Road Trip IV, Days 22-25

Si yo tuviera mi diccionario, explicarìa esto en Español. But while I did manage to swing by a bookstore in Ashevile, NC long enough to grab a Lonely Planet: Puerto Rico, I somehow forgot the dictionary part. Luckily just about everyone speaks English here, so our pathetic Spanish is getting us by.

But hold on here. What happened to the Road Trip?! Last post, The Mate and I had entered North Carolina. Wasn’t that, like, the whole point of the journey? A pilgrimage trip to watch the ACC tournament with our buddies from our former, southeastern life?

Yeah. About that.

Well, seem first of all, the ACC tourney isn’t until NEXT weekend. We knew that, alright? We’re not STUPID–just, you know, mildly bonkers eccentric. We had a plan for this pre-tourney week: drive up to Vermont to see our cousins and their new baby, or, if the weather was too bad (’cause, you know, it IS only March, and like I said, we’re not STUPID), then visit our friends and see some sights in DC. (“Michelle! I’m in town! Wanna grab a cuppa?” Sigh. If only. I adore our First Lady.)

ANYway. If you live anywhere east of the Rockies, you know what happened next: Winter Storm Titan. (When did they start naming winter storms, for goodness’ sake? Titan??)

Not only was New England out of the question, so was DC. So, for that matter, was NC, which is, as of this writing, back under snow. Snow was NOT on our itinerary, unless it came with a mountain under it, and a lodge to repair to after snowshoeing. We’re on VACATION, damn it.

Last year, when the weather turned nasty, we spent a week discovering Florida. We are not Disney-minded people, so it was all about the ecosystems, and it was great. But not great enough to do it again. And, y’know, Puerto Rico is as close to a 51st state as we have, and we’ve been to all 50 of the others, so…

So we did something we never before dreamed of doing: bought airline tickets one day, got on the airplane the next. And here we are.

!!!!!! ¡¡¡¡¡

So far we’ve been exploring the rain forest of El Yunque, where among the first things I did was to knock my camera into a pool. The good news is, I got a couple of pics before this happened. The bad news…well, after my poor camera’s finished drying, I’ll know whether the news is truly bad. For now I’m gonna do like Scarlett O’hara and think about that tomorrow.

But a broken camera can’t begin to stand up to the nighttime frog chorus here, or the mangoes. Or mofongo, which is almost as much fun to eat as it is to say. Or the SUN.

I am really and truly trying to send some sun to those of you who need it–that’s just about everyone except you Californians and desert dwellers–and I really and truly am not trying to incur envy. I turn Wing’s World into a temporary travel blog and hey, look what happens. If envy does occur, don’t worry–I’ll be back in the nice, soggy northwest soon enough.

But I have to ask: have you ever gone on a spontaneous trip? Where to? Or are you more like me (under normal circumstances), always liking to plan everything?