Flights booked, bags packed, itinerary laid out. Today’s the day we start for Argentina, with nearly six weeks of travel and adventure ahead. Rochester to New York to Buenos Aires. Two flights, sixteen hours, two hemispheres before touchdown on a new continent in a new Country .

That was the plan, and we were just heading to the airport when the first text message arrived. Flight delayed at JFK; only half an hour, no problem. It was the second text that was the problem.

“We’re sorry that your flight DL5289 from Rochester to New York, NY is cancelled. We have been working to find a good option for you, but unfortunately, we didn’t find a flight on which to automatically rebook you.”

Four phone calls, 30 minutes on hold and 3 agents later, the best we could do was a 6 AM flight from Syracuse to Atlanta to Miami to Buenos Aires two days from now. Cancel the hotel in Buenos Aires, cancel the New Year’s Eve dinner with friends, cancel the tango tour and the introduction to Buenos Aires tour. If this works out, we’ll get to BA at 4:20 AM on January 1, 2026, then catch a 12:55 PM Flight to San Martin de los Andes for a few days of fly fishing on the Limay River in Patagonia.

I remain an optimist.