For the non-believers, golf is a silly game, populated by old men wearing oatmeal coloured pants, driving around in clown cars, who waste entire afternoons chasing a little white ball into a little round hole. But for the faithful — and there are millions of us, both men and women — golf is the ultimate game full of heartbreak and glory.

In France, just outside Arras, the Douai Plain’s western edge bubbled with dunes, treacherous as the deep rough of a golf course. But this was no par 3; the undulating pockmarks were the scarred remnants of World War I shelling. This was the battlefield of Vimy Ridge.

TORONTO — Geordie, my lovely little Westie and best friend in the world, looks at me with his big sad puppy dog eyes every time I retrieve my suitcase from the closet. He slumps to the floor and cradles his furry face in his paws, and I swear his eyes well up as he watches me pack. And when he drives off with the dog sitter, he presses his nose up against the car window as if to say: “please take me with you.”

AMSTERDAM - They spend more time in the air than most pilots. And collectively they’ve travelled the equivalent of 46.5 return trips to the moon. Who are these inspired travellers? Entertainers, of course. And who’s the entertainer who travels most?

ON THE ROAD - To date, the most exciting proposal I’ve ever heard from a man was not, “Will you marry me?” No, it was, “Will you travel around the world with me on a motorcycle?”

TALA, MEXICO - Dave and I had a simple reason for doing this trip: curiosity — for the way people live, for having our own transportation in foreign corners of the earth, for how a coconut tastes when it comes only a few metres from its true source and for who we might have as friends at the end of two years travelling the globe.

People often want to know the highs and lows of our planned trip around the world. At time of writing, Dave and I are on a plane to Cape Town, South Africa, where we will find our motorcycles, sent a few days ahead of us on a flight from Vancouver. We have yet to experience the second half of our travels by motorcycle to some of the earth’s most spectacular destinations, so we have yet to discover even more of the highest of highs.

BARRY’S BAY, ON - Theirs had a sauna. Big bonus. Theirs had a wasps’ nest. Big minus. (The spray stuff you buy in grocery stores to eliminate the kamikaze pests, by the way? Good luck with that.) Theirs had a swimming raft with a kid-friendly slide on it. Check. Theirs was well equipped for a family of four, two adults and two kids, ages 2 and 6.

THE WORLD - Travel is the best teacher and the world is the ultimate classroom. Whether they are learning a new skill or learning a life lesson, there is no better way to gain knowledge than through experience. Children are sponges, absorbing everything they see and hear, so here are 10 ways children can learn through travel:

LAS VEGAS - Skeptics think the National Hockey League rolled the dice and took a big gamble by putting a franchise — the Golden Knights — in this town where betting was the only contact sport in the past. Locals, however, disagree. In fact, many say the NHL’s success in Las Vegas is a sure bet.