MSP: The First Transport is Away

MSP Airport, MN, USA

There are signs that it's time for the Tip to Tundra tour to begin. But they weren't the portents I was looking for. Would it be too much to have a dream of trekking through the jungled hills of Laos, or to stumble on an article about ponies in Mongolia? How about a break in the clouds with a beam of light shining from the West?

I get the raw, unprocessed portents. My bike got a flat tire on the way home from work yesterday. I was hopeful and in a hurry, so I cycled a further quarter mile. It will stay flat all summer. A sink stopped and in snaking it out I broke the pipes -- in two places. Kind of puts the ha in handyman. But I wasn't defeated -- I went to get the replacement pipes, only to leave them leaky and in need of a real plumber. Closing one of my handy zippy things, the zipper came off in my hand. I had to sit down. Sitting down I remembered all the office things that still needed done. I got 4 hours of sleep last night to help get as tired as possible when I got on the plane this afternoon. I'm clumsy and whiplashed.

It's not like this departure snuck up. Back in April I imagined there would be this clean break between the spring in the U.S. and summer in Asia. Starting today. Looks like life wants me to have mixed drinks, a cocktail of quotidian professor-all stuff intermixed with train reservations and tropical weather.

If that's what I get, I guess that's what I'll take.

A few numbers for posterity:

1: outfit sprayed with ecocide supposedly to repel mosquitos

2: copies of passport besides the original, stored in various bags

2 and 2: shorts and long pants

2.5: total TB storage across various devices and cards

3: lenses for my iPhone camera (yeah, I'm geeking out)
3.5: months on the road

4 and 5: t-shirts and underwear
6: graduate students left to fend for themselves over the summer (chin-up, guys, I know you got this.)

43: pounds of baggage. (Knowing that's just 20 kgs helps a little). It actually rattles in my backpack, but that's because my backpack is too big.

My step-father, Paul, was going to drive me to the airport later. With kisses and hard hugs the kids left for school this morning. Anita shed a tear on her way to work. Departures bring a tangy sentimentality. I miss them all already.

The departure is at hand.