It was the year 1877. “January 8 – Indian Wars – Battle of Wolf Mountain: Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry in Montana. March 2 – In the Compromise of 1877, the U.S. presidential election, 1876 is resolved with the selection of Rutherford B. Hayes as the winner.” Today in 2021, 144 years later, the state of the union hasn’t much changed with civil rights injustice and election contention still at the forefront. 

I woke up this morning concerned about next year’s plans. With the MLB owner’s strike, Spring Training plans could be in jeopardy. It would be the second time that I bought tickets for Spring Training only for the games to be cancelled. The same thing happened in March of 2020 when we traveled to Phoenix only to find Covid related shutdowns. I ultimately used those ticket credits to buy what I thought would be a Santana concert in Tampa for my seventieth birthday. However, when we showed up at the venue in August of 2021, I was surprised to discover that it had changed to the same date in 2022, a year later. Yesterday, it was announced that Carlos Humberto Santana Barragan had cancelled all his December Las Vegas appearances following a heart procedure. Will he, or me for that matter, be there to actually see that show on August 27, 2022? I’m hoping for a speedy recovery. Carlos will be seventy-five and I will be seventy-one. 

So far, the status of these two events that I have planned for 2022 are not at all related to Covid. However, the snowballing effect of the virus is still affecting our economy. Plus, the  new Delta Variance could have an impact on my other travel plans. In the short term, I doubt that it will impact our scheduled trips to  Disney World, Key West, Florida’s Singer Island, and our Mackinac Island Grand Hotel adventure. However, it could mess with our Alaska to Japan cruise and family trip to Hawaii later in the year. Fingers are crossed!