Traveling. I have to say if there’s something I dislike more than anything else, it’s getting on an airplane for a long trip across either pond (Atlantic or Pacific). This year, it’s been to the East (for me) and although the month has been satisfying, I’ve been ready for a while to go home. For some people that I know, traveling is just an adventure, but then, for many years of my adult life, that’s pretty much what I did. I have, since that time, always had a dread of going to the airport, and going anywhere; Even just a short air distance away.

Most people I know believe there’s something wrong with my attitude, and they may be right. Even those I know though that take short business trips eventually say the same thing: It’s good to be home. I completely understand. The difference for me this year is that there’s someone else involved; Someone I made a promise to 4 years ago, and I always keep my promises. Well, I make every attempt to keep them. No one’s perfect. This year though, I was able to keep that promise. I made the trip, not for me, but for someone else that means more to me than anything else in my life.

Uon making the promise, I had to start planning, meaning I had to guess what it was going to cost and place aside, monthly, funds for what I thought was going to be an extremely expensive vacation at the time. I was pleasantly surprised when, making the initial reservations over a year ago, that it wasn’t as expensive as I thought. I even upgraded our travel and hotels as well as bought us both passes on the railroad. European countries have great mass transit, and it was actually less expensive than renting a car to drive from one city to the next. Restful as well.

So this may be the last post for a few days as we navigate back home on Monday. One thing I have to do before we go to the airport that day is ship back home all of our booty that we’ve acquired here. I’d rather pay UPS than worry about an extra bag or two arriving home with us. I’m told that if I ship it Monday, we’ll have it, latest, the next.

The memories created here, for both of us, for me has been worth all of the hassle and expense. Yes, if I had to do it over again, this time knowing, I would do it again. I don’t know if we’ll ever have a vacation like this one together again. I’d like to think so, but I doubt it. We’ll see.