53

Today is my 53rd birthday. I haven't been out of the United States in 17 months and I haven't left North America for 21 months. But I am mask-free, vaccinated and have been healthy throughout a global pandemic that's lasted over a year. All things considered, I count all of that as very, very good news. I'm also so lucky that I haven't suffered any lasting personal loss due to this pandemic. I know there are so very many people out there, including some co-workers, who are not anywhere near as lucky as I have been. I count myself as very, very fortunate on this day.

About a year and a half ago, I would have guessed on this date that I'd be reminiscing about a trip to see some of California's most amazing National Parks and describing how life-changing an encounter with wild gorillas was during the past year. That ain't happening. We scuttled those two trips a long time ago as well as a couple of others we had planned even before I reached birthday number 52. 

Despite the risks and the fact that I worked 14 months at home after never having worked a full day at home before in my life, we did decide to travel during these past 12 months. Our decision to do this was not made lightly and we took what I consider to be precautions over and above what we needed to take to get where we decided to go. We also scrapped some planned trips when COVID cases started to spike. There's no way we were taking those kinds of risks. And, yes, we were travel shamed when we got back. I'll be glad when that cultural trend is in the rear view mirror.

I can't tell you how many possibilities we investigated before settling on the four trips (plus a weekend in Richmond and one in Pennsylvania) we packed into the last year in the United States. We looked at all sorts of scenarios in California; Boston to Rhode Island to Maine (before Maine decided to exclude tourists); Kansas City to Tulsa with maybe an extension down through Arkansas; countless variations of trips combining stops in Memphis, Alabama, Mississippi and maybe some other places; Los Angeles to Joshua Tree and back; the Hudson Valley; a northern Arizona jaunt; flying to Denver and driving to Mount Rushmore with a return trip through Nebraska; Chicago to Milwaukee to Iowa; and many more. I'm pretty much set for domestic trip ideas for the foreseeable future. And if four trips (plus weekends) seems a lot to be taking in a pandemic, maybe it was. But it was way less actual time on the road than we would have normally spent. And we did it way differently than we have traveled before.

So where did we end up? In splendid isolation out in National Parks in the Utah desert and Colorado mountains; in more National Parks in Wyoming and Montana; on three driving trips (we NEVER drive to vacations) to Vermont and Pennsylvania and Richmond; and a post-vaccine-waiting-period road trip through the American South. All USA trips. They were just the safest options. We could have gone further. We just didn't think that was worth the risk.

Standing on the Utah-Colorado border near Dinosaur, Colorado.

So an annual ritual on my birthday is taking stock of my goals for the current five year period. Not surprisingly, I have not made much progress, although there was some. Last year at this time I had two goals left: visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia and visit the remaining states in this country that I hadn't yet set foot in. I did not make it to Cambodia this past year (shocker, I know!) but I did manage one new state (Arkansas). One new state may not seem like a lot but when it takes your states remaining total from four to three, it's pretty significant. Watch out Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. Can't wait to see which is the last one. I have two more years.

The birthday post is also an opportunity to reflect on the best of the best in the past year and look forward to some exciting possibilities in the coming 12 months. Staying domestic didn't diminish the excitement in any way this past year. Highlights for me since last June 22 were our hike to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park; every single minute of our time in Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park; learning about maple syrup in Vermont; hanging out in Jackson, Wyoming; and cheesesteaks at Pat's in Philly and fried chicken at Gus' in Memphis. Not too shabby I'd say.

So what's the next year hold? Honestly, I'm not completely sure. I'm pretty confident we'll proceed with a trip to Maine this summer that's already booked and we have a notion about Vienna, Austria much later this year. Other than that? It's a bit of a fuzzy canvas, although it appears I will finally make it to Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House and I can't wait for my next cheesesteak at Pat's. If there's one way this pandemic has affected our travel, it's that we've delayed committing. At this point in past years, I'm sure we would already have trips for the next year already booked. This year, it's a bit more wait and see. I'm sure we'll be fine. And I already have like 12 or 14 domestic trips outlined ready to go at a moment's notice.

In many ways, we should count our blessings that if there was a country to be confined to and explore on a limited basis for 12 plus months, we had the United States. Yes, the federal government handled this pandemic disastrously, but the variety and quantity of amazing places to visit in our country is truly astonishing. We were able to get such varied experiences in a year limited to our nation's borders. Can't think of too many other places on this planet where we could have done that.

So that's it. Onward! Let's start seeing what's out there in year 54. I'm optimistic I'll be using my passport to travel somewhere soon. Just where it is I have no firm idea. Happy birthday to me!

Coplay Cement Company kilns in Pennsylvania. Didn't blog about these but still one of the cooler sites we visited last year.