Just light the fuse and lets go !

Waiting, and therefore patience, is not one of my fortes. Actually I suck at it. I am more the “come on lets get going” type. I think this comes from my father, another man not well know for his patience in certain matters, and the fact that with prolonged waiting comes fear, apprehension and procrastination. No, I would rather “just on with it” as the British saying goes

Now a healthy dose of fear is good for you. This keeps us from doing stupid things, like say parachuting – oh right we did that J. Ok it keeps us from doing truly stupid things like going parachuting twice. But fear is one of those things that must be recognised for what it is and then dealt with in such a manner as to control it so that it can be used as a form of motivation. Fear should not paralyse you to inaction but motivate you to take action.

I have had many friends ask me if I am afraid of going on the trip. The simple answer is yes; but cautiously so. I fear failure – as in not completing the trip. I fear letting my fellow companions down by my lack of physical or mental stamina. I fear the separation from my wife and children and how that might affect me emotionally. I fear, after a year and half of planning and training, of being hit by some little old lady in a Cadillac in Phoenix on the way to the Mexican border!

What I am not afraid of is being robbed or physically assaulted while in CA. So many people who I have spoken to about the trip have expressed their fear that I will get mugged or shot or something. I have had numerous people as me if I am taking a gun with me! This is Central America not Bagdad.

I am at much greater risk of being robbed or shot in any major North American city than where we are going. Remember in the southern USA it is legal to carry a handgun so long as it is not covered up. So every Tom, Dick and grandma in Arizona, Texas, etc are all carrying pistols for “personal protection”! Now that is a dangerous place to be !!

I have apprehension of the day-to-day living on the road: finding adequate lodging nightly, the food, how my health will stand up (I am an asthmatic and “worry” about how I might react to some of the physical environment) driving an busy narrow roads. There is apprehension about dealing with border crossings with my limited Spanish. There is some apprehension about dealing with corrupt cops and officials wanting a bribe of some sort – actually I am sort of looking forward to this.

As for procrastination – nope. I just want to get going. I feel like the actor portraying one of the original astronaut in “The Right Stuff”. The astronauts in the rocket strapped in and ready to go. After years of training and numerous false starts they again cancel the rocket launch. The astronaut gets on the radio and tell the control centre “ to hell with the engineers just light the fuse on damn thing and lets get going ”.

So lets just light the fuse and get this trip under way !