The Namib desert from the top of Big Daddy Dune

World Wild Rover

  • Chincoteague and Assateague Islands

    In most cases, I prefer to plan my trips so that they involve leaving the United States, but having returned from the United Kingdom less than two months prior, I felt like it was too soon to go abroad again. I had a few days on my own and so I decided to plan a… Read more

  • Republic of Ireland

    Our visit to the Republic of Ireland was a part of the same trip as Scotland and England, but because the experience was so different, I decided it needed a separate entry.  I had been to Ireland during my year at the University of Manchester.  As it was a weekend trip, my traveling companion and… Read more

  • Scotland and Northern England

    While I lived in England for an academic year, I was really only able to experience a small part of the United Kingdom.  I made at least two short visits to London, one with several of my flatmates, an overnight trip to Edinburgh, and day trips to York, Oxford, and either the Lake District or… Read more

  • Panama

     I had considered including a visit to Panama in the trip to Costa Rica, but decided quickly that in the week we had available for the trip, it would be too much running and would take away from the trip overall.  I still wanted to make a visit.  My interest in Panama was fueled in… Read more

  • Spain and Namibia

    I completed my goal of visiting every inhabited continent with my trip to Australia, as I had been to Africa before in 2007 or 2008.  At that time, I had secured an invitation to speak at a conference that was originally to be held in Morocco but got moved to Malta after I had already… Read more

  • Costa Rica

    I had not included my daughter in any of the trips I had done up to this point partly due to scheduling issues and concerns about safety in a minority of cases (really just South America), whether warranted or not.  However, with a summer vacation approaching, and after some discussion with my daughter and her… Read more

  • Grand Canyon and Yosemite

    I had been to the Grand Canyon before with my brother and his now ex-wife years past, but only went down to the first station on Bright Angel trail before turning around.  Hiking to the bottom and back up was something I wanted to do, but also nervous about the idea due to my fear… Read more

  • Tasmania

    The last continent I had to visit to complete my goal of visiting every inhabited continent was Australia.  Given that Australia is huge, and about the most time I could schedule away from work was 2 weeks, I decided I need to pick a small corner of Australia and explore it as well as I… Read more

  • Argentina and Uruguay

    Being somewhat safety-obsessed when it comes to travel, and having heard scary stories about safety in South America, I thoroughly researched the safety situation before selecting my South American destinations to find a location that was both interesting enough to make the trip worthwhile and where I would not be looking over my shoulder constantly. … Read more

  • Singapore

    I chose Singapore for my first Asian destination because it is one of the safest Asian nations and it was one of the first to relax COVID entry restrictions so that testing was not required to enter.  Also, one of my friends from my year abroad lived in Singapore.  While we had not kept in… Read more