Maybe I can go where they grow those oranges for my tea

Day: Tuesday
Time: 8:20pm, Pacific Rain Savings Time
Location: Not Belgium. Eugene. Perugino. Back table.
Drink: Tea, Earl Grey, hot (in the style of Captain Picard)
Mission (should I choose to accept it… oh wait I have): Hammer out my blasted itinerary.
Let' rock. Wait… a bit of honey first.

Drinking my tea has me thinking of Italy. Earl Grey, you see, derives its flavor from the oil of the Bergamot orange, grown exclusively in Italy. Bugger if I know where exactly, but I wouldn’t mind finding out so I can go and thank them for brightening up many an evening (ed. note: short coastal zone in Reggio Calabria that overlooks the Straight of Messina. Thank you Google).
Drinking my tea, and looking at my stack of maps and papers and brochures and various wotsits, also reminds me of just how much work it can take to put together a decent-sized trip.
This ain’t no college road trip after all. Then my idea of planning was stopping by the dollar store on the way to the highway, so I could tank up on enough cheap junk food to last a spring break jaunt from Tennessee to Florida.
Breaking down such an extensive list — at least 50 cities across 40-some countries — just doesn’t come together all at once. It takes work. It takes planning, and some sweat and swearing and cutting this part out and adding this part in and going “ah hell, I’m already so close I might as well swing by here…” Oh, and tea. It takes lots of tea. And a beer afterwards. Belgian. In Belgium, for that matter…
But damn this is the fun part. Time to get some more hot water, and see what I can hash out tonight.
Warning: The next few posts are random brainstorms, thoughts, first instincts slapped down into pixels, and dead ends. A lot of dead ends. But how else do you make progress?