Trip Log (Letter written April 14, 2008)

reh@knology.net — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:00:00 GMT

April 14, 2008, Monday

7:30AM On the road to Teguci.

9:30AM Calles Dr. Avilea. No answer. A little later, Jessica called to tell me that Fernando had called; the interview wasn’t taped. While on the line, she told me this is a national holiday so all businesses are closed. Am sure Dr. Avilea wasn’t thinking of the holiday. Guess I’ll miss him this time.

Am still not sure how to gauge “success”. If success is completing “to do” items that prompted the trip, than this certainly was not a success; as it turns out, most trips are not. If success is keeping the program moving along, than this was a successful trip. Possibly, another way to gauge success is by cost effectiveness. I suppose time will tell if we derive value for time and dollars spent.
Clark always counsels patience. I guess I would say that has been my mantra during this entire trip. Some part of patience is understanding where we started, where we are, and where we want to go. With that as a background, we look at the big picture. Any one event may or may not be successful; but as a whole we’re still doing pretty good; at least that’s my rational.

4:45PM Turned in rental car. End of day.

5:00PM Actually not quite the end of the day and not nearly the end of the trip.
It seems that minutes after I sent the Trip Log through 4:45PM I got a call from Dr. Avila. He had been in meetings all day but, since this is a holiday, had not been reminded by his secretary of our lunch appointment. He was very apologetic and asked if we could have breakfast in the morning.

The Motorcycle Diary

Trip Log (Letter written April 14, 2008)