second time around

After 30 years of working, I have finished. My last cases were today, and I am officially retired. You might think that sleeping in would be in order, but I will be up extra early to have a breakfast with the co-workers, and then an evening party to celebrate the end. I have gotten a lot of the trip together, acquired some gear, and made some reservations, but there is still plenty to do: finish my shots, a camera, pack, a few more areas to research, and so on and on.

So far the short version of the itinerary is as follows:
May 4: Canadian Rockies and train to Vancouver,Victoria, Washington (the Olympic Peninsula), Utah, the
Canyon lands, Carlsbad Caverns
June: Grand Canyon, California coast highway, San Francisco
June: Ecuador, Galapagos cruise, Peru
July: home
July 22: leave for Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Fiji
Sept.: Tour of China including Tibet and Hong Kong
October: Japan and Australia, dive the Barrier Reef
November: New Zealand and Singapore
December: Thailand, Cambodia and India
January: India and South Africa
February: Kenya/Tanzania and Egypt cruise the Nile
March: Israel, Jordan, the Mediterranean and Southern Europe
April: Northern Europe
May 11, 2012: Miami and then home again

To all the great people I worked with all these years: Yes I am really finished, No I won’t miss the job, but yes I will truly miss all of you. Thanks for having my back all these years. you are the best!!

More details coming soon, until then Good-Bye work and Hello world.

The original plan was to stop by Costa Rica on the beginning leg of the RTW trip. However, things worked out such that the wife, daughter and I went there in June 2010 for a wonderful 10 days. The weather was great, the people very hospitable, the scenery spectacular and the wildlife was abundant. We were able to get a great view of the Volcano Arenal, even saw some pyrotechnics at night from the north side. The Zip-lining was an incredible experience. It was sunny and dry in spite of it being in the cloud forest in the rainy season. The lines were high up over the canyons and very fast. Very impressive sights. On our trip we saw monkeys, macaws, toucans, crocodiles and even the resplendent Quetzal. Best quote of the trip: my daughter on the bed screaming as she pointed to the inside of the glass door and the 5 inch spider there: “Pura Vida my ass, I’m going home!”

The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began…

A long time ago a friend talked me into considering an adventure, and so against my parent’s better judgments I took a year off of college and with $4,000 I travelled east. We crossed the USA together in a ’58 panel truck until we split up in New York, where he wanted to stay awhile and I wanted to get to Europe. Six months backpacking there and then I continued East; sharing a house in Iraklion, third class passage across the Black Sea, Iran, Iraq, across Afghanistan in a Jag, dysentery, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Hong Kong and the biggest culture shock of all returning to the US. It took another two months driving across country and back for me to wrap my head around this strange land. For thirty-seven years I have been waiting to get back to travelling. Now I am making the plans for the second time around the world. This time I will be headed west and I will have a bit more money and a bit less strength.
It isn’t like I haven’t had a lot of vacations and been to many places around the country and the world since then, I just haven’t “travelled”. To me there is a difference between a couple of weeks on a tightly planned itinerary from one hotel to the next, from one “must see” sight to the next and real travelling. It involves the need for a length of time which allows for spontaneity, flexibility and a certain anxiety. It needs some arrivals without reservations. It involves the balance between being tired, cold and wet, dreaming about home and laughing right out loud at one more “best time of my life”.
These days there are certainly a lot of reasons to not quit working, take off for a year, risk illness or injury, spend the money, and possibly end up sick, tired and alone in some God forsaken backwater s***-hole. But if I don’t do it now, I will get too old and will forever regret what might have been. My wife will be meeting me from time to time along the way. My children are grown and I may meet them from time to time as well, depending on where they are living. So who knows, perhaps you and I will meet and share a meal or two along the way.
This blog is for my friends and relatives to follow along and know that I am well and happy and for those who may wish to follow their hearts to know it is always possible. I will certainly be asking for advice and while I may not always take it, I will always be appreciative so please feel free to offer up your pearls.