¡Chile Sí! ¡Eclipse No! Day #1 “Why Am I Crying?” 12/7/2022

Patrice and I are leaving for our vacation in Chile.  I should be excited, happy, and full of anticipation but no, I am on the verge of tears.  Is it because our airport transport person is a terrible driver and I want to strangle her?  In reality, she is a wonderful driver and a gorgeous young lady.  She is the reason I’m close to tears.  You’ve probably already guessed that our driver is our daughter, Erica. Unfortunately in two days, she will be returning to Madrid.  I just need to be grateful that she is healthy and enjoying her life in Spain.  Easy to say, hard to do.

Robert, Patrice, and Erica at LAX, smiling now but just seconds before tears come streaming down my face.

You might be asking “Why Chile?”   Good question.  The answer is a bit complicated. In August 2017 we traveled to Nashville to see the solar eclipse on the 21st.  We saw about 97% but clouds prevented us from seeing the totality.  So in December 2020, we planned to go to Chile to see this glorious event on the 14th.  Unfortunately, Covid 19 closed down the world and one more time we were denied this pleasure.  The company told us the hotels would not refund our deposits which was not an insignificant amount of money. So they kept in contact with us and now we are on our way.  The tour company comes very highly recommended. They have set us up with lots of fun activities but unfortunately, they failed miserably in their attempt to get the eclipse rescheduled.  

This is just a travel day and we haven’t even left Los Angeles yet. I’m hopeful that you enjoy following us on our journey.  I do have one small request.  My financial advisor told me that if I had one million followers on my blog I could write off all my trips as a legitimate tax deduction.  I currently have about 250 followers.  So if each of you could call, email, or text 4,000 of your friends and relatives I should be all set.  Do you think you could get this done by Monday?  Erica just had a great idea.  No need to bother your friends and family. If you have their contact information just sign them up for a blog subscription.  I am sure that will be very grateful. Heck, think of it as a holiday present to them.  It shouldn’t take you more than about 100 hours to get 4,000 people signed up. Get to it, we need to board our plane otherwise I would offer to help.

Hasta luego.