During these days of travel dreaming, rather than travel doing, we’ve asked readers to reveal their bucket list destinations that they hope to visit when the opportunity to travel returns. Having recently met and spent time with a NASA astronaut, Canlink Travel’s Brent Carnegie is now inspired to follow Don Thomas into space.

Being in the travel business for quite a while now (let’s just say over 30 years) I feel very privileged to have visited many places around the world, seen and experienced a lot of incredible things and had the opportunity to meet a multitude of incredible people.

I remember many years ago, my reservations manager at Thomson Vacations sent me on my first FAM trip – to Jamaica – during which a thought crossed my mind that I have never forgotten: I was walking along the beach at sunset and I realized how lucky I was to have a job that allowed me to do things like this, which many people can only dream about.

At that moment I pledged to myself to never take for granted what we in this business have the opportunity to do and to experience on a regular basis. And to this day I think of that, such as when I catch myself complaining about a delayed flight, the “hot” January weather, or some other hardship that those of us in travel have to “endure.”

So, I feel very lucky to have seen the things I’ve seen and been to the places I’ve been – but there are still so many places I’d like to explore.

Having said that, a new one has recently landed on the top of my wish list: Space!

Before you laugh, last fall I had the opportunity to spend a week with a NASA astronaut – Don Thomas, who represented Kennedy Space Centre on our Orlando travel trade road show in Canada.

Don turned out to be one of the most incredible and interesting men I have ever met, as one might expect of someone who has been to space four times on US space shuttle missions STS-65, 70, 83 and 94, which resulted in him having orbited the earth almost 700 times, spending over 1,000 hours in space, and travelling over 27 million kilometers.

During the week we spent together, I also discovered that Don is one of the most humble, genuine and “down-to-earth” (sorry!) men I have ever met.

During our conversations, he told me about the exhilarating eight-minute journey from lift-off to the silence and serenity of space; the sense of “team” that he experienced throughout his missions with his international crews; the satisfaction of completing the day-to-day tasks that the crew was responsible for while aboard the shuttle; along with a multitude of other fascinating topics.

However, the conversations that I found most interesting were the ones about how his time orbiting the earth made him see our planet in an entirely different way. He talked about the oceans and the land masses and how there are no lines separating countries and people; and about the fragility of our environment and the fact that this is where we live, so we need to take care of it. He explained that from the vantage of space, the earth looks so small, yet you know there are billions of people living down there who are dependent on one another. He said in many ways it makes you seem small while also giving you a sense of purpose.

I was curious about his return to earth. Really, my question was about the turbulence of re-entry, the ship engulfed in flames while coming through the atmosphere. But his reply was about his feelings of how his time in space was incredible and life changing and how coming home was really what it was all about – how it made him see our planet and people in a different way and how special this place is.

So, yes, there are so many incredible places to visit, people to meet and moments to experience on our planet and I’d love to see and do it all, but thanks to my new astronaut friend, my ultimate destination experience would have to be looking down on earth from the silence of space.

I’m pretty sure that it will never happen, but it just goes to show how time spent doing something different, meeting someone new, and experiencing something unique can also completely change our perspective. And isn’t that what travel is really all about?

We welcome contributions: Send yours with the subject line “Where I Want to Go When This Is Over” to baginski@travelindustrytoday.com. (All submissions are subject to editing for length and style).