Life seems to speed up as the calendar years advance…….the first 3 months of 2017 have been a bit of a blur.  Travel has been limited to the weekly runs from Stanthorpe to Ipswich for work and community service activities ( just hosted the screening of Zach’s Ceremony – wonderful doco), the occasional trip to Toowoomba for sad funerals, medical appointments or visits with the boys at TGS while slipping in the sweet tastes of newly discovered cafes with old friends and meeting new cousins.  I have however, enjoyed travelling vicariously through the FaceBook postings of those who have jet-setted around the globe or to interesting places in Oz.

However, the three months have not been without elements of travel.  We are determined not to let the disappointment of not yet achieving a sale of our home and property dampen our plans for the trip in July and August.  You never know what doors will open and when.

We are not locked in to organised external tours this time until we hit the canal hotel boat in England and the South African Safari tour at the end of August, so we are haunting TripAdvisor and googling to our hearts content.   There are already so many things on the wish list and some lovely family and friends we will catch up with as well as exploring!

Our What not to Miss lists in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec in Canada are obviously waaay too long.  But our chance to see newly discovered cousins in Surrey and drop in on another one in Hamilton near Toronto is keeping us really focused on getting the itineraries up to speed for the first leg of the Around the World adventure.

The most wonderful news has been the arrangements of first time meeting with the cousins I hunted for over 30 years to find near Vancouver; and the confirmation of our dear friends Marlene and lovely mom Anna McGowan coming from Chicago to join us in Philadelphia for a great few days; then we will be burning a hole in the New York City Passes when we head to bite the Big Apple.

Again we have declared that this may be our last chance to get overseas, but already we are looking at a 2018 trip to South America with our evergreen friends Tom and Lorry….as well as Apple and Grape Festival; Commonwealth Games; a possible Easter gathering at Boondooma Station; a tentative booking for  Genealogy Cruise from Vancouver to Alaska in September; and Simcocks (Melbourne) and Guy (Yangan) family reunions in November…….you only live once.  And of course we need to find time to work to pay for all these….lol!   Bring on the house sale!

So until we head off on Air New Zealand on 5th July, we are planning a short trip to Rockhampton for Mum and her sister Aunty Eileen to catch up, and keeping up with the workload and firewood pile in case we need it for winter……Farewell summer and thank you Autumn for the glorious colours and soaking rain.