Not all trips to Africa from Chicago start in Atlanta, but ours will, because we’ll be picking up Max, our almost-12 year old grandson there (and visiting with Max’s family for a couple days) before going out to hunt lions.
As a very seasoned traveler, you’d think that preparing to leave would be duck soup for me. It’s been rather anxiety-provoking, though. There’s a sense that this is likely the last big adventure trip for Carol and me, we’ve been planning it for more than a year and we want to make sure that it’s perfect for Max. Though I’d never admit this, we’re not getting any younger and things that once seemed like no-brainers to us are now brainers. Or challenges.
And then there was the pre-trip surprise. Last weekend I was feeling–how should I put this–crappy. Tired, achy, sore throat, coughing. So, yes, crappy sums it up pretty well. On Monday (8 days before we were scheduled to leave for ATL), Carol suggested I take a Covid test. I did. And, yes, I was positive. This threw things up into the air, I took various over the counter meds, slept a lot and did what I’m really good at doing–nothing.
This trip is for Max and, even if I needed to drop out, Carol would take him. We began to explore alternatives, plane switches, Wendy taking my place. All of those presented complications and not insignificant expense. While I took great comfort in the fact that Max would have his experience, I was sad at the thought of not being able to see his reactions and delight firsthand in what he would encounter in what Carol and I hope and expect will be a life-changing trip for him.
The (very) good news is that my condition improved and by Thursday it looked very likely that I’d be able to go, too. And I’m posting this as we get ready to board our plane to ATL.
This is something of a test post. For those of you who have followed for many years, you may notice that the blog is now being hosted by an organization called “Follow It”. I have no idea why we needed to switch to that, but we did and my blog-guru, Glenn Crocker set it all up for us. If you have problems getting this, blame Glenn. But I think it works.
So, next post will likely be from, or enroute to, Africa.
Here’s Max this winter in Tucson, already towering over his grandmother. You’ll be seeing a lot more of Max.
Arnie
