Sometimes the biggest decisions take no time to make.

My husband Steve and I have decided to do this crazy thing, this trip around the world. I brought up the idea one day (because events have conspired to create the rare affair called perfect timing), and we tried it on for size. A few days later, we were fully committed to going. Just like that.

We will go for 6 months. Anything much more than that is too long to be away from friends, family, and our two old dogs. Anything less, and the decisions on where to go become way too difficult.

We developed several itineraries and even used the internet to find the Perfect Route (it's like a fingerprint, by the way. Different for every person). We developed a plan, then another, then changed all that again, of course. But we have now landed on a general concept of where we will go. We will bypass the Pacific/Australia/New Zealand (been there, done that), nearly all of Africa, and South America entirely, plus a whole lot of other good stuff that we want to see. There just isn't enough time to see it all (I know, only 6 months, boo hoo). We want to plant ourselves in each location for 2 to 4 weeks.

This blog is to help keep in touch with friends and family, and I hope it might also be of use to other travelers making plans. I hope to publish every day. We will see how that goes. If you subscribe to this blog you will get a message when I post something new.

For those of you who want to follow along, here is our intended route.

These dates are confirmed and booked:

• March 27 - April 11  OSAKA, JAPAN (hotel)
• April 11- April 14  SEOUL, KOREA (hotel)
• April 14 - April 28  BEIJING, CHINA (rented apartment)
• April 28 - May 1 KUALA LUMPUR, MALASIA (hotel)
• May 1 - June 1 PHUKET, THAILAND (rented villa)
  

These destinations and dates are still tentative, and change approximately every 15 minutes:

• June 1 - 5 MUMBAI, INDIA
• June 5 - 26  GOA, INDIA
  
• June 27 - 30  DUBAI, UAE
• July 1 - 5  CAIRO, EGYPT
• July 6 - 12 SYRIA
• July 13 - 31 TURKEY
• Aug 1 - 22  CROATIA
  
• Aug 23 - Sept 6  PRAGUE
• Sept 7 - 9 MARAKESH, MOROCCO
• Sept 9 - 30 ESSOUAIRA, MOROCO
• Oct 1  home (maybe!)