Europe update: Dad isn't coming. Mom might meet me in Rome. I might go to Spain.

Here is where the Europe trip stands.

My dad is not going. His wrist is still healing, and with two weeks left before he is supposed to be pain-free and five weeks until the trip, the math is not in his favor. He wants to be strong. Not careful-strong or getting-by strong. Actually strong. That is a reasonable position from someone who has been dealing with this for weeks and knows what it feels like to push something before it is ready. I am not disappointed in the way I thought I might be. I am proud of him for knowing his own limits, which is harder than it sounds for someone who usually does not stop for anything.

His version of this trip, the real version, is happening next year. He has been talking about driving the autobahn since I was probably ten years old. That trip is going to include the autobahn, and I am going to be there for it, and it is going to be a better version of this trip than the one we almost took when his wrist was not ready.

What this means for the current plan: my mom might meet me in Rome after the cruise. We have not confirmed this. We need to have that conversation, probably soon. The cruise portion has its own shape, its own schedule. What happens after is still being negotiated in the way that family logistics always are, which is to say: someone needs to put a date on the calendar and the other person needs to respond within forty-eight hours or nothing gets decided.

If she does not come, I will explore on my own. I do not know exactly where. My honest answer right now is Spain, which is less a plan than a preference. Somewhere in Spain. Maybe several somewheres. The solo version of a trip that was supposed to be a family trip is its own kind of experience, and I am trying to approach it as such rather than as a consolation prize, which it is not.

There will be more updates.