from rscottjones

Following up last month’s post with a similar one for September.

We started the month at an unlikely venue—a ballpark! We met up with our good buddy Doc, who was in town to watch his Dodgers play the Dbacks. We always enjoy catching up with him and we had plenty to talk about since we saw him in April in New Orleans.

We made it to Passport Health to get a medical assessment of what vaccinations we need for our upcoming 100-day trip. Here’s our country list, it’s a doozie—and so is the list of vaxxes we need for the trip.

Oooh, be careful what you offer, Walgreens! After paying an ungodly amount of money at Passport Health for the shots we need, I decided to do some sleuthing about how to get some of them covered by insurance. After a ridiculous number of phone calls and in person visits with insurance companies, our local pharmacy, and doctors, I was able to make it all work. I have probably talked with Walgreens Pharmacy (shout out to Chris!) no fewer than 50 times in this whole ordeal.

I haven’t been involved in any national monument campaigns this cycle, but that didn’t stop me from heading over to Arizona Wilderness Brewing to grab a couple of beers they had on draft—one celebrating the 60th birthday of the Wilderness Act, and another in support of the proposed Great Bend of Gila National Monument, a place I believe is quite worthy of permanent protection.

This summer has been pretty weird, as we’ve stayed in town nearly every weekend. In “normal” years, we’d have been traveling on at least one longer out-of-state trip and camped most weekends. Boy…I could use some time away (yes, yes, I know it’s coming). That said, one of benefit of being in town is that I finally got to try the Friday Fish Fry at Wren Südhalle, our favorite local brewery. Damn, it’s probably the best fish and chips I’ve had.

Jen spent much of the month still working down in Tucson, and I made a few trips down to keep her company after work. For me, the city is a weird mix of memories and foreignness. I was born and spent my early years there, then worked there regularly up until a decade ago—since which, much has changed. Both Jen and I have been reminded by how much we enjoy Phoenix so much more—though I wish we had more Eegee’s up here.

Another big focus of the month has been on finding appropriate travel clothes for our trip. We have limited space, irregular laundry days, and have to deal with a range of conditions across four different continents, so what we pack really matters.

And it’s something we need to get nailed down asap, as we’re planning to ship off all our clothes to be professionally treated against mosquitoes. Skeeters and water contamination are the two biggest threats we face on the trip.

We finally got our camera situation sorted out for the trip, which involved buying a Nikon z50 for Jen and a new lens for Scott. We still have a number of accessories to snag, but at least we have the general equipment in hand.

My usual weekly kayaking routine has simply not worked out this summer, which has been a big bummer. So I spent each of those Thursdays at the Südhalle doing some work on the trip and socializing with other regulars. It opened one year ago but quickly became our go-to spot.

That’s it for September!

I agree with Annie’s assessment of feeling alive:

Because, I guess, not only do I want some amount of challenge but I want challenges that I choose, not just the random ones that happen.

Self-prescribing challenges—and then meeting those challenges? Yeah, that’s some good stuff. The liquor of empowerment, a sense of efficacy in the world. A feeling that you can, indeed, do hard things.

We had this feeling recently as our 4+ year challenge to devise a 100-day overseas trip finally came to fruition. While daunting, it’s also made us feel a bit more alive. That, yeah, we can pull off some cool shit. That we have choice in this world, and perhaps even in how things play out. We’ve re-inspired ourselves.

I’ve also learned (though I still don’t quite believe) that achievement is not the endgame here. The outcome is unimportant. The benefit comes from the process of tackling the challenge, doing the difficult things it asks of me. It makes me feel alive. It’s exhilarating. And exhilaration is worth pursuing, or at least exploring. Feeling alive is where it’s at. Not feeling good (although that’s nice, too). Feeling alive. Sometimes feeling alive doesn’t feel good. But it’s still good, somehow.

That sorta sums up many of my travel quests. Is it exactly fun flying around the whole damn world just to get to some tiny specks on the globe? Trying to visit every single goddamn county in the US? Nope, not really. Travel often includes significant discomfort, boredom, hardship, anxiety, and unease. Much of the value of one’s travels occurs later, sometimes years later, when those good moments are recalled, or perhaps finally appreciated.

It’s not because of the resulting achievement, though. It’s because you did the thing. You experienced it. You lived it. It was something new, and it changed you. The process of doing, of enduring, of experiencing, of growing…that is, indeed, “where it’s at.”

When I finished my nearly-lifelong quest to visit all 400+ national parks in the US, I expected to feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment. I had made it, completed something very important to me, and also something quite rare. When I followed it up a few months later by being the first person to visit all 490 Treasured Places? You’d imagine that I was over the moon with joy.

Nope, not really. Sure, I was proud of doing all that. But living was being in the middle of it, not having done it. That’s what was exciting, that’s when you felt more alive. Accomplishments were in the past, and being alive…well, that’s in the present.