Greetings From Seattle Airport!

My flight from Bend arrived here a little while ago and now I’m waiting to board the next flight. Of course, there’s a story behind why I’m here and where I’m headed:

Two and a half weeks ago, I made a commitment to participate in a special event in France, taking place in the middle of November. There were no ideas, let alone any plan, of what to do before and after this commitment. Rather, I knew it would serve as the trigger for a trip. At the time I made the commitment, I had no idea what might develop, but I knew something would grow. It just needed a little time to germinate.

One week ago, I finally sat down to look at a calendar and maps. World maps. I looked everywhere, at everything, to see what attracted me. Of course, this wasn’t the first time I’d done this, but every time I do it is just like the first time anyway, looking through new eyes. All sorts of ideas came and went, came and went. Then some ideas came and didn’t leave. I collected those ideas and then sketched a map of the world on a sheet of paper, marking the places of interest on it. It reminded me of early grade school, especially when I started making lines to connect what looked to be the best (not necessarily most logical) way to link as many of them as possible. As the sketch began to take form, tentative dates were marked on the calendar, so I could better visualize the time factor along with the potential movement. Finally, an attractive pattern emerged from this mess!

Once the pattern began to emerge, it was like a dam burst and a flood of activity ensued. The next step was to see if the pattern could be fixed, by means of buying airline tickets, then hotel bookings for the first 2 or 3 days in each place, along with some rental cars, visas, insurances and oodles of other details that needed to be attended to. The end result was that in three days’ time, I made more flight, hotel and car reservations than I’ve made before any trip, ever. This is trip is complex in the beginning stage. In order to flow with the lines and dates of my sketches, the first part of travel needed to be fully planned.

Here’s my flight schedule for the next six weeks:

OCT 19 – today, departing in 2 hours, I’ll fly to Paris, via Frankfurt
OCT 21 – Paris to Bordeaux, France
OCT 24 – Bordeaux to Marrakech, Morocco
NOV 15 – Marrakech to Bordeaux
NOV 18 – Bordeaux to Paphos, Cyprus
NOV 22 – Larnaca, Cyprus to Tbilisi, Georgia
NOV 23 – Tbilisi to Baku, Azerbaijan

Arriving in Baku is the last bit of travel that is scheduled. Previously, I’ve only changed planes in Baku, but never stopped. This time I will spend a week or two looking around.

A friend I met in Iran a few years lives only one hour south of there. He thinks he will be able to get authorization to travel to Azerbaijan to meet me and spend a few days traveling together. In December of 2015, he was my personal guide for three incredible weeks of travel in Iran, during which time we got to know each other well. He’s a great guy, I can’t wait to see him.

Obviously, there will be travels after Azerbaijan, but nothing definite is set. I have ideas, but I won’t know what is possible until after arriving in Baku. Besides, even if I could make plans in advance, by the time I arrive in Baku things could be very different in this crazy world. Regardless of what might happen, my sense is that the biggest part of the trip will take place after Azerbaijan, but we’ll see what actually happens.

So, soon I will be off to discover what I’ve gotten myself into this time… no doubt it will be interesting.

Enjoy the flood of life and be amazed!

GoldBalloon