Taking Risks

It's only natural to want to play it safe, but sometimes we have to take risks.

I've been taking some risks lately, and so far, the stars must have been properly aligned because everything has seemed to work out. Let me explain.

I've been in Costa Rica for a little over four months. I got back to the US last week. Two weeks before I left to go to Costa Rica, someone ran a red light and hit my car broadside. No one was hurt, but my car was totaled.

Sometimes procrastination is not the best option

I didn't want to buy a car and store it for several months, so I decided to wait until I got back to buy a car. In hindsight, maybe that wasn't such a good idea because used car prices went up substantially during those four months.

Since I was going to be landing in the US without a car, I got online, did some research to decide on what kind of car I wanted and what price I would have to pay to get a car that would fit my needs.

I checked eBay, Facebook MarketPlace, CarFax, Carvana, and a few other websites.

Long story short, I found a couple outside of Atlanta who had a 2017 Prius Prime with 30,000 miles on it for sale and at what I considered to be a reasonable price. I had a 2012 Prius, and I liked it, so I was looking for another Prius.

I got off of the plane in Atlanta (I didn't get on my connecting flight), and spent the night in a motel in Atlanta.

Here's what happened next

I met the couple the next morning at a branch of my bank. We did all of the paperwork, I gave them a check, and I drove off with a car. Sometimes things work out like they're supposed to.

A lot of things could have gone wrong. What if they didn't show up? What if the car wasn't in the condition they said it was, and on and on? I would have been stranded in Atlanta.

The car was actually cleaner and better than I expected, but if you want a happy ending, it depends on where you stop the story.

When I got to North Carolina to get my motorhome out of storage, both the engine and the coach batteries were dead, and the rig was stuck in the mud.

Those problems were solvable, and in few hours, I was on my way up the mountain to Banner Elk, NC.

Of course, there were other problems. For example, now my electric steps don't come out when I open the door, but as they say in Costa Rica, I'll fix that mañana.

In Spanish, mañana means tomorrow, but it doesn't really mean tomorrow in the laid-back lifestyle of Costa Rica. It just means, not today.

Another risk

Another risk I took recently that worked out well is that I went from Costa Rica to Nicaragua about a month ago to get my passport stamped. I had to leave Costa Rica and return to stay longer than 90 days. I didn't speak any Spanish, and the immigration agents didn't speak a word of English, but we made it happen. It took three hours to do what should have only taken three minutes, but things worked out.

Bottom line: Taking risks is what makes life interesting. If you don't want to take risks, the RV lifestyle is probably not for you. And remember that sometimes risks don't have a happy ending. After all, in a bullfight, the bull doesn't always lose.