Milestones

Doug Circumnavigates The Globe

* before I die

Adventure

Circumnavigate The Globe

Number of Times I've Circled the Earth:  2

During January of 2000, I made a trip to Europe - visiting four countries in just over one month of travel.  I started in Scotland for the Millennium celebration, then went to France, Switzerland, and finally, Italy.  Two of the cities I visited in Italy were Rome and Florence - where I met Kumiko.

Of course, when I returned to my home in the United States, I traveled west from Europe.  When I finally started my extended world tour later that same year, Kumiko had decided to join me.  So the first stop in my travels was to be Japan - and to get there, I flew west from the U.S.

We continued west from Japan across Asia, and eventually made it to Europe in the Spring.  We knew we wanted to return to the two cities in Europe that had the most sentimental meaning for us - Florence, where we met, and Rome, where we spent the most time together (a whole two hours).

When we arrived in Rome, I suddenly realized that I had complete one of my 101-things-to-do - namely, this one.  It had taken seventeen months, but I had traveled ever westward between my two visits to Rome.

What's that?  You say it doesn't count because it wasn't done in one continuous trip?  Okay, how's this?...  I started my world tour from my home state of Texas on December 5, 2000.  As stated previously, I traveled west to Japan, continued west through Asia, and on to Europe.  Then on December 5, 2001 - one year to the day after departing Texas - I flew from Switzerland back to Texas, thus completing (officially) this item on my list.  [This is the route shown on the map above.]