Who am I and where am I going next?
My name is Walter and I have been a travel addict for over 35 years. For the majority of that time, I have been working professionally as a graphic designer, mostly from my home base near Washington, DC. I also lived for various lengths of time in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland (in the 1990s) and Mexico (during the pandemic). Since the mid-2000s, I have enjoyed the relative freedom of self-employment, which has enabled me to undertake some of my longest and furthest flung adventures.
It has gotten to the point where the most common question I’m asked these days is “Where are you going next?” It’s a fair question. While there’s always a good chance that I have some ideas or plans percolating, I do like to think I’m still somewhat grounded in reality. Most of the year is spent living and working at home, keeping wife and clients happy, paying bills and taxes, mowing the lawn, etc. But not having children has probably been the most important factor keeping open the opportunities to travel more often and outside of peak seasons – although I certainly would have loved to share the world with young ones had fate decided things differently for us. Having a job I can carry with me in a laptop and a supportive “boss” also helps a great deal.