Three Months, Gone in a Flash

Week of January 26

Feb 01, 2025

I’ve sat down to write this post at least four different times now, starting on November 17th, but nothing I write seems to match the experience of these last three months. I chucked it all into the “drafts” folder and started over.

It has been a deeply introspective time: spent in wintry hibernation, mostly, mixed with listening to the small voice within, plus a touch of preparing for the looming end of my year off of work (can you believe I only have 6 weeks left? I can’t.).

I could tell you that I have spent a lot of the time since my last post sick in bed, or that I had a long period of strong anti-social / anti-social media sentiment, but I’ve learned that these topics interest no one. Honestly, it bores me, too.

And so, we will focus instead on my traveling, unraveling, and marveling.

Travel Update

Part 1: Turns Out I Actually Don’t Like Solo Road Trips

After Scotland, I came home in early November and readied for what I thought would be an epic road trip until the end of my year-off in March 2025. Since I promised not to talk about illness, I will skip the part where my departure was delayed almost 2 weeks by a bad cold, and jump right on to the part where I loaded up the car on November 20th, with Trixie, my kayak, & camping gear, to head south to the Florida Keys, then eventually onward out to California.

I honestly can’t remember why (weather, maybe?), but instead of taking the more direct route down the west coast of Florida, I drove across the Appalachian Mountains to South Carolina, and then down the east coast of Florida. I broke up the 17+ hour drive by stopping along the way, camping at first because - up until then - we had had a very mild autumn in the Southeastern US. I quickly ditched that plan when the temps suddenly and surprisingly dipped into the 20s at night, and Trixie spent each night whining, crawling into my sleeping bag when she was cold and out again when she was hot. So, after camping in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and then Congaree National Park, we switched to hotels and I was very grateful for central heating and hot water!

Trixie hates the cold even more than I do, look at that face!

I made another overnight stop on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia and admired the impressive Driftwood Beach, then continued south to West Palm Beach, which is where I grew up. I hadn’t been back in almost 20 years (!!!), and it was wild to have all kinds of memories come rushing back. A lot of things were the same, and a lot of things were different, too. I was mostly surprised at how small my hometown felt, even though it’s not small at all.

Jekyll Island is definitely worth a visit

I stopped in Miami to see dear friends, and finally made it to Key West, the southernmost point in the continental US. I had booked 2 nights at a lovely B&B, but had made no further plans. I just sort of bopped around the Florida Keys based on the weather, my mood, and what hotels were available. I then headed north to Sanibel Island on the Gulf of Mexico (yes, I said it, and it’s still Denali, too), which is still recovering from a direct hurricane hit in 2022, until it was nearing the Christmas holidays and I decided to return home to Tennessee. At the time, I thought I would pop in for an early holiday celebration with family before continuing my trip westward.

Mother Nature was really in her glory (are we still doing #nofilter ?)

Upon returning home, however, I (::mumbles:: got sick again and) realized how completely drained I was from driving by myself for thousands of miles. I love road trips…but only when someone else is driving. 😅 I had learned this lesson when I bought an RV trailer during the pandemic, going full send on remote work, but I always thought it was because driving an SUV plus 21ft trailer was so difficult. After I spent a week in Mississippi surviving tornados and flash floods, and having nearly everything break on the trailer that possibly could, I sold it and sighed in relief. Four years later, it turns out I just don’t like solo road trips, regardless of what I am driving.

A few snaps of #vanlife that make it look better than it is, ha!

Once I arrived at my parent’s house, I was truly repulsed at the thought of getting in my car again, and nixed my previous plan of driving to California and then leaving for Antarctica from there in early January. And so, I looked around for somewhere I could go for roughly 3 weeks until I need to return to Tennessee to pack for Antarctica. And so, my idea to fly to Santa Fe, New Mexico - with Trixie in tow - was born.

Part 2: Turns Out Altitude Sickness is Real

A fun fact about Santa Fe is that it sits at the terminus of the Rocky Mountains, and is at an elevation of over 7000 feet, towering over Denver which is *only* a mile high (::scoffs::). I had lived there before for several years and must have adjusted almost immediately back then, because the altitude sickness I felt this time around was straight from the depths of hell and something I would have absolutely remembered when I was making plans for this trip.

I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t breathe…all I could do was lie in my hotel bed and order DoorDash (god bless the Dashers who kept me from starving to death!) the few times I wasn’t nauseated. I was supposed to be there for 2.5 weeks - ample time to see friends - but at day 10, I decided it was time to hit the eject button. I changed my flight and, after my one and only outing of a quiet dinner with Bestie for NYE, Trixie and I flew back to Tennessee on January 1. I can’t wait to move out of my current hometown, but I was never so glad to see it as I was on that Wednesday.

Part 3: Turns Out Antarctica is Even More Amazing than I Expected

I was halfway through writing about my trip to South America and Antarctica (continents 3 & 4!), when I realized this post was getting really long. I will send out a separate post on Antarctica soon because it really deserves its own story, and I know a lot of people were asking for specific travel tips. Plus, that way, I have more megabytes for all of the pictures I want to share!

Antarctica was absolutely life-changing, and the cherry on top of my year off. I have only about 6 weeks left, and I have been slowly leaving my state of denial over this fact, thinking about where I want to move and what kind of job I want. I am not sure I will be moved and have a job by the one-year mark - March 18 - but that’s ok. As a result, Antarctica may be my last major trip of this gap year.

I had additional things I wanted to do this year - like yoga teacher training, and visiting Japan and Australia - but I am happy to leave those for years to come. After all, if I did *everything I ever wanted* in this single year, not only would I be exhausted, but what else would I have to look forward to…?

And so, I will leave you with a few teaser photos from what was easily the best trip of my life. Be on the lookout for an Antarctica post to hit your inbox soon!