Things are hotting up on the mullet front.

I phoned a travel agent the other day to make enquiries about a round the world ticket, but realised on talking to the very helpful adviser that I really need to be an awful lot more specific about my routes and times.

This is annoying in one sense because I don’t want my trip to have to be set out with such military precision that there’s no room for being flexible or simply letting events and experiences determine my pace and direction.

On the other hand it was a useful wake-up call, because it made me realise I need to have at least some sort of vague plan, and it also occurred to me that I really needed to pinpoint the precise location of some of the remaining mullets.

And so, with a world map I bought this afternoon, I did exactly that.

It’s been a helpful exercise, for two reasons. Firstly because just looking at the map on my wall with all the pins has made the trip look quantifiable, manageable, perhaps even achieveable, and I can now start thinking about exactly what route I will take. There are, however, lots of questions I need to mull over, particularly about the balance I strike between air and overland travel throughout the USA.

The second reason is that I have been able, thanks to the wonders of Google Maps USA, been able to find out a bit more about the areas in which some of the American mullets lie, where previously I knew very little about them.

I’m now a little more excited about some of them – Mullet Lake, Michigan, for example, is right at the heart of the Great Lakes region, and is handy for the two Canadian mullets. Meanwhile I’ve discovered that Mullet Bay in Florida is in the Everglades National Park. If it’s not like Gentle Ben in that neck of the swamps, I’ll be gutted.

So after a period of some nervousness about hitting the road for six months, making the map this weekend has helped significantly to bring the task ahead into focus.

There is the small matter of money yet to be resolved, though. More on that later.