Itinerary

We've been working on the actual itinerary lately. As we find out firm dates for each appealing Esperanto gathering next summer, we see whether it will fit in. We've had to eliminate some candidates because of timing conflicts, and sometimes we'll be able to do just a few days of an 8- or 10-day meeting, before rushing on to the next place.

The last three weeks of our trip, in September, are currently completely free. That will allow us to visit any friends we made along the way at the various gatherings, or to use Pasporta Servo (the booklet that lists Esperanto-speakers willing to host travelers) in any enticing cities that we missed.

Les learned how to use GIMP in order to create a map of our plans. As we make changes to it, you'll always be able to see the latest version by clicking on the itinerary link in the sidebar to the right. I know that it looks like a lot of criss-crossing, not very efficient, but that's how it has to be in order to join the groups we like.

I've been doing a lot of genealogical research on the Kerr family, from Denny, Scotland. We're going to spend a few days in Denny, near Glasgow, to perhaps dig up some more details. Les' great-great-great-grandfather was born there in 1762, and I'm sure that some far-removed cousins still live there, because Les' great-great-grandfather is the only one in those far-off generations who immigrated to Canada, leaving scads of other Kerrs behind.

We've handled one of the concrete chores: we started renting a post-office box in Belltown. We won't need it until the end of February, but Les was impatient on that point. He's already sent change-of-address notices to dozens of organizations and companies. Our son David, who works near there, has agreed to periodically clear out the box while we're gone, telling us if anything important comes in. (Not very likely, as we do almost everything through the Internet.)

I've started clearing out the Pied-a-Mer, our houseboat, in preparation for moving more important things there from the apartment in the next few months. So, if you live near us, get ready for yet another "give-away" session; foam sleeping pads, anyone?

Italy?

The news this week is that we've added a new country to our destinations: Italy! We had previously decided to skip all the southern European areas because Les abhors hot weather. But I read about a one-week Esperanto conference just held in Fai della Paganella, northern Italy, and it sounded great. There were 223 attendees, half from Italy and half from 25 other countries—but none from the US. They did fun excursions like mushroom hunting in the hills. They had a lot of music and dancing. A Japanese woman did a class all week in the use of the soroban (Japanese abacus). All this, of course, among the regular classes and talks.

San Benedetto del Tronto

Next year's meeting will be in San Benedetto del Tronto on the Adriatic Sea. Les was not on-board with this when I first told him, because of the heat factor. But I've been looking up air-conditioned hotels in that town, in case the conference pensiones don't have it, and Les is recalling that we enjoyed the conference in Yokohama despite the humid heat there. So I have hope that he'll come around, and meantime I'll "pencil it in" (figuratively) on my itinerary spreadsheet for the end of August.

As always, I have no desire to see any other parts of Italy if we go. My focus continues to be "Esperantujo" rather than sightseeing. We would just bop down for the one week, then head back north to the coolth.