Why I Don’t Have a “Bucket List” List
I’m not one to have a “bucket list” nor do I proclaim New Year’s resolutions. I’m finding the older more experienced I get the less I worry about long-term planning, or pretty much making any plans at all. Perhaps it has something to do with retirement and the level of flexibility and freedom it offers. Or, maybe, it’s just because I’ve stopped worrying about what might happen, opting instead to live in the here and now.
Twitter Travel Chat
I recently participated in a travel chat on Twitter. One of the questions posed was something about bucket list travel destinations. Someone commented they would love to travel on the Orient Express and my immediate reaction was, “Yes! Me too.” Participating in the chat got me to thinking about why I don’t have a bucket list, and if I did, what would be on said list?
Why I Don’t Have a Bucket List
The primary reason I don’t have a bucket list is because I don’t want the self-imposed pressure (or sense of missing out) of not completing the items on said list. No thanks. It’s the same reason I never make New Year’s resolutions. I’d rather just appreciate opportunities as they present themselves. If they don’t present themselves, well, then they don’t and life goes on. Life unfolds the way it is supposed to. Right?
With all of that being said though, just for fun, let’s suppose I did make a bucket list. What would be on it and why? I know one thing for certain, it would be a list of BIG ticket items.
Egypt & The Sixth Graders
In a previous lifetime I was a teacher. I taught elementary school, sixth grade, and one of my favorite subjects to teach was ancient civilizations. Egypt, was an amazing unit of study for my students, and for me. We spent six weeks of each school year exploring Egypt through textbooks, creating 3D maps, reading novels and participating in archaeological digs. At the end of the unit we celebrated with an Egyptian festival. During those six weeks of study my students addressed me as Queen Maghamsetput.
As a lover of history I’ve always been curious about exploring Egypt and taking a cruise on the Nile River. I’d love to explore the pyramids, with a private guide who has the ability to share a wealth of knowledge, and answer all of my questions. At the end of each day of adventure, we’d (because of course I’d take Abi with me) once again settle in to our lounge chairs on the deck of our river cruiser, sit back and watch the sunset as we slowly drift along. Our friends, Brian and Gilda at Traveller Interrupted offer great travel tips for the same trip that would be on my list.
The Orient Express & The Austrian Alps
It would be the proverbial trip of a lifetime to travel on the Orient Express, at least I think so. Partly, because of the sheer elegance and romanticism of the trip, and partly because of the exorbitant cost of such a trip. I’m pretty sure we’d have to win the lottery to take an Orient Express adventure. If we were going to take on such an adventure, it would have to be first class all the way. Wouldn’t it be grand?
While traveling through Europe, we were fortunate enough to travel by train through the Austrian Alps. The passing views from our window seats were breathtaking. It was like nothing we’d ever seen, nor would ever see again. Ever since that day I’ve wanted to return to Austria and travel once again, by train, through the Alps. Doing so on the Orient Express would be the ultimate train travel experience.
As we waited at the Salzburg train station for our train to arrive, we wandered a bit and lo and behold we came upon the Orient Express in all of her glory. She was beautiful! We took several photos and went so far as to just gently run our hands along the car, which was polished to perfection. Now that would be an experience worth creating a bucket list for, to travel on the Orient Express.
National Park Road Trip
While different sources offer different numbers, there are seemingly 58 National Parks in the United States. The ultimate road trip would be to visit each park in the lower 48 states.
We’ve driven across the United States five times; two round trips and one east bound, one way. I loved each trip. As much as we love train travel, we equally love road trip adventures. The advantage of a road trip over a train trip is absolute flexibility. Done for the day? Find a hotel and stop. Hungry for french fries? Look for the golden arches, which can be found on practically every interstate off ramp, and order up some hot greasy goodness. See something interesting that’s worthy of a diversion side trip? Go for it.
My ideal game plan for a national park road trip would be to pack the car, or maybe try an RV rental, and just take off. Six months would probably be enough to catch the highlights of each park, but I think to do the trip justice, one year would be ideal. I think one year would allow time to take advantage of optimal weather and road conditions. That, and having the extra time would allow for extended stays along the way.
