First Steps

I guess the easy part for us was making the decision to embark on this adventure.......now the hard part begins of putting all the pieces in place to make it happen! So where to begin? We read a few books about vagabonding that certainly inspired us and gave us some ideas on how to get started but there was still the nuts and bolts to figure out - what do we do with all of our "stuff", where do we forward our mail, communication, etc., etc.

Fortunately, lists are our friends and Jim is one of the best list makers I know. In addition, he takes things one step further and creates excellent spreadsheets outlining all the things we need to do. So we began with just brainstorming everything that came to mind that we felt was an important consideration to create a "master" list of all the tasks we needed to accomplish or things we needed to think about. Then we gradually refined it to categories - storage, communication that made getting through the list more manageable.

As of this writing, we're approximately 3 months away from D Day (departure day) and here's what we've begun doing: Over a period of a couple of weeks (weekends and evenings mostly) we weeded through all the boxes of things we've been carting around with us for years - everything from Christmas decorations to photo albums to old clothes to.....well, you name it - and were fairly brutal about deciding whether or not each item was really something we wanted to hold on to. We plan on getting a fairly small storage unit to store what we are finally left with. Fair warning, here - it takes a fair amount of energy and determination to sort through everything you have and decide if it's something you may want or need down the road. All in all, though, I think we've gotten through it really well!

Now then, all the possessions we couldn't live without went into those sturdy Rubbermaid tubs which we thought would weather well in a storage unit. We then stored the tubs in one corner of the basement and on the other side of the basement we piled EVERYTHING else that would ultimately go into a yard sale or get sold on Craigslist. As far as furniture goes, we decided to just keep our bed and mattress and the Japanese bar that had been in my family since I was a baby (and which I had beautifully refinished a couple of years ago). Otherwise, we're selling the guest bed and two night stands, the dining room table and six chairs as well as our living room sectional, coffee table and buffet. A lot of this is already on Craigslist and we're hopeful they'll sell soon!

One thing we haven't really sorted through yet is the artwork we've accumulated over the years and this will probably be the most difficult to sort through since a lot of it has meaning for us. That's okay, though, since we decided anything we're really attached to we'll just keep, period. After all, the idea's not to torture yourself, right??

This is probably a good place to talk about what a freeing feeling it is to let go of so much stuff. I've found that as we've moved away from being "consumers" and buying stuff just to have more stuff, I really view the world differently. I think you start seeing the importance of the basics - spending quality time with the ones you love, taking care of yourself, and thinking about the impact your behaviors and habits have on the environment. In some ways, it's a little bit like what Neo experiences when he unplugs from The Matrix - you really do start to see the world through a different lens and you discover there is more to life than consume, consume, throw away, throw away. At any rate, that's been our experience as we start out on this new path.

A New Year, A New Direction

Jim and I love Seattle, as we tell our family and friends, it is the one place we consider home. This leads to a new question, why are we kicking off the new decade in our basement sorting through all of our stuff deciding what to keep and what to put in a yard sale??? Well beginning in May we hit the road. We have dreamed of the day when we would be able to see the world before we are too old to enjoy it! How did we arrive at this decision, you may ask.....well, for that I have to go back just a little and review:

Several things have brought us to the point in life were we no longer care about or want the material stuff around us as many of us know by the last few years of economic conditions, all of the material stuff around us is very fleeting and for us it was unsatisfying.

We have always LOVED to travel. I know a lot of people can say this, but travel is truly something that feeds our souls. We learned that early on in our relationship and have been fortunate enough to visit some amazing places like South Africa, Australia and around Western Europe, not to mention most of the U.S. It has long been our desire to travel for an extended time period without the restraints of only having a week or two off for vacation. Our travel will be very basic, backpacking, and looking for very low or no cost accommodations.

In addition, we had three cats that were part of the family and over the years they have passed on and are no longer with us, sadly, our youngest "Violet" died in October.

So, with the culmination all of the above factors, we realized now is the time...

Initially, we were going to basically throw a dart on the map and pick a starting point (actually, there probably would have been a little more thought put into it than that, but I'll spare you the boring details) and go from there. The idea being we would get to a

beginning country as cheaply.....excuse me....ahem......frugally as possibly and then work our way other places overland. Then, as luck would have it, Jim shared our dream with a friend of his at work who is part owner in an eco lodge in Puerto Rico. She asked if we had ever considered being innkeepers and what evolved from that is a perfect arrangement where we have agreed to manage her property on the island for six months out of the year and then travel/backpack the other six months.

So, here's what we've developed so far: In May, we'll pack up the Subaru and leave Seattle spend a couple of days with our friends Bill and Tracie. From there we'll continue our drive down to Texas. From Texas, we'll fly to Toronto with our good friends Tina and Sharon for a couple of days and then on to Iceland. Finally, we'll work our way back to Texas to catch up with family and friends before flying down to Puerto Rico. Our first stint will be for three months, then we'll be off for five months or so, then back when we'll start the six months on and six months off.

We'll do our best to plan ahead about where we'll be on our six months off so that any of our friends or family who want to meet up with us somewhere will have some time to plan their trip. In addition, I'll do my best to update the blog regularly but I'll be the first to admit I'm not the most disciplined person so it could be a challenge! I will certainly endeavor to update it regularly.

Since this is an initial post, I thought I would experiment by inserting some pictures of the sunset from our house that we're renting here in Seattle. I may periodically insert some other pictures in future postings between now and when we actually start our travels just to break up the monotony. Looks like we can also post videos!

So there you have it! As we like to say..........

We can't lie to you - we're hoping to have a crackin' good time!