Number 1 on my bucket list is to go on an African Safari. This would be the exploring kind, not the hunting kind. Not that I’m against responsible hunting- it’s just not my thing. I’ll hunt with my camera instead.
Number 29 on my bucket list would be to swim with dolphins. I have heard of places that allow you to do this. I think this could be an incredible experience, especially if the dolphins would want to interact with me.
Number 86 on my bucket list is to go scuba diving. I have never seriously looked into this, so I don’t know how to start. I’ll probably have to earn some certification classes. I can’t be bothered to start the search just yet. I will do this soon enough.
If you’ve ever met me, you’ll know that I love music, especially country music. This is the genre that I was raised on, mostly. When I hear the right song, I’m reminded about growing up in southern Arizona, and I feel more at home.
Bucket list item number 21 is to attend a country music festival in the state of Tennessee. I have been to concerts and even Country to Country in Scotland a few times, but hopefully, once COVID-19 leaves, I can get a friend or two together, and we can take a road trip to some sort of festival. I haven’t done very much research yet, but I look forward to making a plan!
According to Wikipedia- Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th-century Romanesque Revival palace on a rugged hill above Hohenschwangau’s village near Fussen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. This is also said to be the castle that inspired Disney’s ‘Cinderella’s castle.’ This exact item was supposed to be checked off this year, but I had to cut my vacation travels short because of the COVID-19 mess. As of tonight, I don’t really know when this will happen. I will, however, keep you in the loop.
Picture Borrowed from Wikipedia, until I can get my own picture.
I went to Dollywood! I haven’t until now, however, posted the pictures or stories from this adventure. The good news: I just came across all of the images and videos from that trip. The bad news: I can’t remember most of the stories of what was going on at that time.
What I do remember, however, is that my friend Colee came to visit me while I still lived in Kentucky, and we went on a road trip down to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. On the way down, we listened to a lot of Dolly Parton’s music, and we stopped for a night at my friend Heather’s house.
Dollywood was a blast, and I would love to go back again! On the way home, we went Zorbing, and then we stopped by Mammoth Cave to explore. It was a really fun trip and an amazing visit with my dear friend, Colee!
I have finally put all these videos together, if you’d like to take a look. The first one is our trip down to Dollywood, and the second one is our trip back up to my home in Kentucky. I hope you enjoy!
I’m sure that many of you have been seeing what is happening in the airline industry right now. Covid-19 has undoubtedly taken its toll. I searched for the known impact, and I found this Wikipedia entry. It is so sad to see what is happening at the moment.
One way my employers are trying to avoid laying anybody off is by offering us an option to take a voluntary leave. They are calling it “Extended Time Off” or E.X.T.O. They let those interested decide if they wanted to take up to either 6, 12, or 18 months off, with partial pay. I happen to be one of these 17,000 employees who took advantage of this.
So, I have up to the next 12 months off. Not only will I make a partial paycheck, but I’m still considered a full-time employee. This means that I have all of my health and travel benefits still. While traveling the world for a year seems like a beautiful idea, Covid-19 is still rampant in some parts of the world.
While I would love to visit my beloved Scotland for the next six months, I don’t think they want Americans to come for a visit just yet. However, I believe that I should be exempt just because of my sheer love for all things Scotland.
Instead, I’ve decided to hunker down, for the time being, with a dear friend who happens to be going through some significant health issues. The plan is to try to help out in any way I can, even if I can only offer support.
There may not be as many travel entries for a while. I’ll use this time to fix some older entries and maybe talk about more things on the bucket list. As you know, I’ve slacked off quite a bit with the blog. I do beg your forgiveness!
I will try to keep this blog’s theme true: This is a record of my travels and chasing the things on my bucket list. I don’t plan on posting very much about what is going on in my personal life, but I will share one cool thing that I find exciting- just over a month ago, I rescued a little girl that I named ‘Reba.’
Finally! You can stop holding your breath! Since the beginning of September, I have been otherwise occupied/ distracted, but I Scream: 10 is now a thing! A special THANK YOU to everyone who participated this year! This has become such a fun tradition! My final count turned out the be 137 friends and family celebrating! Please enjoy this year’s slideshow!
Today was my annual recurrent training- a day where I am required to sit in a classroom for eight hours to recertify as a flight attendant. Although this day is more relaxed than initial training had been sixteen years ago, I still find it rather stressful. I know this is mostly head games, though.
Most every aspect of this training is a review, but that doesn’t make things any better in my mind. You are required to go through a few scenarios of things that can happen onboard. Even though I’ve never failed, there is always that thought that I may. I’m there in front of my coworkers, after all.
I am thankful that I made it through! I have thoroughly enjoyed this career, and I hope to keep flying for years to come!
I guess it’s time to give you an update. I am happy, excited, and nervous that starting next month, I will be taking up to a year off (the extended time off that I mentioned in my last post). This time off will free me up so that I can help a friend out who is going through some very serious health issues.
I hope that I can get back to Scotland during this time, but I’m not sure what I’ll be able to afford. I will have a smaller income- but perhaps I can find some sort of side-gig. Maybe some more time driving for Lyft? The next 12 months should be exciting because that is what I sometimes feel about the unknown. There is a chance that they may call me back to work before the end. You will know as soon as I do.
It is a crazy time to be employed by an airline! Thanks to COVID-19, many major U.S. airlines are getting ready to furlough or even fire their employees. Delta Air Lines recently announced that they would be furloughing up to 17,000 employees. American Airlines- around 25,000 employees, and United Airlines- up to 36,000.
One of the ways that my employer is trying to avoid this is by offering an extended time-off program. They are allowing us to take 6, 12, or up to 18 months off. In this program, the employee will continue to make a portion of his or her income. They will also get to keep all of their travel and health benefits. So far, Southwest has never had a single furlough- this is something that most airlines cannot boast. I hope it stays that way, so I’m going to do my part… tomorrow I will find out if I will be given the next 12 months off.
There is always a chance that those who are granted this time away will be called back. This is, of course, based on the need of the company. My guess is that this is going to happen. Once the pandemic dies down (perhaps one day after the election in November?), we will be filling our planes to capacity again. We have so many new planes ordered, and I know that the Denver base is about to grow. When this growth starts, those on this extended leave will be given a 30-day notice that we need to come back.
I will update again soon and let you know what I find out!
I guess I’m allowed to cross number 37 off of my bucket list. Well, technically, that is. The goal was to buy a Eurail pass, and that’s one of the things that I did for this last trip. Even though I didn’t actually get to use my pass (waste of money), I still purchased one.
As you know, my trip this year was cut short because of the havoc that COVID was reeking on Europe. The intended route was to fly down to Paris (after Scotland), take the train into Switzerland, southern Germany, and eventually all the way to Prague- but since things were closing, including borders, I decided that it was best to get my butt back to the states.
My experience having to deal with the Eurail people wasn’t all that great. You fill out your information online, and they have to mail you the pass. On this pass, you have to fill in the exact information of the train you want to take. This is leg by leg- I couldn’t just say I wanted to go from Paris to Geneva. If there was a connection leg, then I’d have to fill out each portion. It was really annoying-
My first complaint is that this should all be done online. I shouldn’t have to rely on my illegible penmanship. Surely this could all be done electronically. Perhaps we could be given some sort of pass/card to access the trains- the system they have set up now is obviously one that they’ve had in place since the 80s or early 90s.
On my next go-round, I’m not even going to bother with a pass, I’ll just book the trains individually. When I added up all the fares that I had to pay, I really wasn’t saving THAT much money by getting the pass. Maybe you had a better experience than I did?
DavTravels 