I'm Returning to Florida for Autumn 2025

St Pete waterfront viewed from inside Dali Museum

I’m Returning to Florida for Autumn 2025

I just booked my flight from London to Orlando, Florida in early October.

Now normally after booking an upcoming international flight, I’d excitedly be yelling, “yippie!” But this time, the whole thing has me shaking my head, as if to clear out my mind, and feels like I’m about to enter the Twilight Zone.

Florida? Again, Florida? Really?

I had no plan or intention of returning to Florida this year. I had planned to be traveling around several new countries in my ongoing quest to visit every country on the globe.

However, this isn’t the first drastic and unexpected change in my travel plans this year. It’s more like an ongoing theme for 2025. Sigh.

In this case, it turns out that my step-dad has decided that he and my mom should move out of their nice spacious Florida home, down-size into an apartment and get rid of mounds of stuff they’ve accumulated for over 40 years together.

So clearly, I’d better go back to help them out. It also looks like it will be the last time I’ll get visit with them in their lovely Florida home, with its huge screen-in back patio and beautiful landscaped gardens. Heck, it might be the last time I get to stay with them, ever, if they move into an apartment with no room for guests.

And their move impacts me further since I’ve been storing a few boxes of clothes, photos and travel memorabilia in their garage, as well as using their address as my official US addy (needed for important things like a bank account, passport and drivers license). I’ll have to get that all sorted out one way or other by the time they move into a new place. Clearly I need to go back now.

Of course I’m looking forward to visiting with them, as well as my brother and his wife, who also live in St Pete. That will be great.

But it also means that my goal of visit 10 new countries per year certainly won’t happen this year. Sigh. In fact, with all the other unexpected, thwarted travel plans I’ve endured in 2025, I will likely only visit four new countries this year, out of a total of nine countries I’ve roamed around in 2025.

I’ll probably end up staying in the Florida region through December or January so I can enjoy a final family Thanksgiving, Christmas and NYE before I head out into the vast world again. Especially considering it might be the last time I’ll ever get to stay with them.

With any luck, I’ll make it down to a couple/few Caribbean islands, or maybe also Hawaii, during that time. I’m already keeping my eye out for pet sitting options at about a dozen Caribbean & Hawaiian islands and will jump on the chances if they pop up.

Thus far, they are far and few between. Sigh again. But if I do luck out on a couple of assignments, I’d at least get to visit a couple more new countries in 2025.

But island hopping is up in the air at this point, dependent on my parent’s moving situation and the vagueries of pet sitting assignments.

In the meantime, right now I’m still enjoying pet sitting all over England. I arrived in late May and will be here until early October, just over four months in total.

My return to England this year is yet another completely unplanned (and un-preferred) addition to my travels in 2025. I’ve already visited England three times previously and spent five months of 2024 exploring the other countries of the UK- Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales – plus Ireland. So I really didn’t need to spend more time in England.

I would have preferred using these four months to explore new countries, toward fulfilling my goal of 10 new countries per year and visiting all the countries of the world.

This travel hitch of returning to England is mostly a result of the pesky Schengen Zone rule that allows non-EU citizens only 90 days at a time to travel around Europe. When my Schengen time expired in late May while I was in Switzerland, I couldn’t figure out anywhere else to go nearby that I hadn’t already visited or that wouldn’t be too scorching hot in summer months.

So England was my default. London presented the fastest, easiest and cheapest flights from Switzerland. And England is one of the easiest countries for pet sitting. In fact, within three weeks of searching, I had lined up back-to-back pet sits around England from late May through August, before I ever left Switzerland!

As and added bonus, after traveling around Switzerland, England actually seems cheap! Especially for food and public transportation.

Although I would have preferred exploring new countries, I have been able to visit many amazing places in England for the first time. Places like Bath, Stonehenge, Chester and Oxford. In fact, I will soon return to Oxford for three glorious week, pet sitting of course, when I’ll be able to really explore the culturally-rich university city. I can hardly wait.

Trying to put things in a more positive perspective, I can say that I am still spending all of 2025 out traveling the world. And I’m greatly enjoying my pet sitting assignments. So many wonderful dogs and cats to be-friend. So many great hosts to meet. And so many great houses and apartments to stay in, all on my own, with peace and quiet, fully-equipped kitchens, luxurious private bedrooms, Netflix and often landscaped gardens to boot.

I’m very privileged to be staying in so many wonderful houses and apartments, all gratis, and to have great furry companions for company. It sure beats hostels and hit-or-miss AirBnB rooms. In this regard, I can hardly complain about my travel life in 2025!

I’ve also explored several unique countries in the Middle East, much of Switzerland and the tiny country of Liechtenstein for the first time. I’ve enjoyed many wonderful cities, towns, villages, mountains and valleys. I also re-visited one of my favorite cities in the world, Istanbul, Turkey.

My only real complaint is that I keep getting thwarted towards my goal of visiting every country on the planet. At this point, I really need to visit at least 10-12 new countries per year to have any realistic hope of reaching my goal. In that regard, 2025 has fallen quite short.

I guess all I can say at this point in the year is that I hope 2026 goes more smoothly! Last year, 2024, went as smooth as clockwork. So I can certainly hope next year will too. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, I’m very happy that I’ll get to visit my mom, step-dad, brother and sister-in-law this year. And I do love St Pete, Florida. So I’m sure I’ll enjoy cycling my favorite bike routes, the stunning Florida vegetation and re-visiting some favorite places in St Pete….at least in between helping move house.

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