So that wasn't so swift.  Those of you who follow the comments and are early readers may already know the big reveal when I accidentally spilled the beans in the comment section on the other channel.  

Or who knows?  Maybe you're having trouble keeping up and following this two track idea and I should just consolidate everything into a single thread before it's too late.  If you have opinions on that you should probably express them sooner than later when there's still not too much consolidation work to do.

And so maybe you don't know yet that we just discovered that we lost our passports  when we moved to our new AirBnB over a week ago.  Calling this stressful is a gross understatement, when we suddenly realized we might not be going to London after all.  Fortunately the miracle we needed occurred and the passports were found at the bottom of the bag of all much street clothes that have been also missing ever since we arrived here.  And in an instant, we're suddenly able to go to England again.

But a funny thing happened.  The fact that the question even came up was just the mental trigger for us to realize that going to London now is really a pretty poor idea.  The decision made perfect sense when we came home and found that we'd have to wait until next spring sometime to begin the knee replacement project.  Facing the prospect of spending the better part of two years in a country we're pretty displeased with, we decided we should go now back to Europe now while we still could.  We bought tickets to London, and envisioned staying in Europe through the end of the year.  It's hard to remember back that far now, but we  had tentative plans drawn up for nearly two months in England followed by a long stay in southern Spain that took in the whole coastline from Barcelona to Gandia, with Mallorca stitched in the middle.

And then of course, everything changed suddenly and drastically.  The rheumatologist convinced us that I needed to start transitioning away from cortisone nearly immediately, and then this acid trip came along to emphasize the point.  And bit by bit, as we came to terms with the travel constraints Tyenne will mandate, we started lowering our sights about what was possible.

And suddenly it's really clear to both of us that this is the wrong plan for the times we're in.  It's really much better if we just remain local while I transition off of prednisone completely, and we'll start hoarding our needles for a longer tour of England someday that takes in places that got scoped out by necessity - the Cotswolds, Exmoor, Dartmoor, the Jurassic Coast, and parts of Wales and further north that kept getting lopped off to fit in with our needle-defined box. 

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So if not England, now what?  It probably won't shock you to find that we have a candidate plan on the table that we're very enthusiastic about (natch - that's what TA is all about).  The short story is that when we leave Portland in three weeks we're going north, not east.  We're going to take the Amtrak to Bellingham and stay in an Airbnb near Fairhaven for a month - we've already booked it - and for part of that time we'll probably rent a car and get up near or across the border and visit folks who understandably don't plan to step on this side of the wall any time soon.

And after that the plan is to take the train to Tucson over the next three months, supplemented by rental cars - slowly, with extended stops along the way that we'll figure out as we go depending on conditions at the time.  We're booked for two months in Tucson starting on mid-December, so we have a lot of time to play with.

We've got a candidate list of eight or ten places that look like good spots along the way to hang out for a week or so.  For now we're just building a list of candidates and will figure it out as we go.  Just to give you an idea though, our candidate list includes Astoria, Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Yachats, Bandon, Gold Beach, K. Falls, Dunsmuir, Chico, the Redwoods, Half-Moon Bay, Mendocino, Santa Cruz, and finally San Luis Obispo where we'll catch the train east to Tucson.  in southern Oregon we'll have to decide whether to cut across to Eugene and take Amtrak east of the mountains or rent a car and drive the coast as far as the Bay Area where we can pick up the train line again.  Weather conditions will probably affect that decision when the time comes to make it.

So that's the plan.  You'll know where we're going next when we let you know, but for now our only commitment is that first four weeks in Bellingham, which sounds awesome to both of us - and then we'll take the train back to Portland for a week or two to check in with the doctors and friends before slowly working our way south.

So thanks again for muddling through our confusing lives with us.  And do speak up if you have thoughts on whether to shut down one of our two tracks.  At the moment my inclination is to do that, and let Cortisone Dreams expire when we finally make it out of the hospital and have slowed down a bit.  Something to sleep on.