Around The World In 80-days

When does a trip start?  Does is start when you arrive at your destination, maybe when you depart from home.  What about that first exotic meal in a foreign land...

Even if  its is just spicy fish ball noodle soup at YVR (Vancouver International Airport) - which is technically both exotic and in a "foreign land".

Perhaps its when you pack

and then pack again

and pack once more to make sure it all fits.

Sometimes an adventure requires special equipment brought along.

In which case it is a great relief to know that it is indeed being rolled onto the right airplane at the right time.

Maybe that trip starts earlier, like when all the maps arrive in the mail.

Or maybe even earlier when you first realize that a trip like this is even possible (10-years if anyone is counting)

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But perhaps that trips starts along time before all that when as a child you read stories in books and saw pictures in National Geographic of a far off land that was so incredibly different from the place where you lived, you just knew that one day you had to go there.  And so here I am in London England about to ride 11000 miles over the next 2-1/2 months to those very places along the Silk Road.

But Ian - you ask - what does London England have to with the Silk Road?  Nothing - I answer - except that's where I could ship my bike on an airplane this time of year so I can ride through Venice which to me has everything to do with the Silk Road (it's a Marco Polo but not a Netflix Marco Polo thing with me).  And after all the dust settled with booking flights and arranging shipping I realized that this little adventure was set to span 80-days and would indeed by a full circumnavigation of the world.