Day 1: The Patagonia Adventure - Did You Get Out of Durango?
Day 1 - The start of our Patagonia Adventure - Thursday, 2/23/23
Tom and Sandy enjoy their first vacation drink after completing the first leg of their flights to Patagonia. Photos courtesy of their spouses, Kristi and Garrett.
“When is your Patagonia trip?”
This is a question we have been asked for a while. Two years in the making, it was planned with our adventurer friends, Tom and Kristi Reimers, and originally slated for February of 2022.
On a Zoom call (Garrett and me from our home in Durango, Colorado, and Tom and Kristi from their home in Omaha, Nebraska) we collectively decided to postpone a year and let COVID get through the testing mandates of early 2022. We made a pivot and did a Hawaii trip together last year instead. 2023 we were all on for Patagonia.
“When is your Patagonia trip?” they asked.
“Late February through early March!” we said.
“Oh, it’s late summer in Patagonia. How nice!” they said.
Well, our weather app disagreed. The closer we got to international departure, the more rain showed in our destination forecast. Group texts shared the outlook with some optimism.
“Weather isn’t looking great,” Garrett said.
“Doesn’t look like constant rain. Let’s call it a drizzle.” Kristi said.
Tom’s forecast: “Every day a little rain, quite a few clouds. Sun every other day for a few hours, but a lot of fun!”
Sandy said, “Love the positive vibes!”
Yes, we were carefully watching our weather apps going into this trip for both Patagonia and Durango. There was a big snowstorm hitting Durango the day we were to fly out as well. Step one was just getting out of town to start our trip.
The Durango forecast ended up being very accurate. The snow came and didn’t stop. As Garrett shoveled, we would get notifications that our flight was delayed. More shoveling led to another notification of more delays. Our dog went from excitement about playing in the snow while Garrett shoveled to sadness at seeing our packed bags. Garrett and I were equally confused about whether we would actually get out of Durango.
With fingers crossed and a lot of answering texts on our navigation out of the snowstorm, we flew out and made our Dallas connection. Tom and Kristi made it to Atlanta and with a virtual toast via texts (with no more checking on Patagonia weather), our adventure began.
Next step: Catch some sleep on our overnight flights and come together at the Santiago airport. Onward and upward to Day 2. We beat our first weather challenge.
No Patagonia dreams for Zeke. He is living his best life searching for balls back in the snow of Durango!
