Pre-Colombia Trip Thoughts

There are a lot of thoughts that have been pouring through my head the last few weeks, some I’ve had and only dreamed of for years, decades.  Some are new, some are terrifying fears.  I need to get this all out because I am sure when I get back my feelings and thoughts then will be far different then they are today.  Where do I start?  I suppose this all started about twenty years ago when Jeff told me that Zinger was moved, or possibly a few years after that when he told me of a conversation at IAAPA with a staff member from the park where Zinger Is located telling me and us that yes, it really was operating there.

The truth is I never rode Zinger.  This wasn’t too big of regret until a day in 2003 when I sucked it up and rode Raven at Holiday World, my first real coaster that I enjoyed.  My mom had put me on a kiddie coaster at a tiny park in Riverside, Missouri when I was about four and it scared me to death.  That and I rode Octopus when I was 10, an experience I still remember in glaring technicolor detail, and it too cemented the fact that thrill rides and I just didn’t seem to go hand in hand.  That’s why I never rode Zinger, never rode Express, and I didn’t even ride Voyager until about the same time I rode Raven.  Finally, once I rode Raven I realized my fear was unfounded. And Oh what a fear it was.  Fear that caused me to stand in front of the Whizzer train, sitting there in the station, THREE times over TWO days (and one time that we went back specifically for me to ride it and I didn’t ride it then either!).  All those times everyone tried to get me to ride Zinger…. Even when I knew it was being removed.  How stupid could I have been? Fear is a powerful thing, but Regret.  Regret is a terrible thing.  So when I realized, probably 15 years ago that I had a chance to fix that regret, it was a powerful thought.  How often are we allowed the chance?

Still, it was Colombia. You know drug traffickers, jungle, civil war raging, didn’t sound like a good place to be.  At least that’s what they all told me.  I can’t remember when it began to change.  I do know that the first time either Jeff or I really looked at plane tickets to Colombia was when we moved to Florida and realized just how inexpensive it was to fly there.  It wasn’t like paying $1,000 one way to Rome from Kansas City.  It was maybe a little more than flying back to Kansas City from Florida.  Three years ago the crazy idea became a not-so-crazy idea and a real possibility.  Next, a year and a half ago I was checking out one of the News stores at the Orlando Airport, looking through the various books (I am a pretty avid reader), and saw a travel book for … Colombia.  Having never seen a Colombia travel book, I took this as a sign and bought it.

This is really were things went from really wanting to go to make it possible to really actually go.  I think that’s a line that gets grayed out in some perspectives, everyone has lots of things they really want to do, but lack the initiative to actually do them.  Thinking that there is plenty of time.  If there is one thing I have learned over the years is that you never know how much time you really have, every day is a gift, because you never know what tomorrow will hold.

Originally, when I first started seriously looking at planning a trip I was incredibly overwhelmed. I will admit it was helpful having two co-workers actually from Colombia, but the idea of planning a trip to a country, let alone a continent I had never visited, that spoke a language I could, at best, fumble through didn’t lend itself to confidence in myself.  That and the fact that I knew this wasn’t going to be cheap.  Originally our plans were summer of 2018, which became fall of 2018, and by the time December hit I felt like it was never really going to happen.  Then I found a company called Colombian Way.  They organized tours throughout Colombia.  I contacted them through e-mail, asking about the possibility of arranging a custom tour, and well… yes, they could and yes we are.

The night we booked the plane flight was probably one of the most surreal experiences ever… 15 years after I had begun talking about it… I was doing it.  Really.  In fact even the last few weeks have been kind of the same surreal feeling.  I'm doing it. REALLY doing it.  I have gone from the 18-year-old girl terrified of everything coasters, Haunted Mansion, and her own shadow, to one that has run 8 marathons, battled breast cancer, hiked Angel’s Landing and moved halfway across the country… Nothing can stop me now.  It’s exciting and still just a bit terrifying.  I would like to think that while I have surmounted the fear of riding a roller coaster, I still have to surmount the overall fear of once again stepping into the unknown and once again beating a fear, hopefully fixing a great regret, and having a great time doing it.  Here’s to #350!