mastertangler wrote on Apr 27^th, 2013 at 9:54am:

Just admit it Tom........your anti social  ;D Here's my $2 bucks worth ( "Hope and Change" is expensive).........sometimes you need to hang out with some folk a bit longer than a day or even two before you can  determine wether they could be a match or not (although I proposed to my lovely wife in 2 weeks  8-) ). Some people are reserved or might even be a bit nervous. So within about a week you should have a handle on it. But isn't that the beauty of group solo? You have just pulled into your campsite together and the new guy hasn't shut up for 5 minutes........so you go to your own tent for a little siesta. Then you get back up and the interagation commences once again......so you grab your rod and take your boat out for a little spin. Later in the week the overly hyper babbler has calmed down and you find out he is not such bad company after all. When your group solo the escape pod is always available.

I am to some degree anti social but really more introverted and definitely shy.  The shy thing isn't so tough for me anymore but it never completely goes away.

You make excellent points about giving it time with a group solo. I usually trip for 10 days doing a loop with a few layovers.  I love the freedom of soloing ie: camping when and where I want and travelling at the pace I want.

How to balance that with the compromising of a group dynamic?  Maybe 1/2 group then half solo...  :)

I think I could make that art show in august. My permit for the Q is Aug 29. I'll put it on the calendar, thanks.