By Phoenix I am referring to this trip. Let me back up a little.
Eighteen months ago I was ready to make final preparations to finally get this trip started. Initially when I completed my last trip in December of 2014 I had made a promise to myself that, at the time unbeknownst to me, I would break. That promise was that I would take a leave of absence, a sabbatical or maybe just quit every couple of years and take a long motorcycle trip. But promises were made to be broken apparently.
When I made this promise I was still driving a truck OTR (Over The Road). Over the road trucking refers to those truckers you see on the interstate running the lower 48 U.S. states with a sleeper cab. At the time of my last trip I was working for the largest OTR trucking company in the United States. It was where I got my start in trucking a few years earlier. My driver manager at the time told me that the chances of me returning to work for the company were good. She did not lie and once I returned from my last trip I was back with the same company within the month. I knew I had the flexibility to take another leave of absence, quit my job, and return. However things changed.
My mom got sicker with cancer, I left that original company I drove for, I moved to Virginia to be closer to my mom and started with another trucking company. Fast forward and I met someone at my cousin’s wedding, the new company was screwing me over with the route they promised and I decided to look for another driving job back in my home state of Jersey. I got that job, my present job, moved myself back up to Jersey while I took frequent trips back down to Virginia to spend time with my mom. My mom got sicker, I reacclimated myself to the Jersey lifestyle and dug in for a while. That promise of two years extended to three years and during that time my mom unexpected died completely devastated me. This promised trip became not much more than a dream as I focused on just making it through one day to the next as the original devastation spun into despair.
I had made the commitment to myself that I would finally make the trip this past year, in September of 2018. However, about a year ago, in December of 2017, I unexpectedly acquired the highest paying route in the company. This route that covered all of the stores in the snow-battered Buffalo/Syracuse/Rochester turned out to be my favorite. I loved the stores, the people, the drive and, of course, the money. I finally, after 20 years, was in a position to get ahead financially and pay off that nagging 20 year law school loan that has been haunting me year after year. So I made the very difficult decision that I would delay the trip at least one more year while I paid off the student loan and saved extra money. I sold out my dream for this position and it was one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make. It gnawed at me and the trip planning completely fell to the side.
That great route lasted about a year until December 2018 when I found out that the company would no longer be servicing those stores on my route and that I would go back to the less desirable routes the company offered. I love the company I work for, my boss is awesome, the guys I work with are fantastic and I’d still earn a great living. As 2019 rolled on I continued to plan for a September 2019 departure but I had more expenses than planned during 2019 and as summer came I realized that I had not hit my weight loss goal (a prerequisite to me) and I had not budgeted enough for a September trip. September came and went and I felt myself getting angrier, cranky, defeated and distraught over the thought of putting this adventure off yet another year. I spoke to my dad about this feeling and he came up with the solution. Take an extra few months to cut some weight, save some more money and leave at the New Year. As an added bonus, he explained, I would be leaving the U.S. during the coldest and darkest months and returning in the spring instead of the original plan that would have had me departing in the fall only to return from a glorious, sunny Central America to a bitter cold and dark New Jersey. Genius! Return in the spring along with the rebirth and renewal of a blossoming world. Why hadn’t I thought of this before?
So now, I’m about two weeks from departure. Money is still tight, I’m still pretty fat but, hey, there will never be a perfect time and there will always be excuses to delay. So…here we go!