I’m not exactly sure how many national parks we’ve visited, but I’d guesstimate we’ve made it to 18 – 20. Not bad, but surely not enough. Taking the ultimate national park road trip would be high on my bucket list.
A Good Long Walk
While my body is still able, and my mind is willing, I’d (we’d) love to take on another good long walk. In 2015 we walked 350 miles on the Camino Francis and in 2018 we walked 145 miles of the Portuguese Camino. Two extraordinary experiences. While the Portuguese Camino was beautiful in scenery and the graciousness of the locals, it did not physically challenge us like the Camino Francis did. That walk nearly did me in.
After walking the Camino Francis I swore I would never take on another long walk, but we eased back in to our walking stride with a much less strenuous walk from Porto to Santiago. Each walk taught us to listen to our bodies and we learned a few tricks-of-the-trade as well. For example, I will never again take on a long walk wearing hiking shoes/boots. Sneakers with memory foam insoles are my shoe of choice.
There is one thing we know for sure and that is we are not campers. At the end of each day of walking we want to retreat to a private guest room and bath. So, while it might be quite the adventure to hike the Pacific Coast Trail, for example, it’s not going to work for us.
There are numerous hikes around the world, and in the United States, known as inn-to-inn hikes. There are many of them that peek my interest including, Hadrian’s Wall Path in the UK, the Dingle Way in Ireland, the Rocky Mountain National Park Lodge Tour in Colorado and the Four Historic Inns Tour in Vermont to name just a few. I think they’d all make great additions to my bucket list, if I had one. Our friends Larissa and Michael walked Hadrian’s Wall and share their experience at Changes in Longitude.
What’s On Your “Bucket List” List
Well, that was fun to dream a bit, but as I said, I don’t have a bucket list. If these excellent experiences should present themselves, well then of course we’d jump at the chance. But for now, it’s fun to dream BIG, because isn’t that the only way to dream?
The only remaining question is… do you have a “bucket list” list, and what’s on it?!
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” I’d rather just appreciate opportunities as they present themselves” I love this line Patti. It makes me think of all the times I’ve said no when I should have said yes. I don’t have any regrets or secret wishes for a “do over” but my goal in 2020 is in-line with this simple turn of phrase. Maybe it watching North by Northwest a few too many times, but I have this romantic idea of long distance train travel that seems to only diminish with each train ride we do take 🙁 . But I’m still keeping hope for the Orient express and a solo walk somewhere. I lack that solo travel confidence that seems to be natural for a lot of bloggers. My bucket list consist more of personal challenges. A total solo travel experience (including planning, fending off wild animals and learning to read a map) is on the top of my list :).
North by Northwest is one of my favorites. When we visited Mount Rushmore I kept imagining the two of them climbing down the faces of the presidents and realizing how impossible it would actually be. 🙂 Let’s meet on the Orient Express one day. As for the solo walk there are a lot of solo women who walk the Camino de Santiago, or portions thereof. I can’t travel solo because I need someone to kill spiders and/or any other variety of creepy crawlie. 😉
Patti,
TX so much. I’ve actually been lurking here for awhile and followed your Portuguese walk in real time. We have made 3 trips to Porto so far and are about to go again in 2 weeks. You folks are a great resource and I will continue to follow.
Moving to Porto (currently at year 3 of a 5 year plan). Go to Andorra (a dream from 8th grade; I’m currently 60). Walk the Camino Frances (we are walking the Caminho Português this coming September). Take a river cruise on the Seine à la Audrey Hepburn in the movie Charade. And finally, I’m so with you on that Orient Express!!
Hello Katie, thanks so much for finding us. You have some great plans in the works. We walked the Camino Francis in 2015 and part of the Camino Portuguese in 2019. Completely different walks, both wonderful in their own way. Let us know if we can help with tips on Porto! Keep walking and keep planning!
Patti, my husband is more of a planner than me. He loves a good list, whereas I prefer to go with the flow. But recently I have been thinking more along the lines of “I am not getting any younger, so should I trek in Nepal before my physical abilities decline?” perhaps more of a list of travel priorities, rather than a bucket list per se. Also some long haul travel destinations that might be harder to accomplish as we get older…like New Zealand for example (although one can make few stops along the way). This year I would love to walk the “Camino”, like you did…fingers crossed. Thank you so much for the link into my Nile River Cruise blog post, I really appreciate that.
