Trip's Canceled

On Again / Off Again — Vacation’s begun, and I still don’t know what I’m doing.

Whoo hoo! After almost a year of saving up my paid leave at my “day job” — if you’re new here, checkout this article for some backstory — it’s almost vacation time! 🥳🎉

But there’s a problem…

I’m not going to PEI anymore this summer. The trip’s canceled.

And I’d be lying if I said that this wasn’t very difficult for me, I was really looking forward to this trip. As a matter of fact, I’ve been looking forward to it for years. And I’ve working on the details of the trip, for this past year — twenty one days backpacking the most beautiful island Canada has to offer, maybe even North America.

But alas, I must admit to myself that it’s not going to happen. Not this year at least.

And y’all, I am so bummed about it. This was my swan song! The last chance I had to get off alone, before the next decade of Florida Beach Condos with the Littles.

Yeah I know right, I sound like a pretty crappy Peapaw there don’t I? But damnit, what about what I want to do? Is it wrong for me to still want to go trapping around the world, exploring new places?

And as much as I want the answer to that question to be, no. I feel more and more guilty about doing it. And we’re not under any financial strain. But I really can’t afford to spend a month on sabbatical in Nova Scotia, even if I have saved up my paid leave. I mean, it ain’t like that’s “extra money” or anything. You know, I’ve never actually understood the concept of “extra money” at all, now that I think about it…

So then I was thinking about visiting my friend Rick West in Albania! He’s going to be there for a while yet, and I’ve checked and the flights are reasonable enough. I even worked out a 36 hour layover in Amsterdam. How epic would that be?

But then I’m looking around at all the things left undone around the house. And I remember that I still haven’t gotten my Sweetheart’s Jeep ready for summer — amongst so many other things. And the prospect of leaving all that unfinished feels selfish. Not to mention, the USA is currently at war. Not the ideal conditions for international travel, that’s for sure…

The thing is, I’ve always pretty much gotten whatever I wanted. Now, not always of course. But I mean like, things usually work out for me. Like when I wanted to go to Banff, Jasper, & Alaska.

Is it Manifestation?

Or more recently, purchasing my Chevy Custom Deluxe. I’ve still got Ole Dually Girl, too. Yeah I know, I was supposed to sell her… Again, I can make this happen — which is part of, if not the whole damn problem. (pay attention to the theme here, it's visited again below)

Then there’s the fact that my Sweetheart doesn’t share in the same wanderlust. Where I would be perfectly content with owning nothing more than a bus ticket and a toothbrush, she needs a home.

So I must ask myself: What’s more important to me?

The answer of course is her — is them. They are what’s most important to me. So I guess that means I have to lay my wanderlust aside. For now.

But I am not happy about it.

And yet I wonder, would I even want to be trapping around the world if I’m alone? I mean, I get to see Tink and Binkster both, pretty much on a daily basis. And I love it!

But then, I love to travel too. And my feet are getting awfully itchy. Our last little adventure up into Kentucky has just about worn off.

Out Of Practice

Hmmm. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Key West yet either. 🤔 I wonder if I can talk my Sweetheart into a A1A road trip?

Maybe if I get the Jeep fixed up, along with a few other things around here she’ll go for it. And if we happen to find the right place along the way, the kids could even come down for a few days… 😉

To be continued…

On Again / Off Again — Vacation’s begun, and I still don’t know what I’m doing.

Well, the last time we talked I was sulking because I couldn’t go to PEI — a trip I’d planned over a year for.

Albania either. Sorry, Rick.

But, I’d had another great idea — Key West, via the scenic A1A Highway.

At first glance, this was waaay out of our budget. But then I caught a huge break! My Sweetheart and I are avid campers. Or, we used to be. More recently our camping excursions have been as a Paid Transporter/Hotshot. So I checked the Florida State Parks website, and we were in luck! The Bahia Honda State Park sits just three isles from Key West.

I searched a couple reservation windows, nothing. Then, as if a miracle had just happened right before my eyes, I refreshed the page and two nights appeared! I snatched’em up quick too. Zero hesitation. Two nights, for less than $100? That’s a win right there, buddy. Yessir.

