paul in Binghamton,  then onto the birthplace of my beloved Dave Matthews Band in Charlottesville VA, next on to my crazy uncle Joe's house in South Carolina, Tallahassee to break up a long drive, New Orleans for two nights in a city I've dreamed of seeing for so long now, then finally onto my brother in Texas.  For some reason that hopefully other adventure travelers will sympathize with I've decided to couch surf (couchsurfing.org) the first leg of my tour taking a bed in a hostel only in New Orleans.  Now part of this is in the spirit of adventure travel, but also out of the need to save money for the next slightly daunting but chest tingling leg of my adventure on two wheels:  Central America. 

As mentioned earlier in the post, I've been to three countries in Central America:  Nicaragua (where I've spent most of my time), Costa Rica, and Panama.  All three of these countries blew my mind with the friendliness of the people and their customs, the beauty of the land, and the incredible slower pace of life focused more on the moment, the family, and the many experiences of life not to be idly drifted through in search of the next great mile marker.  So after spending some quality time with my little brother in Texas, the next turn after that will be to go south into... MEXICO.

"You want to go where?" It seems as if every adventure traveler encounters an endless stream of shock, awe, and thinly veiled criticism for their decidedly "poor choice" in destinations and my trips are normally right inline with those criticisms.  But this time even my parents are having difficulties accepting where I plan to go and why.  While hopefully bypassing the agreeably dangerous border towns of Mexico as quickly as possible, I'd like to make stops in the remaining countries I have yet to visit in Central America:  Mexico to Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Belize not necessarily in that order. 

Now before I cross the border their will have to be some tough questions asked of myself.  The most important question will be do I have the skills to complete a difficult trip into unknown territories where the chances of finding supplies for any unforeseen breakdowns or god forbid accidents will be slim?   Truth be told that while I find my own sense of balance sans alcohol to be impeccable,  their is probably a reason why we don't see many slightly obese ballerinas these days.   Also, I've only been riding motorcycles for the last month or so, so while I feel up to it I really will have to evaluate my own skills when I get to Texas. 

Secondly, after two surgeries on my (use your imagination) in the last 3 years I can't confidently be one hundred percent sure that I'll be able to make the incredible stretches in mileage medically.  While I've been dating an ugly troll named "Pain" for quiet a while, we've recently went our separate ways and I have no desire to meet up with her again unless maybe it's just for a passing drink and we can go halvsies on the bill...

Lastly, the next question will be the time crunch.  I'm leaving in only 2 days and are taking a week to get down to see my brother.  That will leave me with less than 7 weeks to go as far as my two wheeled beast will take me and of course that doesn't take into account driving home!  August 1st I'll have to be back and ready for action at Alfred State, and although I do have a good deal of vacation time saved up, that's not a date I'd like to miss. 

I think a good summation of the decision in Texas will be from the true classic Robin Hood: Men in Tights.  "Tell everyone that when the day is out we shall have a wedding. Or a hanging. Either way, we're gonna have a lot of fun, huh?"  Only in this quest the wedding should hopefully be between myself and my machine, or the hanging will be... lets just skip over that part.  

So with these questions and movie quotes weighing heavily on my mind, in two days I'll be setting out on my first solo flight.  With my departure approaching quicker then I had honestly expected, I'm defiantly feeling a truly potent cock-tale of mixed emotions including varying parts excitement, curiosity, anxiety, sadness for leaving my family and much more.  But with a slowly dwindling list of last minute things to do, and a blog to splatter my random thoughts upon, I'll try and stay busy.  Yesterday it was painting my trunk a (insert expletive) blue to kind of match the bike my named Saphira (sounds kind of sexy but strong right? [Thanks Tom and Liz!]).  Today its all about writing and research research research not to mention a last dinner of the summer with my incredible Grandma...  No room for boredom here I guess.