The First Step

It’s hard to believe we’re writing our first post. We’re almost ready for the trip of a lifetime. Well, ready is a relative term, but we’re leaving whether we are ready or not! It’s been a long time coming, with many years of dreaming, saving, and planning. For so long it has felt so far away, but now it is almost upon us. At this point we have 65 days until we leave. 65 days to finalize our plans, prepare to be away for 6 months, and lock our house, saying farewell for a long time. We know the next time we unlock that door, we will have visited 18 countries and changed in more ways than we can count. For now we’re finishing up the work of getting ready and will start documenting that process. For us that looks like:

• Finalizing packing (we’ve been working on this for 1.5 years, so hopefully we’re in good shape at this point)
• Finalizing planning of the big stuff (lodging, travel)
• Starting to look at the small stuff (what will we do in different locations?)
• Dealing with the logistics of leaving (do we have the right insurance, etc)

We’ve created this blog to help our friends and family stay up to date on our crazy antics. We will also gear some of the posts towards the logistics of this sort of travel, as a way to pay back for all the blog reading we did to get ideas during our planning stages. We’ll include some gear reviews and general travel tips we’ve picked up along the way.

People tend to ask us “how” questions when they learn about our trip:

• How did you come up with this crazy idea?
• How did you pick out the countries you’re visiting?
• How did you get 6 months off work?
• How do you have enough money for this?
• How are you going to pack for that?

In future posts we’ll work on addressing the many “hows”. But in this first one, it seems appropriate to address the “why” (though notably we get asked this question FAR less often…).

Why are we traveling for 6 months?

To experience the world. We want to sit and stare at the Eiffel Tower while eating baguettes. We want to gaze over amazing landscapes in Africa. We want to experience the desert in the Middle East*.  We want to live in a van down by the river in New Zealand (no for real, this is happening). We want to salsa dance until 4 in the morning in Colombia (okay maybe this one is mainly me). In short, we want to do things that we’ve never done before. And we want to do it at an age where we will still want to push ourselves. Even in my 30’s, I’m less adventurous than when I was 22 (hmm… I need a bed for this delicate body). We don’t want to wait until 65 before we take the opportunity to travel like this. So we’re taking some of our retirement travel early – hopefully with bodies that can hike heavily (knees don’t fail me now) and preferences that won’t be too picky (again, living in van by river with no shower).

To push and change ourselves. The world becomes a much smaller place through the magic of travel, and you learn incredible things about yourself in the process. We’ve both experienced it in the past (Kelly lived in Costa Rica for a year and Adam lived in France for a summer) and loved the personal growth that happens when you’re outside your comfort zone. We want to experience what life is like with less stuff, when you value an experience more than a thing, and when you push yourself to do things that you’re not that excited about doing. Or maybe just scared of doing. Or maybe just never thought of doing. We want to get outside of our comfort zone and grow as individuals.

And because it sounds fun. We like traveling. I’ve spoken to some friends that have said, “Wow that just sounds downright stressful; I wouldn’t do that even if I could.” To us, traveling for 6 months sounds like a dream come true, and we think will enjoy it (or at least most of it). So while we’re excited for the personal growth and all the worldly experiences, at the end of the day, it just sounds like a blast. We’re coming to the end of a stressful and structured time in our life: Adam with 5 years of residency/fellowship and me with traveling extensively for work. Not exactly a period where we were able to spend lots of time together and relax. We’re looking forward to this trip to frankly just do what we want to do. Be a little selfish. And we can’t wait.

So there you have it! Welcome to our little corner of the internet. We can’t wait to take you on our journey.

– Kelly (& Adam)

*Middle East “light” – don’t worry, we’re just going to Dubai. We’re not that crazy.