"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." (Lao Tzu)
My mantra yesterday. And today.
I love this quote. I've repeated it often. I've just never had a slower, more arduous start to a journey than this one!
I should be writing from Santiago, Chile right now, but instead, this post is from Vancouver, Canada. Surprise!!!
To catch you all up, I'll start at the beginning ... 2 years ago. (Yep, I said YEARS not days ...I'll try to make a long story, short for those of you who didn't even know we were leaving on this trip :) When we came home from Vietnam, we knew deep down in our souls, ok, maybe not even that deep, that we would be embarking on another adventure sooner than later. Our experience as a family was so positive, amazing, smooth, and life changing that we began dreaming about and saving up for another trip right away. We chose South America and settled on visiting Chile, Bolivia and Peru rather easily. We had the desire to travel, the opportunity (time) to go, knew where we wanted to go, we were just lacking a little in the funds department ... who isn't?!
Can we 'afford' this trip? Not really. Is it financially 'responsible'? Ummm, probably not. We've been saving for 2 yrs, Jeff sold his treasured dirt bike and we may have to borrow a little from the line of credit. What's funny is that if you look at our pictures, you'll see we're wearing the same clothes we did on the last trip. As an investment in our family, and an attempt to give our kids a realistic global perspective, the question really is.... can we afford NOT to take this trip??! To us, we see this investment as something more valuable than RRSP's; it's an education for all of us that you can't learn from a book or school. Mark Twain actually says it best:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
That brings us to yesterday, Friday, our departure date. We were supposed to fly from Kelowna to Vancouver, Vancouver to Toronto and Toronto direct to Santiago, Chile. However, instead of just having a quick bite of lunch in Vancouver, we've had to stay the weekend due to the major snow storm blasting the east. At first, our flight from Vancouver was delayed a few hours, making our connection impossible to make and leaving us to work through MANY different travel scenarios for the next couple of days. We spent a few hours debating different flight times, trying to get on stand-by lists, wondering where we'd sleep for the night in Toronto (as hotels were booked solid) when we heard the news that our flight was no longer delayed but cancelled. The decision was made for us! Enter Eric and Julie, our great friends that have welcomed us into their home for the weekend. Saying THANK-YOU doesn't even begin to express how much we appreciate this wonderful couple's hospitality.
So, aware that the kids were watching how we'd respond to the chaos, and conscious that there was nothing that we could do about things, we decided to make the most of the situation and made plans to catch up with some friends and have a little fun in Vancouver. Just as we were heading out the door, Max proclaims, "I feel like I'm going to puke!" Change of plans......again! Max spent the better part of the day with a temperature, sleeping. He hasn't been sick, just lethargic ... we're hoping he doesn't get worse and a lot of sleep will be all he needs to bounce back.
Tomorrow we start all over again. Back to the airport and hopefully onward to Chile. Well, at least that's the plan. And we know that plans can change.
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