Every year I plan a round the world trip to get from my home in Canberra to a convention held in North America. June to March is planning and anticipation, April is travel, and May is recovery.

I also make the trip into a writing project. Last year it was a week in London to visit every square on the British Monoploy board, and this year I decided to try to visit as many significant World War Two sites as I could, with the idea of writing a book about the role of the American serviceman in WW2.

I've been home a week now, but I'm still awash with boarding passes and souvenirs, so in the breaks between writing about the war, I'll write about the travel here. I'm no great traveller yet, and it's still a big thrill for me to feel the first tug of pushback on my way to a new destination, so please excuse a certain amount of starry-eyed enthusiasm.

This report will take me a while to complete, so this post is by way of being a head-up in case anyone wants to read about a round trip (the long way) from Canberra to Canada with my head out of the window as far as it will go.