From the beginning, the main goal of the Grand Tour has been about witnessing the majesty of the great outdoors. My first stop down that path was Roques de García, a route through a number of rock formations at the base of Tenerife's famous El Teide Volcano. Parking was a nightmare. It took me 45 minutes to find an open parking space in the small parking area that had about twice as many cars looking for a parking space as there were parking spaces. Once I found a spot, the hike was a pleasant one. The day was sunny and warm and the route was an easy stroll through a landscape that reminded me of the American West. The rock formations were interesting, but not as spectacular as something you'd see at Arches or Cedar Breaks. I enjoyed the views of the surrounding mountain ranges much more than the titular rock formations of the hike itself.

So, it turns out not all USB-C cables are the same. The one I brought does not work with my portable monitor. Having two screens for work is nearly essential to me, so this needed to be addressed. After scouering the internet for stores in Tenerife that may carry the cable, I was left empty handed. Amazon projected a two week wait time to ship the cable along with a shipping and import cost that was nearly $100 for a $25 cable. I needed a cheaper, more immediate solution. Luckily my portable monitor also supported the use of a mini-HDMI cable. A local big-box electronics store sold both a USB-C HDMI converter and an HDMI to mini-HDMI dongle. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the store I found out that the mini-HDMI dongle was out of stock. My next option was another store over an hour away in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Unwilling to make such a long drive, I started exploring the area near the big-box electronics store and stumbled across a tiny store that was filled with Hello Kitty phone chargers and sequined phone cases. After browsing their limited wares, I doubtfully asked the lady behind the counter if they had any HDMI to mini-HDMI cables. The lady behind the counter paused and then started rummaging through a cardboard box behind the counter. After a moment, she pulled out an ancient, dusty HDMI to mini-HDMI cable that was probably over ten years old and still sealed in its original plastic packaging. I don't think I'll look at tiny boutique electronics stores the same way ever again.

I, like many others, began working from home in early 2020. My company projected a return to the office some time later that year. The timeline for a return was delayed several times over until it was decided that we were never going back. The company did not renew its downtown Minneapolis lease in 2021 and I became a 100% remote-work employee. I thought briefly at the time that since I worked from home, I could work from anywhere. This thought was never more than daydream until the middle of 2022 when I suffered an acute ankle sprain. The sprain left me unable to place any weight on my right leg and made it incredibly difficult to be ambulatory. It also left me thinking about all the activities that were once easily available to me and which were now extremely difficult. This experience clarified for me that there were things I've always wanted to do during my lifetime that could not be achieved if the situation of my life changed. These were things that I had until that point never made time to accomplish. This revelation lead me to list all the things I wanted out of life and the situations that would make those things difficult or impossible. I was surprised that many of the things that I currently had as short-term goals were things that I could still accomplish with poor health, limited resources, and many responsibilities. Many of my long-term goals on the other hand required good health, some amount of financial resources, and little to no responsibilities. I had to re-prioritize my life. So, given this new view, one possibility rose to the surface as the best possible use of my immediate future. Travel. With my job, I was able to travel anywhere with an internet connection. I may not have such fortunate employment in the future. My relatively good health will probably not last forever and old age limits your ability to travel no matter how healthy you are. My responsibilities are currently minimal but a serious relationship or even family could be in my immediate future. I do not own any real estate even though I had planned to purchase land and build a house in the very near-term. Once I realized that travel was presently the best way to assure that the checklist of my life was accomplished, I decided to make it happen. I planned out a long trip that hit all the locations I'd always wanted to visit. I used historical weather to find the times of year those places experienced periods of pleasant temperatures and I decided that my main goal would be the exploration of all the beautiful sites that define them. I am very lucky to have this opportunity and I plan to make the most of it.

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Well, it's started. I spent the past week packing half my stuff and throwing or giving away the other half. I miscalculated the amount of time it would take to finalize everything in Minnesota and I ended up moving everything that I kept to a storage unit the same day that my flight departed to Tenerife. I do not recommend that anyone else attempt something similar.

I sold my car, gave away most of my furniture, and threw out a dumpster worth of stuff. I spent a lot of time considering how I was going to store my remaining possessions for an indeterminate amount of time. After some research, I found an amazing, completely-automated, storage facility. I signed up online and through their app I can unlock and open the individual storage unit along with a large garage door that provides access to a huge garage with a plethora of carts and dollies. The entire process from renting the unit to filling the unit took place without any other human contact. It might be a little overkill for my needs, but I wouldn't have been able to move and catch my flight the same day without it. I made it to my departing flight four minutes before they closed the gate.

I bought some noise-cancelling headphones for my travels and even after all the glowing reviews I read I was blown away by their ability to reduce the noise of the plane engines to a whisper. Voices and other higher pitched sounds remain clear. It is surprising how well the headphones can target specific frequencies to remove unwanted noise in otherwise noisy environments. I highly recommend them for anyone who flies a lot. Unfortunately, it looks like the model that I purchased has been discontinued and, from what I've heard, the new model is not as good as the old one overall.

When I flew into Amsterdam on route to Tenerife, I was required pass through passport control. This is where my new passport received its first stamp. I was in the queue for 45 minutes and only made it halfway through the line before my flight to Tenerife was prioritized and I was able to skip the rest of the queue. A system that allows you to skip the line if your flight is imminent seems ripe for abuse.

On my flight to Amsterdam, I saw what I thought was the moon through one of the passenger windows. At first this made sense. The time in Minneapolis was about 4am. But, the local time was about 11am, so it couldn't be the moon. It was actually the sun on the dark blue background of a light dimming window. Very cool.

Once I arrived in Tenerife, I waited in another long line to get my rental car then started the drive to higher elevations. After getting lost a few times and discovering that house numbers are not in order on this island, some very steep and narrow one-lane roads lead me to my Airbnb a few minutes after midnight. My hosts greeted me and showed me around then offered me a delicious late night dinner which I ate while watching fireworks around the coastline below in celebration of the New Year.

I finally have this new travel blog up and running. I have started numerous blog sites in the past but I never thought that I'd start a travel blog. In fact, I never thought I'd ever be so excited about traveling the world. I think the key was to think about travel with my own interests in mind and ignore the travel activities that the majority of the population engages in. I will use this blog to document the process from planning to execution of every aspect of my travels. Many plans are already in motion. I will be putting those plans into words in the very near future.