Burning the Inheritance

So, first of all, Happy New Year to everyone!

On January 4^th, 2024, it will have been exactly one year since we departed from Fort Lauderdale and arrived in Panama City, Panama the first stop on what has been a pretty epic journey which, as I write this, finds us in Fremantle, Western Australia, about 12,000 miles and 13 time zones from where we used to call “home”.

When I took stock six months ago, I noted that our perspective regarding events both within and outside of the U.S. had changed and now find that to be even more the case.  Our awareness of what is going on at home has been bolstered by a New York Times e-subscription, but after a year of being abroad, it often feels  like we are reading about events in a foreign country and the news sometimes leaves us less than enthusiastic at the thought of returning (certainly in regard to the state of politics and the upcoming presidential election).  Nevertheless, as our return to the U.S. becomes increasingly inevitable, we are paying closer attention to what is going on there.

As might be expected, I do think that being abroad for a year has given us much more of a global perspective on events in the world.  Not only are we more aware and interested in what is happening in places we are planning to visit (Colleen has taken a sudden interest in volcanoes and shark attacks), but also places where we have been, where events now seem much more real to us than they would have in the past.  And, at times, this global perspective we have gained suggests a different position on issues than the one we might have assumed in the past.

With (only?) four months to go before our scheduled return to the U.S., the end of this adventure is coming into sight and is starting to raise questions of what will come next for us.  But, we’ve still got quite a bit left to see before then.  As I said, we’re currently camped out in Fremantle Australia for a couple of weeks where I hope to catch up on the blog, which is woefully behind (my New Year’s resolution is to get back to something approaching real-time blogging).  But after that, we are back on the road again with 11 destinations planned over the next month in Australia before meeting up with friends in the Whitsunday Islands, so stay with us!

Again, Happy New Year. Let’s hope its a good one for everyone!

PS – We’ve received comments and questions regarding the planning and logistics of this grand adventure, a subject which probably warrants its own blog segment.  But, in the meantime, if you are interested in more details regarding where we’ve been, download the app Polarsteps and look for Ritch Sherman and Shermans Big Trip.  Polarsteps is a pretty cool app which tracks the details of our trip – dates and places – and has a great graphic representation of it showing our route and stops around the globe.  According to Polarsteps, there have been a total of 139 steps to our trip thus far, including day trips and layovers.  Whew!