Travel Plans (a Tenative List)

It's been awhile since I talked about traveling, more recently I talked about being a traveler, I talked about the packing or the waiting in line or how incredibly tiring a long day, or night, on the road can be, but that isn't the important stuff.  Yes, it's par for the course, and yes sometimes that all loses it's appeal, but the new places and experiences, that never gets old.

Thinking about this, a year and a half ago when I was making up my 101 list, I listed the places that immediately came to mind.  I didn't stop to think of Europe or the UK since that was supposed to be a one time thing, I stuck in Australia because I figured I should at least to some extent dream big.

Now, over a year later, Australia looks less possible, but life has up until now always managed to surprise me and I assume it always will.  I'm not writing it off, just thinking and planning.  I wish I had included the U.K. another trip to London, Scotland, a weekend in Wales or Ireland.  I wish I had thought more about the U.S.: the American South, the West.  I hadn't stopped to think about people who might want to accompany me, or who I might want to accompany.  I like traveling alone, but nothing compares to the shared experience of a journey.

I would love to do a literary tour (of my own design since I don't think one exists) of New England.  I would love to visit the South, particularly after brushing up on my history.  There's a lot of Canada I haven't seen and there are places now I would love to go to with other people.  The U.K., London in particular, may garner two trips.  I would love to see the Northern Lights, my sister Alaska.  That might happen.  The train ride through New Brunswick I keep imagining may become a reality.

There aren't any concrete plans as of yet, but the ideas are there. There used to be a deadline for all this, a sense of I need to do this now or it'll never happen.  It hasn't gone away completely, and I hope that it doesn't, but it has eased.  There's a greater sense of possibility now, but there's also most definitely an acknowledgement of the fact that I'm not ready to give up traveling for a more ordinary life. I wouldn't consider wanderlust a driving force in my life, but I've definitely been bitten.