And so we bid a fond farewell

Years ago, David’s generous mother offered to take his brother and us to New Zealand.  It was one of the best and most memorable trips we’ve ever taken, and it really cemented our love of travel.  At some point, as we were driving away from a town we’d visited, David’s mom mimicked Lowell Thomas’s travelogue closure speech, which always ended with the same kitschy phrase,  along with the name of the place, and some particular attribute, like “And so, we bid a fond farewell to the Rotorura, home of sulfurous stench.”  It became a catch-phrase for the remainder of the trip, and we still intone it while we’re traveling, as we move on to the next destination.

In the past, it’s always been goofy and fun.  Now, as we’re saying goodbye to the really wonderful family and friends that surround us, knowing we won’t see them until late next year, it’s harder.  On the road trip, we’ve stayed in touch via email, and video chat, but it’s not quite the same—there never seems to be time enough to catch all the way up.  This week we’ve been home we’ve been lucky enough to spend time with both our families and have touched base with a few friends, but we’ve just run out of time to say all those in-person goodbyes.  This is the part of this year of travel that’s without a doubt the hardest.

But that’s why this blog has been so important to us. Because we know that wherever we are, you aren’t so far away.  We’ve learned a lot from the challenges we faced keeping the blog updated in the U.S., and we plan to do some a little more day-to-day journaling here to keep this up to date, as much as we can. We also will continue to post our photos and stories from our road trip, so look out for those.

One of the other things we learned while we were gone is just how isolating long-term travel can be. You may know what is going on with us, but we’re out of your loop.  We’ve appreciated every email, every blog comment, every response or like to a Facebook or Google+ post.  They really bring us up when we’re feeling low. Please please continue to chime in with comments here on the blog (it’s easy, just click on the “Add a comment” at the very bottom of each post), or on our Facebook or Google+ pages or posts, or just email us (nevermindthebumpsontheroad@gmail.com) and let us know what’s going on in your world.  This blog is our tether back down to the earth, and we want to keep up with everyone else’s lives.

Our bags are packed, our itinerary printed, and our guides books at the ready. And so we bid a fond farewell to weekly Wednesday dinners with the Bump family, endless games of cards and dominoes with the Abernathy family, our annual pumpkin carving party for all our wonderful friends, soft poodle snores, snow quietly falling outside the window at the cabin, and so many other things.  May it all be there for us until we return.

Much love,
Lana & David

Homeward, Onward

After 24 states (15 of them new to us), 3 Canadian provinces, and over 10,000 miles on the ol' Subaru, we are headed back to Colorado. We'll pick up 2 more new ones on our way, but we're headed for the barn. It'll be three long driving days: Atlanta to Memphis, Memphis to Oklahoma City, and Oklahoma City to Eaton (where my parents live). We'll be home on Friday, just in time to celebrate our 11th anniversary on Saturday.  While it's been an amazing six weeks, we're excited to go home, get re-charged and  re-packed, and see all our loved ones before we head out for the remainder of the year.  Right now, though, all I can think about is giving my dog a whole lot of loving, and sleeping the sleep of a familiar bed. 

all we can do is keep breathing

Months! Months have passed without a peep here. Yes, we are still doing this. Yes, we have been working toward our goals. We're packing, packing, packing. We're purging as much as we can bear. We haven't sold anything yet, but that's mostly a lazy thing. We'll get to it, hopefully.  We've also realized that it isn't the end of the world to pack something rather than sell or purge it, although we're still trying. And if the stuff we don't want to keep doesn't sell, we'll just give it away. I'm trying to let go of selling things as a money-making proposition to fund our trip.

David has a countdown timer for the number of workdays and work hours left until his last day. And I think he'd gladly walk out tomorrow if he felt he could. I've urged him to just hang on, think about the paychecks, and breathe.  And he's trying. 

I, however, have more mixed feelings about leaving my job. I like working here. I like the work, I like the people, and I've realized that my bosses are really good. Which is a skill, and a rare one, I might add.  I respect them, and I'll miss them. But I love my family and my husband more (I am a big bag of love) and now is the right time, and this is the right plan for our little family. I just today realized I have six more paychecks to go until I'm out of paychecks for a while. That's when I need David to remind me to breathe. And I'm trying.

We're meeting with a property manager tomorrow morning about putting our house up for rent. Everyone except for me is confident that we'll get it rented soon, but I'm hopeful.

These months have been hard--it's been long enough out, and so much work between now and then, that it's hard to look beyond What We Have To Do Before We Leave.  But part of that is the planning of the trip, which gets us prematurely excited all over again.  I'm going to do a whole separate post on the trip planning stuff. I'm trying very hard not to plan too much. I find myself in the education phase, trying to study up on all the places we're going, and all the options of what to do, which adventures might be our style. I've checked a lot of books out of the library, which has been so helpful, and so very cheap.

For every thing we check off the list, it seems like we add three more "to dos" to it. But we're getting there. I can see a little progress has happened in the last few months. Books have been packed, passports have been renewed. We are breathing.

I don't want anyone to get the impression that we're not excited to be taking this journey. We are So! So! Crazy! Excited! But there is a lot to do between now and September, and with that comes some amount of stress, which I am feeling. And, for that matter, eating. I've given myself  the task of losing 10 pounds in the next 10 weeks before we leave, which seems reasonable, if I just stop the stress eating. We've got mountains to climb (literally) in the next few weeks, and David's beginning to join me on a run occasionally, so our plan is to be fairly fit when we leave, and maintain that fitness on the road as much as possible.

 If I can just quit the stress eating breathe.

Spring is a time of renewal

We went ahead and got the 52 page passport book. Here's to filling each and every one of them.