From January to November, 10 month update

The last time I wrote in this blog was exactly 10 months ago. I was still in Costa Rica.

We changed our date back to the United States, cutting 2 weeks off, and what a fortunate thing that we did. Soon after we returned Covid-19 became a term known around the world. We came home on January 29th, 8 days after my last blog. By the end of February it was clear travel would not be possible, by the first week of April we couldn't even drive three hours away to be with our granddaughter for her first birthday. We live in Southern Utah, and Las Vegas in Nevada was asking for quarantine when you came into the state.

By the first week of April we also made the astonishing decision to buy a house. 

We have spent the last 7 months remodeling a house that is 103 years old. The house my husband grew up in, here in Southern Utah. We took the inside and the outside and started from scratch. Tore out carpet to restore the original wood flooring, tore out the front yard sidewalk and everything else to be replaced. And etcetera ad nauseum until yesterday when we finally got the gas line in for our new stove in our newly done kitchen. We cooked our first meal this morning, it felt like a pretty big deal.

But this is a travel blog, right? So let me tell you where we are at with that. After all the work being done on the house and another cold snowy winter on it's way, we decided it was imperative to our well-being to travel again. Daily trips to the local hardware stores were getting pretty old.

We live in small town and it is pleasant, but not a whole lot of variety. We have lived here off and on since 2013, whenever we came back to the United States. Travel is in our blood now. Guess where we are going?? No really, I would love for you to guess because I don't know.

Just a few short weeks ago Ron was once again looking at places to travel. It happens every November since 2016 when we escaped our first winter in the tropics of Costa Rica.

We looked at the short list, only 16 countries that had limited Covid-19 restrictions. We talked about prices and options for at least 2 days. I did this in 2018 and I did it again this time, I finally said to Ron: YOU pick, and just let me know. Or why not surprise me?

I knew the dates he would be looking at, we would be leaving within less than 3 weeks, like it happened in 2018 when we took off for southeast Asia.  At that time the only surprise was that our flight was a mere 3 weeks away, and I knew we were starting the 3 month trip on the island of Borneo. 

This time I'm fairly certain that the list was narrowed down to 3 countries. Costa Rica, Mexico, and Brazil. As my Mom would say, we have 5 sleeps (nights) until we drive to Las Vegas to start our trip. And I still don't know for sure our destination. I'm actually deeply impressed that Ron hasn't spilled the beans about where we will be going. And impressed that I am letting him keep that secret.

Ron says we are going to Guadalajara in Mexico, which is over 2,000 miles from where were on the Yucatan peninsula last year. Which means we probably aren't going there. Especially since he hasn't sent me the confirmation email of the flight. And I caught a glance of him on a website about how to get fake tickets. But this is Ron we are talking about, he could be using reverse psychology and we really are going to Mexico! 

It just doesn't seem real. I have already packed my bag, easy enough when I have so little warm weather clothes. I didn't buy many nice clothes this summer, I was hanging out in work grubs and living basically at a construction site. We worked for a month and a half on the house before we could move in, but it was more like glamping (for whoever needs to understand, that's a slang word for glamour camping) for a while there. 

So, I have enough to wear for 2 days, all I know is he will only pick a warm destination. I also know it's for less than 3 weeks. I have been trying to see how well I know him, and my best guess is that it might be Sao Paulo in Brazil. So it's fun because now I will be surprised if it really is Guadalajara.

The countdown has begun. Right now I have been doing a lot of reading, and it will be hard to leave all of my books behind. I have a collection that I use every day, with a daily planner and 2 journals for 2 different parts of my life. I am hoping to get enough reading done to not pine over the books that have to wait for me to return. I was also planning on trying some more writing projects. It just doesn't seem real, since we have been tethered to this house for so long. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that we are going to travel again.

I am writing this for my closest friends and family, especially my grandchildren. Even if some of them are not old enough to read it yet. I want to explain that yes, there is a global pandemic going on as I write this in 2020. Some people will find me at fault for wanting to travel as it could be considered as a type of death wish for the more extreme kind of thinker. Their opinion is their own. My opinion is that I will take the same precautions that I have always taken, and that my immune system is in excellent shape. I choose to live my own life. Plus I'm certain that I've already been exposed to it, and I was the asymptomatic person. My promise is that whatever happens, for better or worse with my health and the health of those around me, I will be honest about it. Then you can call me a fool, or worse. Or if nothing happens then I can be reduced to the label of a risk-taker. We all must choose the risks we take on a daily basis. And how anyone chooses to label me is none of my business, there are too many of you with your own opinions of who I am, and I can't live by those opinions. I live my own life being as genuine as possible and true to my own thinking.

We had our first snow recently. This was taken during a walk in our neighborhood: