Watching the Brit TV show “24 Hours In The A&E” the other night, one of the characters asked an intriguing question of another:
“If you could snap your fingers and be anywhere in the world, where would you choose?”
New Wife and I talked about it for ages. Where to go?
- A place that you’ve been to before, and loved?
- A place you’ve never been to before?
- By yourself, or with a partner / wife / buddy etc.?
- For how long? A day, weekend, week, or a month?
Here are mine:
- Never been to Lake Como, always wanted to, also a week.
- By myself: on a driven bird shoot, somewhere in southern England, for a day or two.
- With New Wife: somewhere scenic in the U.S., either where I’ve been before and she not, or where neither of us has been. Whatever the choice, for two weeks.
- With my buddy Trevor: somewhere in Europe where neither of us has been to before, for a week.
(New Wife, by the way, chose only one locale: any Indian Ocean island — Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives — for two to three weeks.)
And now it’s your turn. Feel free to work the conditions, any way you please.
Snap your fingers…
With wife, 2-3 days, Grand Canyon. Cause I want to see it with my own eyeballs before I crash.
Alone, 1 week, Medford, OR, to visit an army buddy I haven’t seen since 1980, and he grows his own weed. Yowza!
I also would like to do a solo trip on a Honda Goldwing tri-wheel from the north eastern most part of Maine to San Diego, CA and take about 3 months to do it.
St. Petersburg, Russia late May during White Nights (it never really gets dark). Beautiful women everywhere and a festive atmosphere, at least as I recall.
Failing that, with my son on a hunt for plains game in Africa, perhaps Namibia, with my trusty Browning.30-06.
Seeing as how I’m reading this from work, snap – HOME. With or without the wife, all quiet, no electronics, no phone, no TV, just breakfast followed by a nap, second breakfast, and some whiskey. For 2 or 3 weeks, you know, to relax and get my mind right. Maybe some reading material, a trip to the range, some light fishing in the local bay.
I’m so fucking ready to retire.
Never been – 24 hours of LeMans, 10 -12 days with a race team, and my wife. Mid level team with a strong chance of finishing. Preferably Porsche powered, but BMW would work also.
Greek Islands 175 foot Motor Yacht with wife
New Zeeland for a month
The British Isles, with or without, not the touristy places but the out of the way pubs & towns. No doubt I’ll be disappointed. Several weeks.
Deutschland, with or without, and different parts. Its the land of my ancestors, so to give it a peek would feel like a pilgrimage of sorts. Several weeks. Again I’ll probably be disappointed.
I love my wife and enjoy her company, but frankly I like traveling to a new spot alone. I like exploring and doing the off-beat stuff. I can’t stand being with a group that wants to do things “Collectively”. Apparently being by yourself not bothering people, bothers people.
There might be some others. Ideally I’d want to spend a week to 10 days exploring, then have the wife show up.
At one point my Dad told me that some people cannot stand to be alone. I was young and didn’t understand, as I was perfectly happy being alone. As I got older and experienced more people, I realized how right he was. Some people literally lock up and go mental if alone. I’ve seen it. I’d rather be alone or just with my wife, in a large group I slowly start plotting to kill the most annoying and work my way down to the least annoying. Large groups of people are best avoided.
South East Spain. And I’m lucky enough to be going for a full month in April 2025. Calgary to Barcelona, rent a car, drive to Valencia, Alicante, Granada, Cordoba, Malaga, etc., etc. and finish in Seville.
I’m going to live off olives, jamon, red wine and tapas.
The Internet and smart phones have made that kind of a wandering trip easy and fun. I drive, my wife navigates. When we find some place that looks congenial, we park the car and wander about on foot. If we like it my wife goes to Air B’nB, or Booking.com or even Google maps and finds us a place to stay.
We’re old, our kids are self sufficient, we’re determined to use the money for fun.
Did that (pretty much) exact trip some years ago and had an excellent time! Roads were in good nick, both free & toll. Great little towns along the way and the scenery couldn’t be beat. I’d do it again in a heartbeat…
A place that you’ve been to before, and loved?
Milford Track, New Zealand. I only spent a few days hiking there and would have liked to spent a couple of weeks.
A place you’ve never been to before?
The Whitsunday Islands, Australia. Missed a chance 30 years ago to take a 3-week sailing trip to/among the islands and have been regretting it ever since. My friend, who went in my place, still says it’s the best experience he’s ever had. I figure 2 weeks minimum.
By yourself, or with a partner / wife / buddy etc.?
To see Andre Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra in Maastricht for a late summer concert. I would go with my Irish friend, Siohban, since the Last Wife can’t sit still for more than 30 seconds and hates beer. Then an extended tour of the Alps in every country that has an Alp.
1. Never been: Rome, for a week.
2. Alone: Normandy for however long it takes to explore battlefields.
3. With my wife: British Isles until we get tired of it or too homesick. Rent a car and just explore from place to place.
Right now my lady and I are planning a honeymoon in September or October – yes Kim we decided to stand up before the preacher and make it all legal. We’re both explorers of the “let’s drive down this road and see where it goes” type. So the plan is to load as many clothes as we can (not many) into my Miata and do the back roads of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. Of course we’ll stay at the haunted hotels in Eureka Springs and visit the overpriced mother of all Bass Pro shops in Springfield. The trip won’t go to exotic places but I think that it will be fun.
A place I’ve been before – on the gondola to Aguille du Midi in Chamonix, but this time make it all the way up. Last time the upper part was down for maintenance so we got off at the halfway point and made the hike from hell across to the cog rail station. I’d bring the wife and spend a whole day up there.
I know you’ve cast shade on it in the past due to the people there, but Switzerland. I travel for work so it doesn’t hold much allure to me once I factor in the annoyance of getting there, but the scenery of Switzerland is something I’d endure travel just to see in real life.