Category: Expedition

Travel Is Complicated…Who Knew?

February 19th, 2026

I’m not really starting a travel agency but I feel like I could run one of late since that’s all I seem to have been doing the past few days..weeks…months. As I strolled along a trail on my daily walk/limp the other day, I started thinking about how making travel arrangements has changed over the past half century (I’m really old).

When I first started working, back in 1978, we actually had travel agencies that took care of everything – you picked up a phone (a land line of course), told a real person where you wanted to go, and magically, an envelope with tickets and an itemized itinerary showed up on your desk or mail box. As online capabilities for reserving airlines and hotels appeared a decade or two later, the burden of travel reservations slowly moved away from travel agencies to the travelers. Hotels and airlines ramped up on reward programs, which likely accelerated the migration for both corporate and personal travel to online reservations. Reaching frequent flyer goals, such as 100K with United, became something of a game for IT consultants – increasing points outweighed getting to your destination so that flying to Chicago from Denver with stops in Seattle and Fargo made perfect sense.

When we first got married (1975…I told you I was really old), vacation travel for us was just hopping in a car and staying with friends and family, or looking for the cheapest hotels. We rarely traveled anywhere by plane, and there were travel books that listed hotels along highways and various destinations. AAA was great for planning trips. Once we both started working, we relied on our company travel agencies until the Internet made everything available online, and then we both became pretty adept at making reservations. We rarely did long-term planning – sometimes we just decided (usually after a glass or two of wine) to head off to somewhere – Ireland, Italy, Maui. No problem – we just pulled out our laptops and coordinated on hotels, cars and flights. The one time we used a travel agency, we wound up in separate seats on a long flight to Tahiti. But after that experience, we always handled all of our own reservations.

Jan and I were a pretty good team at most everything we did together, except for tennis. That’s a long and painful story which I’ll share if I ever start drinking again. So now that she’s gone, travel reservations are just one more formerly shared task that I now have to do solo. Bummer. Given the number of trips I have been scheduling, this has become something of a necessary burden, especially for some of the more distant destinations (now that I’m a world traveler).

Up until recently, I’ve been focusing on just two tour companies for my adventures, and both of these, National Geographic/Lindblad and Natural Habitats/World Wildlife Federation, have travel agents who take care of pretty much everything. It’s just like the good old days – I speak to a real person, provide them with what I’m looking for in terms of flights and they take care of everything. For example, on my Grizzly Bear trip with Natural Habitats, I wanted to get there a day early to see a bit of Kodiak on my own, and then stay in Anchorage for a few days rather than heading straight home. The Natural Habitats agent worked it all out for me. All I have to do is figure out where I want to go in Kodiak and Anchorage. I did something similar with my first trip to Iceland, arriving two days early so I can visit a weird volcanic chamber, and maybe go snorkeling in the continental rift. All I had to do was reserve my extra-curricular activities – National Geographic took care of the rest.

So up until now, my life as my own travel agent has been pretty easy. But now I’m making my own life more complicated. There are quite a few touring/cruise companies that cover the Arctic and Antarctic, and not all of the smaller ones have their own travel agency. The hard part though is comparing each of the tours – how large are the ships, number of passengers, solo cabin size, comfort features on the ship. The larger ships are usually more luxurious, but with more passengers, the excursions are more crowded and require staggered scheduling. The smaller ships on the other hand, may not have as many creature comforts (hot tubs for example), but you get to spend more time doing what you came for. Finding reviews is important as well – I was keen on going with one particular company for the Svalbard trip, which emphasized how they welcomed solo travelers on their web site. The reviews told a different story, so I went with another small-ship company.

One complication with the small companies is trip insurance – it’s a necessary rip-off, since most foreign destinations require at least minimal coverage for emergency medical and evacuation services (including shipping your body home…never mind, lets not go there). The larger companies offer insurance as part of a package, which you pay with the final invoice. With smaller companies, you are on your own, and usually have to pay within 15 days of the initial deposit. Ouch.

So now that I’ve settled on this one particular cruise company (Poseidon) for two of my trips to obscure, far away places, I’ve discovered that there are some good reasons for using travel agencies. The first trip I booked with Poseidon travels to the Falkland and South Georgia Islands (penguins!!), and starts and ends from Ushuaia. Now that was easy with National Geographic/Lindblad – they had a charter flight from Santiago Chile, where we stayed at a Four Seasons for one night. As it turns out, all other scheduled flights go out of Buenos Aires, and for most of them, you have to switch airports. OK, complicated but I can figure that one out – it may require an overnight at a hotel airport, but I’m good with that. I’ve already done that a couple of times, where I fly to a major hub, stay at a nice hotel near the airport, and then take an early flight to my destination. That way I’m not as rushed and exhausted when I get there.

