50 by 50

Looking back at my blog posts, it appears that I did nothing last summer, which, if you know me, you know this to be untrue.  However, I took a summer off of blogging during my trips to Paris, Madrid and the Pacific Northwest.  Highlights of those travels?  Watching two young ladies discover Paris, the food in Madrid, watching a dear friend walk down the aisle, visiting the center of the universe and seeing the crystal blue waters of Crater Lake.  I have decided this summer to once again continue my blogging, if for no one one else, but myself.  I have greatly enjoyed reliving my travels by revisiting my previous blogs, so my hopes are to keep up my blogging while on this next grand adventure.

So, where to next?  First, let me start by saying how incredibly lucky I am to have a travel buddy.  Five years ago, almost to the day, I met Jessica.  We knew of the upcoming year of adventures we would have (well, at least we thought we knew) as we prepared for our Fulbright Teacher Exchange in England, but we had no idea the long-lasting impact of this adventure.

Jessica is a fellow-upper-elementary-teacher from Denver.  She taught in Hull while I was teaching in Woburn Sands.  The towns were about three hours apart at the time, but that did not interfere with frequent travel plans we made together both inside and outside of the country.  Since our return to the US about four years ago, she's come to visit me in Alabama, we hiked through the Utah desert in July (a seemingly near-death experience), drove across Ireland and Scotland together, zip-lined through mines in Wales, sat on the iron-throne in Northern Ireland, sang songs in Nashville, sipped wine in Napa, climbed mountains in Oregon, encountered moose in West Yellowstone, pet a penguin in Atlanta and braved a curious mouse at the top of Mount LeConte, just to name to name a few of our recent adventures.

I am thankful to have a buddy like Jessica who not only seeks adventures in travel, but who puts up with me for weeks at a time.  I have done some traveling on my own, and while it can be enjoyable in its own ways, it is not nearly as much fun as sharing the time with a friend.  Someone that can help you make decisions, converse with you in the same language, take photos for you, laugh with you and later help you reminisce about all that you got to see and do makes the travels infinitely better.  I realize that finding such a person, someone who can put up with all of my quirks and stubbornness, is not easy, and so, I do realize just how lucky I am!

So, where to next?  Well, anytime Jessica and I are together, we seem to always be planning our next adventure.  We've got ideas of road-tripping to Alaska, volunteering to help the penguins in South Africa and a road trip up the eastern coast of the USA.  Our fellow Fulbrighter, Niki, has inspired us both with an ambitious, but exciting goal of visiting all 50 states as well as 50 countries by the time she reaches 50.  (Side note, Niki visited her 50th state last summer and will be visiting her 50th country this summer!)  I love the goal, and it has been a fun way to look at travel, by the possibility of visiting new places.  Looking at my map, it appears I need to spread my visits out a bit more.  I am at 29 countries right now, but hope to be at 34 by the time I return from my summer travels!

So, where could we go that would be a new place for us both?  Well, Jessica has a friend who currently lives in Bangkok, so why not let that be the jumping off point for us both?  This summer, in just a few days in fact, Jessica and I will be embarking on a very long journey across the ocean to visit Southeast Asia.

Planning this trip has been different than anything I've done before (partly because I don't have my trusty Rick Steves to help!).  We have done this totally on our own and will be traveling on our own (except our personal tour guide in Bangkok!), and couldn't be more excited about that.  I am a bit more anxious about this journey than I've been for some others, but I am also extremely excited about all of the new places we'll see, new foods we will try and new experiences we will have along the way.