I’m not exactly a world traveler, but over the course of my life I’ve been to 19 countries, including, of course, the U.S., where I’ve visited all 50 states. And to both of America’s neighbors, Canada and Mexico.

I’ve also been to most of Europe except for Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece. Oh, never Norway or Sweden, either. In the Middle East I’ve been to Israel and Lebanon. Below is a map from an app I have called “Been,” showing in orange all the countries I’ve actually been to.

As I look at it, it’s obvious that I’ve never been to any Asian countries. I almost went to Vietnam in the late 60s when there was a draft lottery and I had a low number, but I ended up joining the Army Reserve and served all my time stateside.

And I’ve never been south of the equator. No South American countries, no African countries, and no Asia-Pacific countries, either. I did have an opportunity to go to India once, but that ended when the company I worked for got acquired and the acquiring company closed its Bangladesh facility.

And that brings me to the countries I would like to visit: Australia and New Zealand. In fact, when Trump won the presidency in 2016, I even reached out to both countries about possibly emigrating there, but as a retire with no income potential, I didn’t qualify for other than a short-term visitor visa. So the likelihood of me ever going to either of these two countries in what remains of my living years is slim to none.