Route Planning

I screwed up yesterday  and didn’t hit the “post” button after I set the page to publish automatically in the early hours of the morning. It happens.

I am living a distracted life, too much time to think, too little travel, too little external stimulation coming through the windshield at me. 

Even Rusty seems to be shrinking his circle of interest on our walks. He travels less over ground familiar to him and all the area around the apartment complex is familiar to him. 

He sleeps a lot, he sheds a fair bit and he goes grayer daily. But there again there are cliches about the passing of time and he’s no more exempt than am I. 

GANNET2 has a working second alternator. A $700 280 amp Bosch made in Brazil is spinning merrily. And if it should fail it will be replaceable we hope in South America without mechanics throwing up their hands saying “this is North American!” in despair. 

Our new 12 volt rooftop air conditioner has arrived. Once installed the overall height of the van should drop from 9 feet to 8’6”” which should help us squeeze into a container without removing it. Plus it should help us save electricity to let us camp in the wilderness longer when we get our new more powerful solar panels installed. 

Christmas is coming, that time of year when the planet shuts down for a few days. I am retired so I find weekends interfere with the smooth running of my week and summer vacations clog my favorite unruffled spaces. Sharing my retirement with the workers…what a drag. 

I’m one of the lucky retirees, the ones that like it, that enjoy stepping out of the daily hustle. Becoming socially irrelevant is my ambition fulfilled. 

It’s not all light happiness and joy and retirement for me seems to thrive on motion. We fulfilled my ambition to drive the Guyanas but the reward for that hard work was going to be camping time on the coast followed by electrical upgrades planned for Uruguay. 

The failure of the second alternator dinged beyond endurance on the awful roads of Amazonia changed our plans as the ship in Uruguay was fully booked through February and we now needed electrical work right away. 

And next to the mechanic was a shop ready to upgrade our electrical for us. And a former colleague of Layne’s had taken a job in Brasilia had offered us her spare room as we got sorted out. So here we are. 

I’ll tell you Brasilia is a relief after the heat and non tourist months spent exploring the far north and the Amazon River. At 3400 feet it’s not cold but it can be cool, breezy and dry after months of humidity. It rains but we are in a fully functional apartment with a terrace and we even have umbrellas to use when we wait for a chauffeured car to transport us. Uber is so easy to use to get around a city. 

Our departure date is supposedly going to be around the 23rd in a refurbished home ready to see wilderness in Patagonia in the last weeks of summer and the first weeks of Fall in Argentina and Chile. That’s the plan. 

Then in some manner not quite defined we plan to return to Brazil to go on safari in dry season, next July in the marsh called the Pantanal home to jaguars and things. Layne is trashy for that. Then at last we hope to see the beaches of Brazil about ten months from before we drive a final summer in Patagonia.

Then we shall start the year long slog to Mexico if we stick to this long range plan. 

That’s a rough plan and I confess I look forward a lot these days. I know I should live in the moment and all that but I really enjoy the nomad life. Apartment living is easy and comfortable but it doesn’t stimulate me. In retirement I get to be myself and myself is a nomad. 

We went to check up on GANNET2 currently waiting for a replacement windshield for the cracked replacement we got (and I’m hoping this is it, no third attempts for us I trust!). We then took an Uber home. 

Except Layne’s phone was charging and overheated and shut down. The car stopped. The driver said the Uber signal had stopped. He couldn’t continue with us. We gave him some cash and waited for his replacement. So…I took some pictures of the industrial zone of Paranoá.

And this is Alessandro’s 250cc Yamaha motorcycle which he uses to commute to his RV factory. Reminds me of me when I used to ride to work. 

Rusty likes his home time and expresses no interest in riding around with us which is just as well as there is no Uber Pets service in Brasilia. 

This restored Chevette is a member of the Chevette Club of Brazil if the bumper sticker in back is to believed. There’s a club for everything it seems like. 

Rusty’s revenge is to get me outbid the apartment for his evening walk. I don’t tell him but I’m quite happy to wander around in the dark morning or evening. 

It’s starting to feel like Christmas around here with lots of people everywhere. Walking in the dark feels good and solitary. Just like when we’re off sills camping aboard GANNET2.