When Our Travel Plans Fell Apart

Spending Time Around Our Backyard

It feels a bit like being put on restriction and sent to my room for a while as punishment. 2026 was planned with a number of travel itineraries, but things fell apart early on. The first being our fourth try to exploring Egypt. It seems there are several places that have repeatedly frustrated travel plans. One was Salisbury Plain in England (we’re actually trying again this May) to visit Stonehenge and oddly, the other is Saint John in the Virgin Islands, but Egypt is the real frustration. Every attempt at visiting has fallen apart.

This particular trip was to include two weeks touring along with a Nile cruise and stopping for a few days in Dubai on our way home. As things started to fall apart we held onto hope of at least getting Egypt done. In only a few days our flights into and out of Cairo were cancelled and that was that (we got much of our deposits and airfare back and Experian Travel Insurance covered all our additional losses).

So with extra time on our hands we started hiking near our home base. Below is a recent photo collection from hikes around and near Lake Apopka in Central Florida…

Florida is our adopted state and while many people say it’s too flat, hot and rural we really love living here. On your next trip after the theme parks and the beaches find a little time to explore Florida’s real wild side…