Where in the world . . .

For the past decade or so Mary Lou and I have enjoyed traveling the world with my college roommate and his wife, Bill and Pam.   Bill and I are blessed that our spouses get along so well, and we are good traveling companions.

One of the challenges travelling every year is that you have to pick out where your next trip is going to be.  Tonight, we sat down to plan where we would journey in 2025.  It is not as easy as it sounds.

For one thing, we are at the age when our grandchildren are involved in every sport imaginable. We want to be supportive and present when we can, but that limits the time for travel.  In addition, we try to plan a trip with our children and grandchildren as well.  There are only so many weeks in a year.

We all want to go to Australia and New Zealand at some point.   However, it is a long trip both ways and once you arrive there is a lot to see.  Australia is like visiting the United States and if you travel that far away you want to visit New Zealand as well. With so many factors going into a trip that long, we decided to postponed that adventure until 2026.

Bill has a brother living in Scotland which gives some weight to a trip involving that country.   We also have a friend in Portugal which we have never visited.  We have an interest in travelling to Iceland and even Greenland.  After traveling below the Antarctic Circle near the bottom of our planet this past year we have a new interest in going above the Artic Circle at the top of the world.  

We have yet to visit Africa and still have a desire go to the Middle East, though this may be a challenging time for that journey.  Southeast Asia is on our list, and I would personally like to travel to Japan. The problem with bucket lists is the bucket can become quite large.  

Once you narrow down where you want to go, there is still much work to be done.  With so many cruise lines and travel groups available, the choices in visiting a country are extensive. Do you cruise by ship, travel by bus or train, or drive your own car? Do you go with a group or hire a private guide?  

Part of the excitement of traveling is planning where to go, how to get there, and where to stay once you arrive. Each trip is unique and creates its own memories. Each country we have visited has provided new experiences that only fuel the desire to travel more.  

At the end of the evening, we felt as if we had explored the world again. While we do not know yet exactly where we are going, we have narrowed the search and begun the process of planning our trip.   

Our world is amazingly diverse and the opportunity to explore places different from our own is exceptionally rewarding.  We are coming to the end of the Go-Go years of our retirement. Wish us luck as we seek to determine where in the world we will go.

o0o

Dan Ponder can be reached at [email protected]