Travel-Trotter

Oh my gosh. We leave for Bolivia tomorrow. I’m feeling awash in both excitement and anxiety. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I know everything will be great. Really, really great! But I also know there will be lots of challenges and hiccups along the way. And… I just hope I’m not forgetting anything important!

Its been great to be in Santa Fe this past week for all sorts of reasons. It has been absolutely perfect to spend the last week in the US with my family, celebrating Christmas. All of my brothers and their families are just great people, and really fun to be around. And we had lots of quality family bonding over ice skating, cooking classes, x-mas eve farolito walk, exchanging gifts, shared meals, and more. My mom was a wonderful host, putting together three tables all the way across her small living room to seat a party of 15! And booking extra houses for many of us to stay in since we couldn’t fit in her awesome (but cozy) three bedroom place.

Its also been nice to know we are all packed up, have a test run with our first airbnb renters in our house, and the opportunity to pick up any forgotten items (and send others home). We also got the chance to meet the lovely family who will live in our house most of the time we’re gone, starting in late Jan. How funny that they just happen to be moving from Santa Fe! Our kiddos (all girls) got along smashingly, and hopefully we’ll be able to spend time with them in Madison when we get back (and hopefully they will have bought their own home by then).

So… why do I wake up at four every morning in a mild panic? I just have crazy visions of things going wrong, of us struggling with our mound of luggage (3 big suitcases, 2 other smaller checked bags, and a backpack for each of us…), of our thoroughly American kids refusing the food so foreign to their taste buds (tienes nuggets de pollo o mac y queso?), of not being able to find places to stay, of running out of gas or breaking down in the middle of nowhere, of getting some weird tropical ailment, of kidnappings and car accidentsand the host of other clearly improbably things that won’t happen to us, but still occupy an unreasonable amount of my brain space.

Back in the land of reality, I have some real anxiety about balancing life on the road with trying to keep a business running and maintaining good service to vChief clients on the road. I’ve tried to offload a bunch of duties to other people on my team, which helps, but there is still lots on my plate. And I know I’ll be pinch hitting on teaching the kids once in a while too, when Mike needs a break. Never mind all of the actual traveling and seeing sights and such.

So yeah, lots on my mind these days. Such as the 18 hour journey from Santa Fe to Houston to Miami to La Paz ahead of us tomorrow. (a) Thank goodness for iPads (b) let’s hope this melatonin stuff helps the kids sleep (c) you can survive 1 day of just about anything, right?

Wish us luck!