Once we arrived and were on the road, we fell into a routine each evening of going over the next day’s itinerary. Over time we started to modify our intended plan slightly—at first to accommodate the weather or our moods, but eventually because we were learning a better way to travel. Who would have thought that after more than fifty years of traveling there was anything I could learn about how to go about it? But as the extended nature of our trip began to sink in, and we grew comfortable in each of our adopted homes, it began to feel less like travel and more like real life. We felt our pace slowing and ourselves relaxing. Some of the less compelling sights began to fall off the itinerary, and we would set off each morning with an abbreviated list of places to visit.

At some point during the day, after visiting the sights we most wanted to see, we would realize that we weren’t going to get to the remaining places on the list before they closed for the day, or our energy ran out—whichever happened first. So we’d spend the rest of the day enjoying wherever we happened to be. These occasions, seemingly random in their location and decadent in their pace, provided many fortunate encounters with people and places along the way, and were some of the highlights of our trip. We had begun to consider travel as more than a series of sights to be checked off of a bucket list and to spend more time in the moment. We were taking time to experience—not just observe—stops along the way, as well as the journey between the stops. Soon, sharing photos on my website was not enough; I wanted to share what we were experiencing—and so the blogs began. This book is a collection of the blogs I wrote as we traveled, and several more that I wrote after we returned home and had time to reflect more deeply on our experience. It is the story of what happened once we slowed down and made ourselves at home on the road.

As you may have gathered, I am a planner. Organization and structure, for better or worse, are in my nature. I am a list-maker, and I get great satisfaction from crossing items off my list each day“. But since retiring a few years ago and discovering that time takes on an entirely different meaning when you are your own master, I am learning to slow down and think beyond the list—to allow unbidden things to enter my life. Serendipity cannot be planned, it turns out, no matter how hard you try, which makes it all the more satisfying when you take the time to let it find you.

So I didn’t get to see everything on my itinerary after all, but I came home richer for having learned to slow my pace and experience more. The compass is still spinning, and I look forward to planning my next adventure, but I’m also anticipating finding new ways to slow down and enjoy travel more. I will continue to read the guide books and check the reviews, but I will use them only to sketch the rough plan. The ultimate journey will be determined as we go—by sometimes getting waylaid and stopping to taste the berries you find growing by the side of the road there.