I’ve barely made a dent in 1000 Places to See Before You Die. The calendar this past week revealed Brazil, Antilles, Australia, Spain, and Salzburg, Austria. I have seen none of these desirable destinations, while my wife at least has us covered for Austria thanks to a high school exchange program. We have both also been to San Juan, Puerto Rico, although separately. There was only one this week that have been crossed off that daunting list of 1,000. As the cliche goes: there is simply so much to see and so little time. As a result, I’ll soon be busy making airline, hotel, restaurant, and car rental reservations.

We did have better luck with a bucket list that Marriott put out this past week. I mention this only to make myself feel better about our overall travel accomplishments. It was their top 10 destination suggestions for the year, including Bangkok, Thailand; Key West, Florida; Dubai; Vancouver, British Columbia; Nashville, Tennessee; Berlin, Germany; Houston, Texas; Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Santorini, Greece; Napa Valley, California; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Rome, Italy. Between the two of us, since we’re traveling to Thailand in a few months, we’ll have been everywhere on this list but Dubai. Perhaps someday we’ll get to Key West, Vancouver, Berlin, and Jackson Hole together.

My wife announced another aggressive travel plan for the rest of this year last night. This includes several of her business trips. We’re already headed to Phoenix in February for her budget meetings, as well as a strictly recreational visit to Bangkok and Phuket in March. April (our 18th wedding anniversary), August (my 68th birthday), and December (Christmas) will be trips back through Chicago into Indiana. May travel involves Maui (auto dealers convention) and New York City (Network meetings). June we’ll go to Los Angeles and celebrate her birthday at our Santa Monica favorites after she does some business. In July she wants to see the five Canadian gardens in Vancouver. I’ve only passed through the city on several ski trips to Whistler. The August trip back home to Indiana will involve my 50th high school reunion festivities, and of course her mother’s 98th birthday. We also discussed going back to Bend, Oregon for Thanksgiving again, since her two girls will be spending that holiday with their father. Plus, I need to find a way to get down to Florida to see my son and his growing family, and we need to work on an excursion to San Francisco where my wife’s youngest daughter is currently in the process of relocating.

That’s a lot of nights away from home, and comparable with this past year’s hectic travel schedule. With kids and family scattered all over the country, it’s difficult to keep pace. It also doesn’t look like a favorable outlook on taxes, as W-2 forms continue to slowly roll in. Plus, there will surely be medical bills from my recent ER visit. This all adds up to perhaps another untimely IRA withdrawal. As I like to say, you can’t take it with you, but you can certainly spend it too damn fast!