Travel ahead in 2020

This week, as the calendar turns to 2020, it’s time to look ahead and see just what a busy 2020 has in store.

An exciting development that popped up last year was the chance to travel to Ireland with the University of New Hampshire Marching Band. This coming year marks the band’s 100^thanniversary and the director, who was a freshman during my senior year in the band, decided to plan a trip to Ireland and invited alumni to come along if they were interested. The first international trip (not counting Canada) I took in my life was also with the UNH Marching Band, when we traveled to Europe in late 2001-early 2002. I was also an alum at that point, but that trip was a blast and I am hoping the Ireland trip is much of the same. I’ll be making that trip in mid-March and will be in Ireland for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin.

A few weeks later, I will make a shorter trip, this time to Florida for a little spring training baseball. The Kingswood baseball team has made a number of trips to Florida over the past few years and I usually tag along with the Knights, in part for a good story, in part to get a taste of warmer weather after a long winter. This year the Knights will be going to Dodgertown in Vero Beach the final week of March. As it so happens, the Kennett baseball team is also planning to be there that same weekend, so I will get a chance to see two different teams in action over the course of the weekend. 

Obviously, the big trip of 2020 is the two weeks-plus I’ll be spending in Tokyo in late-July and early-August for the Summer Olympics. This will be my third Olympic trip, but it will be the first time I am covering the Summer Games, which from all accounts, are much bigger than their winter counterparts. I’ve taken a few preliminary looks at the schedule and it is daunting with how many different sports and events there are, but I am looking forward to the challenge of seeing as much as I can. As of right now, my plan is to be in Japan for July 23 and stay until Aug. 10. I have booked my media accommodations to cover those nights so the next step will be booking a flight, which is on my to-do list for early in the year. I am incredibly excited to get the chance to see the Olympics in a different light, though I’m not as excited to deal with the wonderful humidity that comes with a summer in Tokyo.

Of course, there will probably be a few Survivor trips in the spring as well, since it is season 40 and there’s bound to be some excitement for the all-winner season of the game. It’s looking like another New York trip and also possible trips to Atlanta and Los Angeles. But that is preliminary.

I’d also like to check another baseball stadium or two off my list, so I’ll see how that works out as well.

I guess 2020 is going to be a pretty busy year, assuming all goes as planned.