The next trip later in 2027, is a nightmare. I really wanted to go to Svalbard, Norway after seeing a series on Apple TV, The Long Way Home (worth watching). This is truly one of the most remote spots in the world, accessible by plane via either Oslo or some really small city in Norway (Tromso). That makes it hard enough. But (there’s always a but for me) I’ll be finishing off a Natural Habitat photography tour in Iceland just before the start of the Poseidon one, and will be leaving from Reykjavik Iceland. There is no easy way to get to Svalbard – I will have to stay overnight somewhere in Norway, and may wind up stopping in Copenhagen to get there. I have a long time to figure it out, since I’m not leaving until July 4th, 2027…but I’m already worrying about it.

A few people have asked me how I manage all the travel arrangements for the many trips I’ve scheduled so far, and they are usually surprised that I’m doing this all on my own. I kind of surprise myself sometimes. It’s time consuming and sometimes frustrating, especially now that I have eight trips in 2026 to manage (…there’s still a few gaps), and then another five so far in 2027. I keep spreadsheets which lists costs, important dates and task reminders, but even with that, I find myself having to dedicate entire days sometimes for the initial scheduling of a trip, and then follow ups when I have to make payments or schedule airline travel. I have inserted automated reminders in my calendar for payment dates, and spend a lot of time checking out various excursions for my free days on the trips. For the first Iceland trip, I had already booked the magma chamber (another cave) trip, and had hoped to do a really weird one – snorkeling in a continental rift zone. In really cold water. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the tour operators do not book anyone with any type of heart disease. Kind of makes sense – that’s why I have declined the “polar plunge” opportunity twice. So I’m doing a half-day tour to see Puffins instead. Safer I guess, and those little guys are so cute. Sort of like penguins that can actually fly.

Not my photo…I wish it was

I’m not really complaining about any of this – it’s kind of hard to bitch about traveling this often, to so many strange places, and it’s not like I’m pressed for time any given day when I’m not traveling. In some ways, it is sort of like a work replacement, without the free food.

Two days and I’m off to Baja and the friendly Grey Whales. I did not get to pet one the last time I was down there. This time for sure.

Peace

February 20, 2026
Adventure Travels with Neuropathy

Forest Gump Magic Brace

February 5th, 2026

I was not really planning on doing any more posts until my trip to Baja, but this topic started bouncing around in my head for a while. Plus, I’m kind of stuck at home today, forcing myself to TAKE IT EASY (I hear my wife’s voice every now and then), after having an RFA procedure done on my knee yesterday (Radio Frequency Ablation) which should in theory eliminate the pain which has kept me off the tennis courts for over a year, and causes me to mutter a lot of nasty words while I’m hiking down hill. I won’t go into details on those words, but might as well discuss RFA just a wee bit. Basically, they stick electrodes into the knee joint, placed where the three nerves in the joint terminate, and then use heat to de-sensitize them. The procedure is mostly painless, other than the 3 or 4 shots of lidocaine they inject. I was able to drive myself home, and just had to put up with soreness and stiffness in the knee last night. I should be up and around by tomorrow. I might even head back to the Cosumnes Preserve again.

So this is how you know you have reached the point in life where you are considered elderly – you talk about your pains and medical procedures with friends and complete strangers. “Hi, my name is Rich. Want to hear about the procedure I just had on my knee?” I sit around at the tennis club with the other older players, and the conversations inevitably turn to everyone’s latest medical adventures. How did this happen? It’s called getting old.

But now, here’s where this gets back into the heading topic. Many years ago, I started getting numb areas in my feet and lower legs. I eventually mentioned it to my doctor, who sent me off to a neurologist. The first thing they do is an EMG test, which is a really fun procedure where a sadistic tech sticks needles into your legs and arms, and then hooks these up to an electrical source. Think of a combination of acupuncture with electro-shock therapy. “This might hurt a little” No kidding (expletive deleted). Then they use a small cattle prod to do the same thing, but at least warn you when they go from low to high. All of this to tell you what you already know – you have neuropathy, which has no cure. I’ve had this procedure three times now. I think that neurologists do this for fun.

