As a freelance travel journalist, I'm frequently told I have the "dream job." Multiple times a month, I fly to a new city, new state, or new country, searching for adventures and stories. Like all careers, there are definitely downsides, but there's not a day that goes by that I'm not grateful for the experiences this type of career has afforded me.
My wife and I have been planning a trip for around five years. The idea was that it would be a big one for our 10th anniversary; we celebrated our 16th in August. There were deferrals due to family tragedies, work-related upheavals, a global pandemic, and more work-related upheavals, and there have been other small trips mixed in, but there has always been planning, albeit at the lowest possible simmer.
The map on the giant screen in the center of the dashboard showed the route we'd be taking, following Tilden across Connecticut Avenue, where it merged into Reno Road and wound its way up to Nebraska Avenue.