Category Archives: Preparation

Between leaving our jobs and heading for Mexico on August 30th, we have a little domestic traveling to do. The first stop was an Alaskan cruise with Nick’s family. We barely survived a brutal move from our house to a storage unit the night before we left but luckily everything managed to fit into an 8×10 unit.

Nick had fly to Maui and back last minute which made our move a little tricky. We were planning to move on Wednesday but moved on Thursday instead. Next obstacle: the storage unit screwed up our rental truck reservation and we ended up ready to go at 11am with no truck until almost 4pm. This meant moving late into the night (1am) and waking up at 6 to catch our flight to Seattle. From Seattle we drove a rental car to Vancouver where we spent the night and the next morning headed for the cruise ship to set sail from Vancouver on Holland America Line.

It was an awesome week, and worth the struggle the get there! We caught up on lots of sleep, enjoyed the breathtaking mountain landscapes, and most of all, the 60 degree humidity-free weather. It was so nice to get away with Nick’s family for some quality time before taking off. Both of us have always wanted to go to Alaska, so starting off our year away on a cruise was perfect. We took a helicopter to a glacier in Juneau, went dry dog sledding in Skagway, and hiking in Ketchikan. We also spent a day cruising through the Inside Passage and Glacier Bay. My favorite excursion was the hike but unfortunately we have no photos because it was raining that day and we were scared we’d get the camera wet. It was a hike through an “old growth forest”, and we were fully covered by a canopy of Cedars, Hemlock, Evergreens, and a blanket of bright green lichen. Every now and then we’d come across a “muskeg” which is arctic peat bog. Basically, deep mud that we had to work our way around so we didn’t lose our boots in the mud. It made the hike interesting having to hop around, grabbing the trees and trying to step on roots and rocks. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen and I highly recommend it if you find yourself in Ketchikan, Alaska someday. Just trust me when I say the Alaskan rain forest is stunning and getting to see black bears and bald eagles on the hike was icing on the cake!

Tomorrow morning we’re off to Myrtle Beach to drop the cats at the Cat’s Meow for long term boarding, then to visit friends in Charleston for a few days, on to Blowing Rock, NC to spend time with my family, then to Lake Toxaway, NC to spend time with Nick’s and drop off Indy, then we’ll hit up the REI store in Asheville to finish buying our gear (Nick’s really excited about the backpacks) and finally down to Tampa for a couple days before returning to South Florida a week before we leave for Mexico. Stay tuned!

Rachel and I have been reading a few blogs and articles written by couples would have taken round-the-world trips like that one we are about to embark on. One particular post was about how the couple started to disconnect themselves from everyday life at home and prepare mentally for their trip. So I started to wonder: How DO you prepare yourself mentally for an around-the-world trip? I haven’t figured it out. But I have started to view all aspects of daily life differently. I feel much more appreciative of being able to dress in nice clothes and go out for a great dinner and conversation over a bottle of wine with Rachel, family, and friends. A cup of coffee from
Dunkin Donuts has more flavor. Even the simple act of taking a warm shower at home with all our personal toiletries is savored. The reason being is that it is starting to become clear to me that all the experiences and routines of a normal daily life will NO LONGER BE normal and daily for us. There will probably be times when we fall asleep on a cold concrete floor in some remote train station. Being drenched in sweat will most likely occur more times than many. A cleansing shower may not always be available. And confusion while being lost in a random city or even country are not out of the question. All these thoughts have stuck in my mind. Maybe having them is my way of disconnecting and preparing myself mentally for our Great Adventure (this is the name I give our trip). It’s like the old saying goes: prepare for the worst and you will only see good.

