As I’m writing this blog post, we are in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. Thankfully, my family and I have been healthy. Friends have been affected, including a friend in another state whose family member died.  I know Coronavirus is fierce and frightening, but in many ways, Covid-19 seems far removed from my family and me.  I’m grateful.

There have been some changes, but nothing too major.
Routines have changed. Our son returned home to complete his first year of college remotely. Our daughter is completing her first year of high school via computer. My wife and I are teaching college courses online and via Zoom. I’m leading church services via Zoom, and although we are not together physically, church members still are connected to one another.

In the midst of it all, we have been spared the harsh aspects of Coronavirus.  Again, I’m grateful.

Our travel plans have changed. We had planned to travel this summer, but our trip was cancelled. So, for the first time in a long time, we are home — with no plans to travel.  Sure, we expect to travel again, but we don’t know when or where that will be.

During this extended time at home, I’ve thought a lot about travel:  why I want to travel, why I miss it during staying at home.  Traveling, especially with my family, is one of the deepest joys of my life.  We encounter new things, learn new lessons, rise to new challenges. And, most important of all, we do it together.  Our shared experiences are powerful and transformative.

During Summer 2019, our family took a second round-the-world trip.  For our first trek around the globe, we spent ten months visiting six continents. The second time around, we only had a summer break before our son left for college. We had six weeks, but we decided to give it another go.

After spending a week in Alaska to celebrate my in-laws’ 55th wedding anniversary, we traveled to Asia to visit friends in South Korea and Myanmar. We next went to Cambodia to experience Angkor Wat before traveling to India. On our return home to Florida, we added a stopover in Northern Ireland and Ireland.

One lesson I learned is this…go anyway.  Our second round-the-world trip wasn’t nearly as big as our first, but we went anyway.  We couldn’t linger in places like we did the first time (spending more than a month in some places), but we still had a great time.  We couldn’t choose low-season or shoulder-season, but we went anyway.  We had to travel during monsoon season in Myanmar and India, but we went anyway.  We couldn’t house-sit like we did the first time, but we went anyway.

Our second round-the-world trip was different, to be sure, but it also was wonderful.  We didn’t stop, fearing that our second trip would be less than our first one.  We went anyway!  I’m glad we did.

I look forward to sharing experiences we had and lessons we learned.

I hope you’ll enjoy!