You also have to be able to take obstacles and changes of plan in stride and laugh at them later.
I'm good at that too.
When we were living in South America and flying back and forth to the US I always tried to get cheap flights. So we were on the Atlantic coast of Brasil and I saw the plane tickets that were cheapest left from Santiago, Chile near the Pacific Coast. Andes running down the middle of the continent? No problem (in theory.)
So we went and got a bus. Are you going to Buenos Aires Argentina, I asked? (The intermediate point). Yes, and we hopped on the bus, my son then about 14.
Well, after the bus crossed brasil into argentina it went up to almost Paraguay, before it turned around and went South. We had doubled at least our time on the road. Not to mention all of the other travel across brasil, across Argentina East to West, across the Andes, and across Chile--which is not that wide. The Brasil to BA part which should have taken 14 hours took 35.
But we went through places that were in the 19th century with gauchos. We entered another time and place. Well, if that was not enough, I had forgotten to change money at the border. We had no food. My son began to cry on the bus. People gave him food he could not eat (like with Manioc.) I felt like a child abuser to put my son in such a position. Except looking back he loved it too. (But believe me, not at the time.)
And then finally somehow we got money and the bus left us off at a place in the middle of nowhere that was like a saloon in the old west, with dust clouds and gauchos. And we had the most delicious steaks cooked over wood and salad with red wine vinegar and red wine that I have had in my whole life.
And then after we rested in BA for a night we continued on the bus over the Andes in the winter, another 20 hour journey. Counting all the nights in hotels I probably paid double for these cheap flights. But I got to see Chile--did not like it much, surprisingly. The people seemed more competitive with a harder edge than either Brasil or Argentina. Santiago is very cosmopolitan like a smaller NYC. I was intimidated.
A mistake turned into a magical memory. A highlight of my life. The part where we went down the spine of Argentina.
I want to go on the road too, but we are afraid to drive!!