A few things have bummed me out a little. It has become a reality that I will no longer be able to progress at everything the way I would like to. For starters, I would really like to continue my education by either being admitted into a master’s program or get another bachelors degree. Even though it is possible to do this at an online school while traveling, it would be very difficult with managing time and costly which would eat into our travel budget. So I will just have to wait until we return. Also, getting better at sports such as golf will be out of the question. While flying one of our clients to Hawaii, I was reading the tips section of Golf Digest when the realization hit me that soon I will no longer be playing golf. I thought to myself, Why should I continue to read and study how to get better when I’m not going to be playing? Because progression is in my blood, I ended up reading all three issues of Golf Digest on the plane, and will continue to play every chance I get until we leave. (Just on a side note, I’m not a very good golfer being that I only took it up a year ago. Since I can’t surf everyday living in Florida, I figured it would be a good sport to take up when there is no surf.)

Now here is what Rachel and I have been up to the last week or so…

Today, Tuesday July 26th is Rachel’s last day of work at Broward Children Center after being there for approximately 4 years. It is also my last trip at my job with Execuflight Inc/ BAGHS LLC (an aviation management and charter company based in Fort Lauderdale, Fl) which I have been employed at for 4 years also. Probably because we have been talking,planning, and putting so much mental work into our Great Adventure for about a year now, I don’t have too much emotion about leaving my job.  Both our bosses have offered our positions back to us when we return. I personally do not know if I will return to my company. I feel that I will want to start my own business that I have been drawing up and putting together in my own time the last few months. It is exciting to have endless possibilities. Returning home from our trip will give me an even greater drive to succeed.

The biggest and last obstacle for us was selling Rachel’s car which was officially sold Sunday. This comes as a huge relief. At first we discussed whether or not we should continue to pay her lease or sell it. Once we found out she had to still pay insurance even though the car would not be driven, selling it was the best option. It wasn’t practical to have that expense for a whole year. So after three weeks of being posted on Auto-trader, a nice lady from Boca Raton purchased her car. We are now a one car household.

Yesterday, I purchased our storage unit, and moved in about a half of our stuff. It is amazing we will pack all our possessions into a 8  x 10 unit. A good friend of mine, Daren, was kind enough to drive over and help out. Moving in 95 degree Florida summertime weather is not awesome, so his help was much appreciated. Thursday will be our finally moving day where we will put all the bedroom, kitchen, and final boxes in storage. Then we will be good to go!!!!!

Right now, I’m sitting on my hotel room porch in Guatemala looking over the congested traffic down below. In the near background are green mountains surrounding the city. The air is filled with traffic noise. From spending a lot of time in the cities in Central and South America, I know this noise won’t stop and continue through the night into the early morning. I’m grateful and satisfied that this has been my job. It has hit me this week that I will no longer be doing this for work, but instead Rachel and I will be traveling on our own accord. No more fancy hotels for me. No more fancy restaurants, first class service, Starbucks, free rental cars, or whatever I want for a drink. Not having those things anymore is exactly what I want. It is exactly what I need.

Last week, I was in Chicago for two days. I called an old high school friend of mine, TJ, who lives in the city. TJ and I were very close friends through high school, and much of college. Since I haven’t seen him in about 2 years or so, I figured a drink with him was well over due. Over a nice cold locally brewed lager, we caught up on old times, and I told him about Rachel and mine’s plan to travel for a year. He said something that was so simple yet I can’t stop thinking about it: He said, “Wow, it feels like a trip like that would take a person 10 steps back.” TJ is not mocking the trip. Quite opposite. He is actually one of my friends who I would see taking a journey like this is his lifetime. But he is right. It DOES feel like taking 10 steps back; 10 steps from 401(k)s, IRAs, paychecks, promotions and raises, promotions, accumulating “things” and “stuff”, being a part of the community, and upgrading from an apartment to duplex to house to bigger house. Things are all the things I WANT to take 10 steps back from. I’m so very grateful for all that I have been given. My life has been wonderful so far. All the credit goes toward my incredibly family and friends. But a part of me wants to learn more, to see more, to be put into the unknown, to be put out of my element and challenged, to make something great for myself. This Great Adventure will force me to greater heights than I could go by staying where I am now.

