I stole this post title idea from the song Sixteen Tons made famous by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955. It has the chorus
You load sixteen tons an' what do you get?
Another day older deeper and debt.
St. Peter don't you call me cause I can't go:
I owe my soul to the company store.
It's one of those songs I learned because Mom always sang it when I was a kid. For some reason, it popped into my head when I sat down to write this post, so I went with it.
I am not loading coal, however; I'm continuing to plan my trip to Bhutan. I still haven't resolved any of my questions about Bangkok (although I do have more people to ask), but I did finally, just moments ago, purchase my trip insurance. Thanks to Access America the cost of my trip should be covered if, for some reason I don't even want to imagine, I'm unable to travel, have to come back early, or am delayed underway. Once I'm underway, if I must be evacuated out of the countries for medical reasons, Global Rescue's got my back. (I opted not to purchase Global Rescue's security extraction services; I have confidence in peace in Asia - for the next few months, anyway - and don't see myself as a strong candidate for kidnapping.) So, I've now purchased some measure of peace of mind for a mere $443. Bring on the catastrophes! Just kidding!!
It was nice to be able to take a bit more action towards making my trip real. I keep packing my bag in my head, but it's a bit early to pull out the one small carry-on I plan to take with me (I hope). I have more research to do for Thailand and books to read on Bhutan; I'm sure those wonderful tasks will keep me occupied for a while longer. Hopefully the massive amounts of snow we're getting in Valdez will then diminish enough that I can get a bit of outdoor riding in before I leave, too (the inside of my garage just isn't that interesting).
It's good to have scenese like this to look forward to:
