I leave in fifteen hours or so for South America. I’m not ready.

I don’t just mean that I haven’t packed yet, or that I’m nervous my bike won’t make it there in one piece, or that I suspect I don’t have the bank account to actually pay for 8 months of biking - although all that is true also!

I’m scared. Scared that I’ll miss my family and friends, scared that I can’t handle it in South America, scared that the biking will be too hard, the mountains too high, the weather too cold. My stomach is churning and I can’t sleep and I have a million things to do still.

You would think by this point I’d be old-hat, used to it.  I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal.  I think it’s the newness: the camping I’ll need to do; the long distances without towns or villages; the remote roads of South America - quite a different story than the bustling towns and friendly farmers of Vietnam or Cambodia!

Of course, I do have one thing to look forward to (besides, like, the going to Buenos Aires and traveling for eight months thing) - I’ll be flying first class!  Hooray frequent flier miles! 

Once I’m on the plane, blissed out in first class, relaxing… once I’ve landed, once I’ve biked a day, I’ll be in a routine and the nerves will go away. I’ll know I can do it, or at least try. But right now, all I can think about is all the reasons I shouldn’t go - all the things that could go wrong.

I suppose this is the hard part of traveling!