Finding the Right Direction

Plans continue to come together and though the "I want to see/do" list is getting longer the questions mount up too.

I've researched a "dude" ranch or guest ranch as they are also known. This one's in British Columbia!
It offers morning and evening rides, meals, evening entertainment of some kind (like a Wrangler vs. Guest volleyball tournament!), a bar, fly fishing instruction (never done that), trap or skeet shooting instruction (never done that either) and a horse for the duration of the stay.
The horse is "mine" for the time I'm there and I learn to tack it, brush it, feed it and muck out it's stall.
It really sounds rather neat.

I've also be looking at the Oregon trail and the drive down the west coast to California. I'd like to go to Big Sur, the Red Wood forest and see a sea lion in the ocean. 

As you can tell the concrete jungle is getting to me and I'm imagining seeing the "wilds" of North America in the next while. There's so much to explore.

Many folk have offered ideas of things to see and they get jotted down in the trip book to be researched and thought about.

Last week, with the help of the internet, I asked for tourism books and travel guides to be sent to me from all the provinces and many states. The mail box will be filling up soon I hope.

As many people have suggested that I book things for my trip on line it all seems rather foreign and out of touch to do it that way. With time on my side I'm going to go to a travel agent and as them to sort it all out for me. The big stuff anyway. The driving trip I can manage much of on my own.

I'm narrowing down my travels in Europe and would really like to take a train through part of it.
The Alps would be fantastic to see by train I think and with my love of the mountains it seems to obvious to do that. Now I just have to figure out from where.

So as I continue to look forward I'm seeing a plan slowly start to come together.

Here we go!

To Be Free...

As I travel on a crowded subway to and from work or look around the busy streets of Toronto I wonder what it will be like to be free.
Free of the commitments of work,
of HAVING to be there.
What will it be like to be free of the congested travel of the subway?
Will I miss the chaos?
Doubt it.
Will I miss the convenience of "having someone else do the driving"?
Maybe.

Last weekend I travelled to Niagara Falls to play a couple rounds of golf with a good friend B.
She is a good golfer.
I'm passable.
It was fun.
The weather was perfect.
The plans worked perfectly.
My golf score wasn't great but...
it didn't matter.
For 2 days (3 if you count the day off after the trip) I was free.
I was a tourist.

I have to get into tourist mode.
I spend my weekends with The Man and the beloved dog in a touristy area of Ontario but we aren't tourists. It's our life there. We have commitments, friends, places to live. We don't act as tourists. We organized, plan and strategize our time together, as it is limited. I have to get back to the crowded city....where I don't always feel free.

To be a tourist is to be free!
Interesting concept.

In the coming year I plan to investigate this concept FULLY!

Where will I be?...

When I plan something as big as what I think I have in store for me I am already putting plans together for NEXT year at this time.
Will I be in Ontario?
Who knows...

As we watched the "Thanksgiving Classic" from Winnipeg I thought "that would be fun to go to next year".
Hmmmm

Someone, on the weekend, suggested I be in California on New Years Day 2012 to go to the Rose Bowl.
Hmmmm
(Can you tell I'm a football fan?)
Where to start? Where to end?

It's such a strange feeling to be "unscripted" in my plans.
All my life I have been scripted in my agenda, times, schedule, departures and arrivals.
What's it like not to have an agenda?
To go somewhere and see something just because you can.
Most people I know NEED to have an agenda to feel they are contributing to what ever they are doing or being. I've fallen into that trap. It's very strange to know it might not be that way in the coming year.
Selfish?
Everyone is telling me this adventure is one of a lifetime.
I have to keep remembering that...

So far all the plans have been fitting in so well. I have contacts in Texas, Florida and Arizona..
Hmmmm
Someone told me tickets for the Phoenix Coyotes games are only $20.00.
Hmmmm

But I digress...
The book of lists is getting longer.
Then my co-worker lent me a book on Prague.
Oh my!
There is so much to see!
The lists continue to grow.
My Prague cousin has told me that they have plans to show me all the places that were significant to my father.
Wow!

This is GREAT!

Questions, Questions....

My mind is constantly whirring, thinking, planning, "what if-ing". I have months to go before I leave for Prague and then my road trip but there is so much to think about.
I have started a "Book of Lists". There is too much for my little brain to hold.
EEEKKK!!

First off I have discovered what it will take, financially, to keep up my pension at work.
When I've put in this many years of service, I don't want to lose it.
Then benefits. What do I need to do to keep those up while I'm on my Pilgrimage?
Right, check that off the "investigate" list.

Little things like do I need a visa (the document, not the card) to travel to the Czech Republic?
What about Czech money? Where do I get that?
OH my brain's overloading.
One thing at a time....

When I set up this blog I meant it to be a report on my pilgrimage not only to Prague, Czech Republic but also my travels across Canada and the States.
There's so much to plan for that too.
I like to have plans set down, for the most part, I like to know what I'm going into.
But
I've never done anything like this before.
I'm glad I have time to figure it out.

A member of my extended department at work just came back from 3 weeks travelling the east coast. I need to pick her brain. What was good, what wasn't?
Another friend told me about a Boston Beer Festival held in June.
Oh my...
I need to add these all to the list.
What would I like to see? What are my "must do" events and attractions?

Some folks have asked if it's hard to know that I'm going on these adventures but they're not happening for some time.
I say, that's perfect!  I need the time to make the best plans all work out and fit in as much adventuring as I can.

Oh yes, I want to go to a working Dude Ranch in the West too!
More to figure out....