“What's your favorite travel story?” - this was an icebreaker question in a recent virtual meetup I attended.

And as a person who thrives in newness instead of the past, I could not come up with any. Or, each one of my past travel stories was as favorable as the other. But, for me, the best travel stories are those that have not happened yet.

These built-up expectations that keep replaying over and over in my mind are my best travel stories. The expectation of the experience until these illusionary fictional stories that I constructed in me are finally replaced with the real experience of the idealist realities of visiting there.

The last two years have been hugely impacted by the pandemic. Like my 30th anniversary trip to St. Marteen’s that we did not make last June. Or, the summer and winter settings in Banff that I have not seen. Or, the working sabbatical in Europe for a year and a half to do that road and rail trips all over Europe. Or the Inspiration 4 trip around the world on a Space X flight, just kidding.

What's your favorite travel story?