Then I searched along the route down and found us an Airbnb in Lake Worth Beach, just above Miami, for the two nights right before our Bahia Honda camping stay. And I think we’ll play the rest by ear. Maybe leave a couple days before that, stop in St. Augustine or Daytona Beach as we meander our way down the scenic A1A highway. And we’ll do the same on the way back up. 😉 The plan is to take about 8 to 10 days to make the trip. How’s that for adventure!?

Looks like I’ve gone from a trip to the extreme north end of the Eastern Coast, to the extreme southern end of the coast. I think Key West is less than a hundred miles from Cuba… This trip should make for some great articles, maybe I’ll do a travel vlog!?

I’ve got a new plan. And after a little convincing, and a not so little amount of negotiating, we’re going on an A1A adventure!

A Lifetime of Adventure

Hold up — not so fast, MJ.

But before I get into the next development, let me fill you in on what’s been going on with me recently. I don’t know how long you’ve been with me — if you’re a long time reader you have probably seen the subtle, but non-mistakeable difference in my essays and articles recently. To say it plainly, I’ve been feeling the pressure a bit lately.

All of this has just gotten so, BIG. And much of the peace I’ve obtained over the past few years is because I’ve stayed small.

In the past two years I’ve gone from zero social media presence in my life, to having accounts on four different platforms. And on this one alone, I’ve amassed over 1k followers and hundreds of subscribers in that short time. Not to mention that I write under a pseudonym at times as well. That’s a lot of pressure. And with it, comes a lot of Admin. I’ll go deeper into these challenges, and what I’m doing about it in an update post to Admin Galore — Struggling with Writer’s Block, soon.

Okay, so back to our A1A adventure! We’re not doing that either. Yup you read that right, I’ve canceled that trip as well. There are a myriad of reasons:

• The temperature during our stay at Bahia Honda State Park is going to be a perfectly warm 87 degrees(F) during the day. Not too hot, but sunny. Really just right for beach’n🏖️. But the the temperature is only going to drop to 83 at night, and that doesn’t sound nearly as pleasant. Mind you, we’d be camping primitively. 🥵No AC. No Fan. No Relief.

• My Sweetheart’s Jeep will not be ready. And even if it is “fixed” it’d be awfully hard to trust it for a 1500 mile trip.

• No Jeep — problem! Blanca stepped right up. All she had to do was hear the words, Miami and Caribbean, and she was ready. “!La vida es un carnival!” But then something happened, I had a bad dream. A nightmare really — I dreamed Blanca was stolen outside of our Airbnb, in Lake Worth Beach. Now I’ve actually written a story where Blanca was trucknapped, where I was able to save her with the help of my two compadres. But I do NOT want to have to deal with that in real life. Nope.

Which brings me to my point: This vacation was supposed to be a stress relief. But has ended up being layer upon layer of additional stresses and things to do or worry about.

I’d need to ensure Blanca was ready for such a trip. We’d need to get our old eight-person tent out, and inspect it to make sure it’s good to go. Additional camping supplies would need to be procured as well. Then add the facts Blanca’d been trucknapped by Cubans, to the very real possibility that we would in fact have heat-stroke, to the open-ended adventure of “meandering down A1A”, and you wind up with another canceled trip. 🙃

~

Alright so here I am. It’s the Sunday before my paid leave begins, and I’ve just canceled another trip. First, PEI. Then, Albania. And finally, a Key West via A1A roadtrip.

I do not know what to do next. So I ask my Sweetheart where she’d like to spend our holiday?

We look at the north Georgia mountains, but rule that out in favor of a beach. Any beach, anywhere would do at this point. We searched along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, nothing really grabbed us. We looked all across the Florida panhandle too, and almost decided on Flora-Bama. But in the end, none of those places sounded like the peaceful beach retreat we were looking for.

I knew what I wanted — what I needed now. I was searching for a home away from home. So I’m not surprised that we ended up going to St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in the US. It’s the place we carried our girls too, almost every summer for over a decade. And soon, we’ll take our grandchildren there. Just not this year. 😉

I’ll be reading, might even share a Note or quick video. But I’ve got all of this and next week’s posts scheduled, and I’m taking a break guys. Logging off for now… 🤠🤙

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it and clicking that ❤ button, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Oh and if you’re an email reader, just hit reply — I want to hear from you too! What’s your idea of a relaxing holiday?

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Here’s a shortcut to last week’s blog post, just in case you missed it.

Here’s Part Two of my SWG story, Topeka or Bust!