We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Or maybe it's already almost too late to plan for 2015. We have our plans mostly set - including a bit more of totally-cool north Africa and the Canary Islands. (Why? Ask Mrs. BD. She plans, I just show up with a passport, an absurd hat, absurd clothes, a credit card, and a cheap camera. I typically pack in 15 minutes, so it is ridiculous. Just remember - always throw in a tux for a formal ship.) I do love ships and I will always jump on one to go anywhere. This one has sails.
Readers know that the whole BD clan has been world-traveling for years, way before Maggie's existed. Between us, my own parents, and my in-laws, there are few spots on the planet which have been left unvisited. We have been a fortunate and adventurous clan.
I have a friend who took his kids (without Mom) on an around the world in 60 days trip which he planned himself. Bonding time with Dad. That's a whirlwind trip but a cool idea. Holland-America has a 115-day round the world cruise. We met a prof and his wife on a ski gondola in New Hampshire who had taken that during a sabbatical and loved it. How could you not? Leave all your cares behind...
I've been to plenty of places in the US and Canada too, before Maggie's, but it's fun to go places without a Wendy's or a Holiday Inn-type place. Never been to Orlando, and it ain't on my list. I guess I could say that my favorite places in the USA are Cape Cod, Montana, and New York City.
For fun, here's our Maggie's Travel and Travelogue with past travel reports, photos, and ideas. (Push "next page" at the bottom of the page to flip back through our old files.)
I have a bucket list, and I have not been everywhere.
I travel by bike, to the store every day, a 2-3 hour ride depending on route.
I've found that if I carry a shortwave receiver, tuned to usually 20m morse code ham band, that I'm never out of breath.
Listening to code puts you in a different mental space, so that you're not pushing hard on the bike, I'd suppose.
Anyway, as to foreign climes, I've noticed that there are a boatload of new country prefixes that I don't know, changed since the 50s when I knew them.
Yesterday there was a BERU contest. The band was filled with Canadians, some Brits. What does BERU mean? I'm guessing British Empire Radio Union. How many of the other guys can you contact.
Apparently all the Canadians had already contacted each other because everybody was seeking somebody new, none talking to the other guys there.
Anyway there was ZF2CA. What the hell is ZF2? It has to wait until you get home to google it. Cayman Islands.
Good to hear that Johnny Cash was able to fit in Chicopee. Reminds me of the Texas Traveling Song, sung and composed by Bill Neely. I will stop at one Texas road song.
Now, I'm going back almost 30 years ago when I was young and living in East Asia. But, I remember meeting a young newlywed couple, who for their honeymoon paid for by their parents, were travelling around the world for their first year of marriage.
What a great way to start a life together! Assuming, of course, that it is something someone can afford.
They liked it so much in East Asia that they decided to stay for a while. How cool was that!? I put them up for a week until they found a place that would rent to them for 1 month. One month wasn't that long a time considering that I was there for several years. But, if you're travelling around the world in just a year 1 month is a long time to spend in one place. I also hooked them up with language classes.
Sadly, I'm terrible at keeping up correspondence and lost track after many years. It would be nice to know if that year-long, around-the-world, honeymoon helped their marriage.
P.S., thanks for the link to the postings of your travels - they look very fascinating!
I'm also a believer in traveling when a relationship/marriage is new. It doesn't have to be anything grand, a road trip will suffice.
The first big trip with my husband was when we were first dating. We had an opportunity to go to Europe on a one-week whirlwind trip. From the beginning we divvied up the responsibilities: I took care of the flights and ground transpo/itinerary, he took care of the maps, passports and money. And since this was pre-Euro, that meant guilders for Holland and francs for France. And American dollars for in between, just in case. We crammed our stuff in to well used backpacks and off we went. It was a blast. It was a huge proof to us that we could make a go of it in close quarters, in strange places under odd conditions. One of our favorite memories, now.
"115 day round the world cruise"
It would be like a jail sentence to me.
I don't drink, don't gamble, food is just food a steak, a hamburger or a box of crackers I just don't care and I hate crowds (that is more than two people). Aa cruise ship would be pure torture. I suffer flying because it must be done to get there. When I'm around people/crowds I simply ignore them which drives my wife crazy because she wants to talk to them and I'm down the road. My idea of travel/vacation is to be in the woods alone. I have hiked the PCT and the AT and found them to be "too crowded" running into half a dozen people or so daily.