I hope you do get to experience the Camino Francis, Gilda, it’s an extraordinary experience. We have friends that our taking an Egypt trip similar to yours and she read your blog post, and now she’s even more excited!
Anytime you are ready for Egypt, let us know. I taught 6th grade too and would really like to experience that place. You might want to put Crete on your non bucket list too. Lots of the same kind of history and gorgeous place.
Top of my list is Africa, but I can’t seem to find a travel partner. Linda
Sounds like a plan, Linda, and I think I know another couple that would tag along as well! 🙂
Great post. We do have a bucket list. Just to keep our future travel destinations organized. If we make it to most that’s good enough for us. Life too short to deal with self-pressure.
Cheers!
Thank you for the feedback, John and Susan. I’m a big fan of organization in any form!
Maybe its a question of terminology. We don’t have a “bucket list” per se but we both have some solid ideas of countries we would love to travel to, should the opportunity arise and present itself. So in that way we are much like you two. We prefer not to plan for more than a couple months ahead, otherwise it doesn’t work for us.
That said, we would love to do a trip to Africa: Ethiopia, Botswana, Tanzania. As well, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Nepal and Borneo are some of the places on our “wish list”!
Peta
You could be right about the terminology, Peta. We just had some big plans blow up very unexpectedly, which is sealing my commitment to not making long term plans. I too would love to experience Greece, but I’d like to do so when we have more than enough time to do it justice and see beyond the tourist highlights.
I have my “bucket list” (for want of a better phrase) which keeps getting longer and longer with each travel blog I read! However, like you, I don’t want to feel the pressure to check off the places one by one but instead be open to the magic of possibilities. While in Spain last week, I took a totally unplanned day trip to Morocco. I have a road trip from Portugal to Croatia planned for June and friends who are staying in Egypt for a couple of months (whoop, whoop I’ll finally take a sail down the Nile!) have invited me there for a September visit. For me, it’s a mix of timing and serendipity that make the travel a reality rather than a pipe dream. I know that if you’d told me 10 years ago that I’d be living in Portugal and traveling to places I only dreamt about, I would have laughed. Life is pretty grand, isn’t it? 🙂
Well-done, Anita! You’ve got some fantastic travel experiences coming your way. A road trip from Portugal to Croatia will be quite the adventure. I look forward to hearing (reading) all about it!
Interesting post Patti. I’ve never sat down and thought of a bucket list and I’ve actually always hated the term. I also find that I’ll suddenly get inspired by places that I had never really considered before. Moscow and St. Petersburg for example. I didn’t really have inspiration for Russia until we went to Kyiv and saw the amazing churches there…so sometimes inspiration comes from a travel experience somewhere else.
We’ve also travelled full-time for 5 years now so sometimes our inspiration wanes. I’ll bet when we have a base (hopefully sometime this year) then we’ll get the itch and suddenly get really inspired.
Like you, train experiences rank up there. The Orient Express or the Blue Train in South Africa. One thing for sure: we want luxury after some really crappy train rides this year (like Tbilisi – Yerevan and Bar to Belgrade just a few days ago). I think Lissette is getting sick of roughing it 🙂
Otherwise I want to see more of Africa. And Uzbekistan a place I’m recently curious about. And I’d like to see more of South America.
Frank recently posted…Where to stay in Montenegro: Kotor or Budva?
Completely agree about finding inspiration through travel experiences. After walking the Camino de Santiago, we had a gap of about 5 days before we had to be somewhere else. We hopped on a train and traveled to Porto…the rest, as they say, is history!
I was hoping we could do the Hadrian’s Wall walk—no poisonous snakes or bears— and “only” 85 miles. I’ve read Larissa Milnes’ writings about their walk. But, now I’m nursing a bad back (MRI today!), so I realize that having this on a bucket list could be disheartening. So, I’ll pare my bucket list down to: see the Northern lights, visit Antarctica, and go on an RV trip. Like you, I don’t want to add FOMO (fear off missing out) angst to my Boomeresque life.
Agreed. We all have enough angst without adding in FOMO! Antarctica isn’t on my radar because I think one has to cruise some fairly rough seas to get there, so I’ll wait for you to go and report back. 😉