Monday, May 28, 2007

7 days before departure


Most travel blogs get launched before a trip actually begins. In the first post, the author:

1. explains the trip plan and purpose (Peru is something we've always dreamed about)

2. goes through an excruciatingly long list of packing dilemmas (we wondered whether we should bring our rain ponchos)

3. adds an equally long set of packing decisions (after much discussion, we decided that we probably wouldn't need our rain ponchos)

4. liberally distributes exclamation points throughout the text (We're so excited!!!!)

5. speculates on how the trip will change their lives

6. and promises not to forget anyone (We'll blog every day we can!!!! We love you ALL!!!!!)

After three such pre-trip posts, the blog usually reaches its high water mark in the departure lounge of the airport. (What can I tell you all about the Los Angeles Airport? Well, we're sitting here in black chairs with aluminum framing and little armrests, and they're quite comfortable. Security was not too bad, though Mark forgot that he had a steel plate in his head. He was in a car accident several years ago, and not only does it set off metal detectors, it also makes him veeerrry forgetful sometimes. Anyway, it took FOREVER to get through. I mean, really, did they think he was smuggling a gun in his forehead or something? But what I can I tell you about this big airport? The bottled water is really expensive…)

For the first week, there are a few posts, but they dwindle in length and descriptive quality. (There are a lot of big buildings in our part of Lima. We had Mexican food for dinner. I'll write more later.)

Two weeks from then, the posts become suggestive rather than informative. (Went to Macchu Picchu yesterday. Not bad. I'll write more later.) Finally, the blog ends entirely, nothing ever gets written later, and friends and family are left in the cold as to the marvelous adventure taking place south of the equator.

For this trip, an exotic swing through the western US, our plan is quite simple. We're driving north from California, hitting the usual national parks, all the way up through Montana, and into Alberta. (We have long wanted to see the natives of that region and observe their curious customs.). After a jaunt up over the Rockies at Banff, we'll head to Vancouver and travel through the pot-growing regions of Washington, Oregon, and California, before making our way home.

Our purpose is quite simple: to see what's there. Nicole and I spend a good deal of our time traveling, and usually to non traditional places, Burma, Tierra del Fuego, the Amazon, and so on. We enjoy it, but we've long since passed the point where our friends think we're a little strange and we've steadily been moving closer to daft, in their opinions. It came home to us recently, while we were in Bolivia, and we realized that everyone that was on our bus was either 19 or completely weird. So perhaps it was time to return to the good old US and A and see if we could hack it on the national park circuit.

Anyway, like many travel blogs, this one seems to have begun by running on like an overflowing toilet, so I'll bid you all (and I believe your actual number is somewhere between 3 and 5) a warm adieu.