With my good friends in Alaska for the past couple weeks, I’ve admittedly felt a bit left out. I’m just two states short of being in all 50 and Alaska is one of those bucket holes. Maine is also on my unconquered list. It won’t be long now until my wife joins me in retirement, so we’ll have more time but less money to get away. She’s in L.A. on business, so I slept-in an extra hour this morning. It seems like everyone I know is traveling, while I remain content in front of the keyboard. The 1000 Places to See Before You Die calendar on my desk dares me to get off my lazy butt and hit the road. The month of July ends with Route 66 and a picture of the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. If I had joined my wife on the trip to L.A., we would have probably stayed this past weekend at the Marriott Le Merigot on Santa Monica Beach where Route 66 ends or begins – take your pick. 

You can still drive about 85% of the original Route 66, and personally I’ve only seen bits and pieces of its length from where it starts in Chicago. I’ve covered it through Illinois into Oklahoma with stays in Springfield, St. Louis, Tulsa and Oklahoma City. I haven’t spent much time in Albuquerque or Flagstaff and other points West like Tucumcari. Maybe we’ll have time to fill in some of those holes. We want to explore the California Coast for housing opportunities, although the cost feasibility seems unrealistic for a retirement place. The Florida panhandle is our other likely exploration destination at the end of the year. 

The “Calendar” on my desk always presents new ideas for travel. Each day is a picture of a desirable destination that should probably be on my bucket list. For example, Sardinia, Italy is an island just off the Italian coast. Italy always makes me happy, and we still have dreams of living there for a year so we can travel Europe and new French regions like Alsace near Switzerland and Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein. A little further away, there’s Jordan’s King Highway, a bit older than Route 66 and an ancient link between Amman and the Red Sea. I’d like to “see” that “sea.” Other calendar photos included Svalbard, Norway or Botswana – who wouldn’t “wanna” go there?

Our next trip is to Colorado for my birthday – but that’s still a month away, as I continue to fulfill the list of “67 Things to do before I’m 68.” It’s time to work on a new tally of goals as I look forward to another year of retirement. It won’t be until just after my 69th birthday when I can cross-off the #1 item on my bucket list – Egypt. The Sphinx is still waiting for my visit – and has been for thousands of years. In the meantime, I’ll work on some of my other travel dreams.