I'm off!

Yes, I've been wanting to do some version of this trip for a long time now. On the one hand, it's to a country that I know almost too well, after so many repeat trips there -- with family, alone, with Ed, alone again. But on the other hand, it is to a very remote corner of the country. One I don't know at all. The older I got, the more I hesitated. Remote? Alone? Is this a good idea? 

And still, the tug has been great. In January -- a month when I churn out a great bulk of my travel ideas, I finally shut the door to my trepidations, and I booked this trip, in a very "now or never" frame of mind.

I leave today.

Hey, flowers, I appreciate your impatience given the heat outside, but maybe we can halt the rush toward flowering just a little? A handful of days maybe? I'll be back by the end of the month!

(this true lily is really ahead of the pack...)

(most of the day lilies are still in bud form... here's an exception!)

Hey Ed, I think you may have liked this trip! Well, maybe not the complicated travel that it entails. And maybe not the overnights. They're not under the canopy of a tent after all... Still, aren't you tempted? (He is not. But he will miss me and I will surely miss him.)

My departure is very methodical. I packed my suitcase yesterday (just a carry-on, which was a challenge, considering...). Today, I just need to do the backpack, and water the plants -- outside pots (there are 32 of them, plus another half dozen on the picnic table, plus five on the porch -- I know all this because Ed asked me to count how many he should look for, when he takes over in my absence -- they're scattered everywhere!), and inside pots. And I need to drive Blue Moon (the car) to the body shop. It finally will be fixed (following the crash of May). Well, there's also a load of laundry to finish up -- the cats, oh those cats! Their blankets are filthy! Oh yeah, a camera to clean, shoes to de-mud... Travel is all about detail. Always. And about spacing the preparation -- especially as you get older and crave that more contemplative approach to the day.

By 11, Ed is driving me to the airport so that I can catch my flight to Minneapolis. I do beat the storms, and have plenty of time to then catch my next flight, and the one after. But I'll post from here -- the Minneapolis airport. I'm not sure when I'll next be online.

And as I sit here waiting for this long imagined trip to finally get started, I do have to wonder -- am I at the tail end of my travels yet? Do I really want to be away from an increasingly older Ed, and increasingly older young families? And do I really want the anxiety that has accompanied several of my most recent trips, as I traveled soon after getting over Covid, and soon after getting the flu and now, with a cough that is the most embarrassing thing you can take on board a flight with you these days? The answer is that for now, I'll take these challenges and do my beloved trips to far away places. For now. 

Okay, I've got another flight to catch.

With so much love...