Memories. Ahhh Yes, Memories of My Life

My Destination Of Choice

PROMPT July 14th

If you won a free trip to any foreign country, all expenses paid in your own private jet and had the time to go (and there were no travel restrictions due to a global pandemic), what is the first foreign country you would visit? Who would you bring with you? What would you spend your time doing?

         That's a really tough question for me. So let me tell you where I've been in my life thus far, and despite all the places I've been, there's so many more I want to see. So, I've been to the following:

1.  Guam - Seven Missile Submarine (FBM) Patrols out of there from 1974 through 1978
2.  Philippines - 1979, for about a month while on a Western Pacific (WestPac) cruise on a submarine
3.  Hong Kong - 1979, Just a week there, with little time to see things. Same WestPac
4.  Tokyo - Again, a week, with little time to see the sites. I did get to visit a Buddhist Temple. Same WestPac
5.  Kuwait - Three weeks there in 2004 delivering classes for Motorola. Loved it there because I do love a desert landscape
6.  Melbourne Australia - 2004. Only a week, and I saw very little, and remember even less probably.
7.  Frankfurt, Germany - 2018. Just a week there while delivering a class. It was right before Christmas, so I saw the German street festivals in Frankfurt. Also visited Frankenstein's Castle.
8.  Bangkok, Thailand - 2019 - A place I'd love to have had a lot more time to see.
9.  Mildenhall, England - 2019 - Only a week there, I wanted to visit Stonehenge so badly, but didn't have the time then either.
10.  Algiers, Algeria - Jan/Feb 2020 - What can I say? I love the Mediterranean area and the diet they enjoy.
11. Canada - I've been in every province that connects to the United States. I've seen a lot, including the famous 'Bay of Fundy' with it's 40 foot tides.
12. I've been in all 50 States, but that's not a foreign country, is it?


         So where would I go first? I guess it would be Scotland/Ireland. I've long wanted to visit both countries. I have a little bit of each country in my blood. Loch Ness calls me, I could swing way south and see Stonehenge after all, and Scotland? Well, the bagpipes, the culture of both countries. I love seeing the culture of any destination I'm sent to. I don't mind 'playing tourist' (as I call it), and by all means, you (I) have to 'eat their food', nothing American at all! Who would go with me? There's only one real choice, isn't there? My other half of course. We would not spend much time in hotels, we'd be driving (or driven if we couldn't handle driving on the other side of the road Even when I travel on business, I try to see all the sites I can, so if I was there on a true vacation, it is mandatory to see those sites, huh!

         There are many other places on my list to visit too. South America with Machu Picchu in Peru, the Nazca Lines, and of course the Amazon Rain Forest. Australia again, visit Uluru, and also visit Tasmania and New Zealand since I'm in the area. Almost any South Pacific Island chain. Fiji, Samoa, Galapagos Islands, Pitcairn Island (only because it's Pitcairn, home of the mutineers after all), Antarctica, India, South Africa, all of Europe, Russia (Especially Moscow). Guess I wouldn't be satisfied until I'd visited about most of the countries here on Earth. After that? There's always the Moon, and Mars. But most of those places, I'll see in my dreams. I really wish that those of you who long to travel as I have, do get that chance.





Jim Dorrell