Year in review - Travel

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Do you travel much?


I travel a lot and sometimes people ask me how much I travel.  I'm also a bit of a nerd (or geek depending on your definition) but I'm definitely a very analytical person.  Therefore, when I realized how much travel this job was going to require, I embraced it and get a little excited every time I get an entry stamp in my passport from a country I have not been to before.   For our anniversary last week, my wife gave me this awesome map.  You can scratch off countries you've been to.  I haven't started scratching yet, but am looking forward to getting started.


Work
2017 was a little slower on the international travel side of things, but still managed to get to 3 new countries (France, Germany and Switzerland).  This brings me to a total of 25 countries I've been to, but that includes 2 countries I was in for less than a day.  I went to a total of 8 different countries in 2017 and spent a total of 74 days outside the USA.

All work and no play?
Most of my travel is for work, but sometimes I can find a little time to enjoy something wherever I am.  This year, some of the fun things I found were mountain biking down the side of a volcano in the Andes, watching Tango dancers in a park in Argentina and exploring little villages in the Black Forest in Germany.


I spy...
I also like to keep my eyes open as you can see some things that you would probably not see closer to home in the USA.  I've seen 3 people on a motorcycle before, but I think this was the first time I saw 4 people on 1 motorcycle. At least they all had helmets on.


Life (besides work travel)
It's probably a good thing my work travel was a little lighter than 2016 since my wife and I sold our last house and bought a new one this year so moving also kept me busy.  We also managed to find time to go to California a few times for some getaways, went tubing and kayaking and even made it to a number of sporting events and concerts.


Conclusion
So to wrap things up, if you ask me about my travel, you might be opening yourself up to a lot of stories so you might want to narrow down the question.  In spite of spending so much time on the road, I do love coming home as my wife and I make the most of the time I am around and we really enjoy the travel we do together.  We have a lot of fun finding new things to try whether it is riding a Segway in Scottsdale, ZipLining in Tucson, swimming with sharks in the Bahamas or a mud bath spa day in Ecuador.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am blessed more than I ever could have imagined.

Your Turn
Now I want to hear from you.  What are your favorite destinations and what do you like to do when you travel?  Are you someone that looks for adventure or more of a book-on-the-beach kind of person?  Use the comments below.

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