(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Waking up at 4:45 a.m. on Monday, December 1 was a somewhat cruel way to start the last day of my travel year.  It was actually kind of fun, though, to dash through the streets of pre-dawn London to the nearest Piccadilly Line tube station (see photo above – it’s Russell Square).  I had a good reason…I needed to get to Heathrow and fly back home.

I thought I would be rather sad about ending what has been a wonderful year of adventure, especially after ending on such an unexpected high note in London.   While there was certainly a slight sense of sadness, or at least nostalgia, I also found myself craving a return to “regular” life.  I was ready to work.  I looked forward to preparing fresh meals at home rather than eating out every day.  I was excited about my upcoming curling matches and hopeful that my slowly-improving shoulder injury would permit a not-too-distant return to the hockey rink.  Most of all, though, I was looking forward to devoting more time to friends and family.

Even so, I couldn’t do everything at once.  There was a lot of “administrative work” that needed to be done in short order.   I had to set up a home office for my new job.  Various appointments had been accumulating.  The car needed a tune-up and the driveway needed a lot of shovelling.   The to-do list was very, very long but I was actually excited about tackling it.

Everybody has a travel threshold.  Some can only last a day or two before returning home.  Some need years on the road to “re-charge”.  After about nine months of roughly half-time travel, I had hit my threshold just as I was returning home from England with no further travel plans.  The timing was perfect.

On a couple of occasions since returning home, I have found myself ready to plan some more travel…only to realize that there is nothing left to plan.  There are currently no “bucket list”  items demanding attention.   My wife and I are planning a quick big city getaway in January, and there is a chance that I will go skiing in early March… but there is really nothing that I need to (or can) act on yet.  All I have to do now is figure out what to do with all of the frequent flier points and Air Miles that I have accumulated!  I can always use them on gift cards if nothing else jumps out at me.

The next few posts will be retrospective.  I’m going to be looking at what I planned to do this year and what I actually did.  It’s always fun to look at lists so I’ll try to compile some highlights of the year.      I will probably also come up with some advice and guidance for anybody who is planning this sort of thing for themselves.  Maybe I’ll even begin to think about where I might travel in the years to come!

If you’re not too interested in revisiting this year, I think you’ll still find something of interest in this blog.  As promised, I will eventually be sharing some photos and stories from pre-2014 trips.  I’ll be liberated from writing in real time and chronological order, so you’ll never know what’s coming next!  Even after all of this time, I still enjoy writing the blog and I hope that enthusiasm continues to show.