At any rate, the numbness does get worse over time as the long nerves continue to degenerate. Losing feeling in your feet does have a major impact on stability…..not a good thing when you really enjoy hiking, which is one of the activities I enjoy in my travels. Bummer. The funny thing is that it does not affect me going uphill. I did the 2798 steps going up the Manitou Incline. No problems at all (other than the 2798 steps). Going down is a problem though, especially on rough trails. Antarctica had it’s moments as well – I did fine on most of the shallow, snow packed slopes, but bailed out of going on some of the steeper outings. You just have to be realistic on what you are capable of. I also bailed out on one long, steep hike in Zion to the start of Angels Landing trail (never doing that), but managed to do well on all the others. Besides, my focus on most of these trips is more on photography than completing a climb (except for the Incline – I absolutely had to get to the top!). And in Antarctica, I got to stand around with penguins down by the shore instead of hiking up an icy trail to see more of the same penguins.

So, what can you do about this miserable numbness creep, when the focus of your life is “expedition” style traveling around the world? So far, I’m handling it pretty well. First of all, you have to accept the fact that right now, there is no cure – most of the ads you see for miracle cures on the internet are pure BS. Really. There are some supplements which can slow things down – Alpha Lipoic Acid helps primarily for neuropathy associated with Diabetes, which I don’t have. But I take it anyway, since it is an anti-inflammatory. Turmeric is also and anti-inflammatory, so I take that as well. Increasing some vitamins (B-Complex) is a component of a lot of the so-called cures, but you need to check with a physician first. Too much is not a good thing. And cutting back on alcohol is helpful. Right. I’ve already described my answer to that….the one glass a week thing.

The second thing I do is work on my balance, something recommended for most people as they get into their 70’s and 80’s when falling is a major cause for loss of mobility. There are a lot of great exercises for maintaining core strength, as well as the ability to maintain balance. I have a few exercises which focus on standing on one leg for a minute or two. It looks weird when I do these at the club, but it really does help. And if I ever get stopped for an alcohol check, I’ll just show off to the officers and ask them if they can do the same. Just focusing on walking in a straight line when you go on walks helps (unlike a certain 79 year old president who meanders around like an inebriated duck).

And lastly, there are some devices which help with another issue associated with neuropathy – drop foot. This is a problem where the muscle which keeps your foot pointed up as you walk, does not function well or at all. It causes you to drag your toe, or in my case, flop down. Jan had it for a while, caused by impingements in the spine. Hers had a cure. Mine is due to neuropathy, impacting the signals from the brain to that muscle. So, aside from more exercises, I have my handy-dandy Forest Gump brace, which I wear for long walks. It’s a light-weight, carbon-fiber thing that fits under the foot in a shoe, and keeps the foot from falling. It does work, and you get used to it after a few times wearing it. It looks weird though when I’m wearing shorts, but I can use it as an excuse for early boarding on flights. A silver lining to a crummy cloud. No touch of grey though (Grateful Dead reference in case you were wondering). I did order another brace I’ve seen on the internet, which does not have the attachment up on the calf. I tried one on and it seems to work – but it’s made in China, distributed by a bunch of shell companies in Hong Kong, and takes forever to receive the order since it’s shipped from China and has to go through customs. The one I received had some issues, so I returned it and ordered another from a different shell company. I hope this one works better.

Not my foot or photo

There is one more critical piece of the stability puzzle for hiking – hiking sticks. I’ve been using them for decades, and now own 3 pair (one was Jan’s). I usually just use one stick on most hikes – that’s good enough to provide extra balance on most trails. I throw both in my luggage just in case there are rocky stretches of trails, or a lot of steep sections. Bryce Canyon was like that, as were some of the lava rock trails in the Galápagos Islands. Better to be safe than bloody with broken bones from a fall. And now they have collapsing hiking sticks, sort of like tent poles. These would be great for trips where there are limitations on luggage size and weigh, so I see these as a future purchase from REI, once I get my annual refund check. A big shopping day will be coming up in March!

So, this year and next will be a big test on how I cope with this annoying condition. I’m probably OK until summer, when I’ve got the first Iceland trip which is not a cruise. Lots of hiking, but I’m ramping up my distance with the brace on, and should be OK. No mountains to climb, other than a volcanic cone to get to the magma chamber, a highlite for me. The Kodiak trip has a lot of hiking as well, but all on flatland, wearing waders. My foot won’t be a problem there. Grizzly bears yes, hiking no. Same for Patagonia, and another cruise in the Sea of Cortez. Local hikes are always relatively short, and once again, I did not win the Wave lottery, which might have been a challenge. Maybe next year or fall of this year.

Now 2027 will be interesting, assuming the condition does not worsen. Madagascar and my second trip to Iceland both involve a lot of hiking – but I intend to keep increasing the distance I cover with the brace, so I should be OK for that. I’m holding off on scheduling into 2028 until early next year. This will be a year-by-year check from now on. I’m not getting any younger.

And maybe Google will finally come out with those rocket boots that Larry Page promised as a Christmas bonus one year. Now that would really help.

Peace

February 5, 2026