Fifty In Fifty! Next?

Readers who don't feel particularly driven by their goals might want to skip today's reflection. If you choose to continue reading, don't say I didn't warn you.

Which of your goals - met or unmet - has endured for the longest period of your life? I was twenty years old when I decided I would visit all fifty states. I'm pretty sure I didn't envision it would take me fifty years to do so. Alas, when I finally land in my last two states next February - Alabama and Mississippi - I will only be about eight months away from my seventieth birthday.

To celebrate this 50 in 50 milestone, I've promised myself a gigantic margarita sometime while my wife and I are traversing the Natchez Trace Trail. But, my addled brain has already begun conjuring new travel goals. Such is the fate of the goal-driven. Ready?

Since - at my current rate - it would take about 185 years to get to all the remaining countries I've yet to visit, my scaled-back goal is to visit 10% - approximately twenty - of the world's nations while still ambulatory. And - there's always an "and" with us goal geeks - the list of eight to ten countries to be visited over the next several years must also get me to the four remaining inhabited continents I've not yet been to. Current contenders - provided my travel partner agrees - are Kenya or Morocco in Africa, Thailand or Vietnam in Asia, Argentina or Ecuador in South America. Australia gets me a two-for-one country and continent bonus - cool.

Now, what to do about the remaining 90% of the world's nations I'm unlikely to visit? Well, at least our "Eat The World" project, initiated in March 2011 (see link below) has already gotten my wife and me to the cuisine of eighty-eight countries. Our latest culinary journey - in August - took us to South Sudan. Provided I retain my teeth and digestive system, at least my taste buds will eventually travel the entire globe. Still with me? What are your travel goals?

reflectionsfromthebellcurve.blogspot.com/2011/03/world-traveling-via-food-to-be.html