Wanderlusters – or explorers, rebels, thrill-seekers, whatever you want to call them – who can’t sit still and have a constant itch to explore. Bruce and I knew that when we left Ecuador last trip, we had barely cracked this nut. We didn't know when we'd be back, but just that "back" would happen. As it turned it out, it was probably a fortuitous set of circumstances that made the return a bit sooner.
For one, 2015 was the year that rebuilt. It was the year that Bruce finally got cleared from his 3 year ordeal with the foot/ankle doc.They say the hardest thing about modern medicine is just entertaining the patient long enough for the body to heal itself. Somehow the hours of intense pain, gradually weakened as each month melted away. The good/painfree days now far out number the bad days, and the activities that aggravate the old injuries are much better mapped. It's not the same old normal. Rather it's a new normal.
The second fortuitous thing that made this trip possible, is that we had 2 free airline tickets on US Airways. However, US Airways didn't fly to Ecuador...well, they didn't fly to Ecuador until they merged with American Airlines. With the merger of the two airlines in the fall 2015, our free tickets now piqued our interest. However, anyone that has ever had had the 'joy' of using free airline tickets, knows that there are very few seats you can actually use them. We actually ended up booking them 4 months out, and luckily got really nice seat choices.
Lastly, 2015 was comprised of many mini-trips. It had almost felt like someone had cancelled your birthday in a sense. While there were many highlights such as going to Maine for a long weekend of Lobsters, Key West, or the long weekend of corner carving through West Virginia to the old Greenbrier bunker, we still had not satiated that inner monster. It's that inner monster that knows we have stolen from him. The inner monster that we owed that one long trip too.
For one, 2015 was the year that rebuilt. It was the year that Bruce finally got cleared from his 3 year ordeal with the foot/ankle doc.They say the hardest thing about modern medicine is just entertaining the patient long enough for the body to heal itself. Somehow the hours of intense pain, gradually weakened as each month melted away. The good/painfree days now far out number the bad days, and the activities that aggravate the old injuries are much better mapped. It's not the same old normal. Rather it's a new normal.
The second fortuitous thing that made this trip possible, is that we had 2 free airline tickets on US Airways. However, US Airways didn't fly to Ecuador...well, they didn't fly to Ecuador until they merged with American Airlines. With the merger of the two airlines in the fall 2015, our free tickets now piqued our interest. However, anyone that has ever had had the 'joy' of using free airline tickets, knows that there are very few seats you can actually use them. We actually ended up booking them 4 months out, and luckily got really nice seat choices.
Lastly, 2015 was comprised of many mini-trips. It had almost felt like someone had cancelled your birthday in a sense. While there were many highlights such as going to Maine for a long weekend of Lobsters, Key West, or the long weekend of corner carving through West Virginia to the old Greenbrier bunker, we still had not satiated that inner monster. It's that inner monster that knows we have stolen from him. The inner monster that we owed that one long trip too.
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As it turns out, it's not far off the truth. It seems that the inner monster has proper gene name "DRD4". So, with health and airlines in the correct alignment, there was nothing left but let the DRD4 gene guide us. In 1999, four scientists from UC Irvine published a paper titled “Population Migration and the Variation of Dopamine D4 Receptor (DRD4) Allele Frequencies Around the Globe” that explored the migration patterns and gene pool distribution of pre-historic human beings. They were originally researching for links between dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) and Attention Deficit Disorder. While conducting the study, they discovered another weird correlation: people with the DRD4 genes tend to be thrill-seeking and migratory.
Only a small portion of the human genetic pool contains this trait.
Only a small portion of the human genetic pool contains this trait.