Trying To Recall the Whole Year

Well, last year, (2020) was different, we all know that, and this year is going to be different too, I think we already know that, a whole month in. Nope no do-overs, sorry we have to keep plugging on.

I don’t know where you are in your Covid-19 experience, but I’ve passed denial, anger, boredom, and it took me a while longer than some others I’ve read about on the interwebs, but I’ve finally hit reorganizing.

Last week I was listening to one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett albums, yes kiddies, Changes should be listened to as an album, a set of songs, when the title song came on… “I took off for a weekend last month, Just to try and recall the whole year”, It hit me, it’s time to re-organize.

Over the years, during my TwR hiatus, I’ve gotten worse about organizing trip photos. Oh, I still take plenty, I just don’t organize them well. So, I took off last Friday just to try and recall 2019. I found almost 6,000 photos in my 2019 “folder” and organized them into 26 folders that make a little more sense.

With my friend Jennie from Must Love Travel Chat pushing me to do more on Travel with Rick, I knew I needed to look through those photos for some ideas. Wow, did I find some great stuff! Well, at least I thought so. I’ll let you be the judge in the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing some on the blog, on youtube, and Facebook. You know, the usual places.

For now, for this post, I thought I’d share a few of my favorites from our trip to Paris / Bordeaux 2019 …

This was my favorite photo for a while after this trip, I’m not sure why. This was our guide at one of the many Chataue’s we toured in Bordeaux. There was just something about walking down this long corridor with the anticipation of what waited ahead, our wine tasting!

I love this photo, this is our crew, my peeps, the folks we travel through life with, our friends. We’ve drank a lot of wine and shared a lot of good times.

You see, good wine and good food

and good wine

and good times

In lots of great places. This was at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris before we began our Bordeaux river cruise

I’m including this one, not just because I think it’s a pretty good pic of me next to a cool vintage ride, but it also sums up one of my favorite travel quotes. “The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see”. We were on a tour of Bordeaux, and everyone was enjoying the amazing architecture, (the thing we came to see) when I spotted this photo op. I guess I saw what I saw, a classic Royal Enfield piece of history.

Had to include Leslie, standing in a vineyard, in France, in a beret. She steals my heart, constantly. Could not ask for a better travel companion

Mi amigos, and a LOT of wine!

The one that we almost didn’t get. My phone / camera had died, but Connie saved the day and got the pic. Check out the size of those bottles, and the size of the collection!

Another pic of Leslie. I include this one because this was our flight back from Bordeaux. Our last flight of 2019, and my last flight period. We took a couple of short trips at the beginning of 2020 and a cruise from Port Canaveral, but this was the last flight I was on in 2019, and wow, I just realized, I didn’t fly anywhere in 2020. Nowhere.  (Look at Alice checking out Leslie’s sandwich – Leslie’s book)

Since you saw my last flight, I thought I’d share this, this is my last airport food before the pandemic hit. November 2019, haven’t been in an airport since, this is now February 2021. That’s salami and other dried meats on a French baguette. Not a bad last airport meal. Oh to live in a time when we long for airport food again!

I began the post by saying the first photo was my favorite, that was until I discovered this one while “reorganizing”. This was the train station in Bordeaux. We took the train from Paris, and boarded the Ama Dolce for our river cruise. Amid all the hustle to get off the train and to a taxi and to the boat, there was still time for a photo. I may have not been great at organizing always, but once in a while, I catch a good photo, or someone catches one of me.

“I took off for a weekend last month, just to try and recall the whole year. All of the faces and all of the places, wonderin’ where they all disappear”. Thanks Jimmy.

Okay, couldn’t resist one more. This was on the airport chair in Bordeaux. My backpack’s been sitting on my office floor now ready to go for over a year. When the time is right, we’ll be back out there at it again!

Be well, Travel Safe!