So that carries us through the end of 2025, and if we’re lucky enough to see see it through, to the end of our third nine-month Schengen Shuffle.  What about beyond though?  It sounds fanciful to wonder now about what will happen that far out, but somewhere along the line we’ll need to make a decision about where we’ll depart to when we’re forced to leave Spain.  And the decision point could come as early as late summer, because we may need to have proof that we intend to leave Spain after 90 days before the airlines will board us for our planned flight to Leon.

So we might as well speculate.  In the past it’s been an easy decision - fly back to Portland, put up with a few weeks of cold and rain, and then hop in the Raven for the long drive down to Tucson.  This year is nothing like the past though, with so many unknowns that we can only speculate and wait to see what develops over the coming months.  

So what are the known unknowns we’re facing this year?  First off of course, there are health issues both of us are dealing with - Rachael’s arthritis and my vision thing.  Will we need to come home because my condition worsens?Will travel by bicycle actually still work for both of us, even at the relaxed pace we have planned?  

And what about my knees, which really are crap?  After coming through the horror of losing my eyesight and then miraculously regaining it, it’s a surprise to find that my most limiting issue is really my knees.  It’s an open question how I’ll do with walking this year, but I’m holding out hope that some of this is a side-effect of my high prednisone diet that will improve when I taper off to lower dosages.  It’s at least crossing my mind though that this might be the year I need to take a long pause for knee replacement surgery and rehab.

And there’s that other situation we along with everyone else whose opinions we value is watching unfold with horror and disbelief.  Will we even have a country we feel like we can return to at the end of the year?  We’re so much more fortunate than most in that we’re homeless and have resources, so we can always find someplace warm outside the Schengen Zone we could spend the winter - Albania?  Tasmania?  New Zealand?  Taiwan?

And then there’s this tempting unknown: the possibility to move on to Cyprus for a month or two.   The issue here is that Cyprus (the western half of the politically divided island) is a member of the European Union but is one of its only members that is not a part of the Schengen Zone yet.  They’re trying to get in though, as soon as they meet all the technical requirements.  Their goal has been to meet them by the end of this year, so if they are successful and get admitted promptly then theoretically we couldn’t get in ourselves after using up our 90 days in Spain.  The latest reports make it sound unlikely that they’ll get there though, and it sounds like they hope they’ll be admitted sometime in 2026.

So if Cyprus is an option and we’re up to it we’ll do that.  It looks like an excellent winter cycling destination, one with miles of cycle-friendly beaches and a mountainous center that on paper gives it a feeling like Mallorca - and in fact it’s fast becoming a wintering cycling hub and getting described as the new Mallorca.

If we do go to Cyprus we’d probably stick to the flat southern apron, take our time with a leisurely out and back from the main international airport at Lanarka, and spend layover days hiking and climbing up into the mountainous interior.  Something like this:

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Patrick O'HaraLooks like a great plan!
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1 week ago

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That just buys us another month or so of think time while we watch for developments though.  At some point we really will need to decide whether to return home or not.  We’re hoping of course that we can come back.  We love Tucson in the winter, and all things considered that would be our first choice.  Watch, wait, remember the serenity prayer and hope for the best.