I Haven't Started Yet

I could turn that into a metaphor.  My journey will start May 24th, when I fly out of Toronto enroute to Istanbul.  Why am I doing this, you ask.  Well, in fact there are all kinds of reasons, but mostly for the adventure - 'an experience of a life time' as they say.  My favorite history story was about Marco Polo and the Silk Trail.  I'm not sure how close our path will actually be to his - Asia is a big place - but it will be close enough.  I won't mind a few variations within a magical dream story like this.

I am joining my friend Hazel, her husband and friends, all from Australia, on this trip.  I traveled through Europe with Hazel 30 years ago.  I was looking over old letters, and found one Hazel had written to me just after we parted, she returning to Australia to join up with her then fiance, now husband, Bob.  It was so right to find this passage in her letter, September 21, 1982:

Yes, Hazel and I were in Venice those many years ago -  the place where Marco Polo launched his own journey.  And now we pick it up again, along with Bob and a truck full of other Aussies, following a similar course - crossing the vast lands of Asia.  It's all so cool.