So far, the Cootie bug hasn’t caused me to change anything for the Great Ho Chi Minh Trail Ride.

You remember the Cooties don’t you. For those too young, tween-age boys and girls would say to each other, “Ewwwwww… you’ve got Cooties.” Of course they were really just flirting with each other, but hadn’t figured out how to do that yet. Sometimes it would be mean, but it was mostly a way of getting attention and saying, “I’m really interested in you, but I don’t know how to show it.”

So, even if you don’t remember cooties, if you are over 14 you know what I mean.

This time the Cooties are disrupting travel. As I write this, there have been about 3,200 cases of the Cooties in the United States. Many of those have recovered. So, leadership in various places are shutting down everything… sporting events, large gathering and some travel. That said, I’m pretty sure I haven’t come in contact with those 3,200 people and maybe another 6,000 they were in contact with.

So… I don’t have Cooties. Yes… I’m sure I had them when I was 13, but they were gone by the time I was 16. I am going to hunker down for the next 9 days so I’m sure I don’t have Cooties when I get on the airplane. I’m wearing a hazmat suit on the airplanes.

I should mention that as of today (March 15) the place I’m going, Laos and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, has no reported cases of Cooties. So indeed… if you don’t want to get Cooties, then Laos is the place to be.

All that could change if some government or airline forces me not to go, but until then, I’m still going on the Great Ho CHi Minh Trail Ride in 9 days.