Ever since I met Rachel, a lot has changed. Life is peaceful. I’m happy. She has taught me so much about so many things. But the biggest thing she has showed me is this: Life is best and real when shared with someone. So we will take our 10 steps back together to see the world. We will see things that we can only imagine about, both good and bad. We will probably learn more about each other than we would in 20 years staying in the same place. And this is the perfect time for doing this journey which is exactly what we need and want.

A trip is only a plan until you actually buy the airline ticket or book the hotel. So today when Rachel came home, I surprised her with the confirmation of our first flight! Our trip is becoming more official with each step. Not only is it our first flight on our Great Adventure, but it is the step that takes us out of the United States across the boarders and into the “unknown”. For me, it was a bigger deal clicking the “purchase” button on the airline website, then resigning from my job; probably because I was more concerned about how my job would feel about me leaving, and purchasing the ticket was an actual step that only directly affects Rachel and I. It’s a strange feeling having the ticket; like standing in front of a door with out knowing what is on the other side.

At 9:51 am on August 30th, we become nomads of this world. Because of my job as a pilot and taking airline flights to/from airplanes I am to fly, I have accumulated many hotel points and airline rewards. I had enough for our two tickets on Jetblue. It was only 5,400 points per ticket, and a $48.38 taxes/fee charge for both. Not a bad deal. When we arrive in Cancun, we’ll take a bus to Belize. You’ll read about that route on another blog post.

It’s been a pretty big week for us. Rachel resigned on Thursday and Nick gave notice today. We both work for pretty small companies and gave them 6 weeks notice. We felt this was enough time for both companies to absorb the news, find a replacement, and allow for training time. Luckily, it went over pretty well for both of us and we’re relieved it’s over. It was definitely a reality check and made us feel like there’s no turning back. We read a blog once that recommended you tell as many people as possible that you’re going on this trip to motivate you to follow through. Well that advice certainly rings true when it comes to quitting your job. Though I am certain if we changed our minds and asked for our jobs back we would be welcomed back with open arms, it definitely gives you that no turning back feeling. It feels like now everyone REALLY knows and you have to do it or you’re really going to look like a liar.

We quit this week, and we also got the ball rolling on some other things we’ll have to take care of before we go. Our lease ends July 30 but we’re not leaving until Sept 1, so we’ll have to move our stuff into storage at the end of July. We checked out some storage units this weekend to get an idea of what we’ll need and we realized it’s more expensive than we thought. So we have some investigating to do and will be working on sorting it out in the next few weeks. We also took Rachel’s car to CarMax to get it appraised; she has a lease with about 18 months left and will have to sell her car before we leave. CarMax was a mostly positive experience, and is likely the route we will take. We’re going to have to fork over some cash to get out of the lease, but its not as much as we initially thought. We will still try to list the car online for good measure.

The other major task we’ve had is finding a long term boarding facility for the two cats, Kahlua and Sundance. We have chosen a cats-only facility in Myrtle Beach, SC- more on that later. In the meantime, Rachel is took Kahlua to the vet to get a well check-up and to have him tested for diabetes. He’s pretty overweight (22 pounds!) and we want to make sure he’s healthy before we leave for a year. Sundance is next in line and will be going for her check up next month. Indy, the dog, also got her yearly vaccines today. She is one lucky dog and is going to stay with Nick’s family in North Carolina for the first 4 months of the trip and then back to Florida until we return. Nick’s parents have 2 dogs of their own so Indy will probably have more fun during those 12 months than she would have at home with us!

So we are slowly but surely working on our “to do” list and will keep you posted. It’s a learning process for both of us, but so far so good!

Yea, I am NOT a fan of shots. As Rachel said, my first round consisted of 4 shots at once! My arm felt like God sucker punched me in the shoulder every day for a week. I squeezed Rachel’s hand so hard when I was receiving the shots, I thought she was going to have to get another tetnus shot. By the time we received our yellow fever vaccine, they didn’t bother me anymore.

Today I wrote some volunteer organizations and projects for us to work with when we are in the area. The three main ones I wrote were Organic Working Ranch in Costa Rica (www.ranchomargot.org), Conservation of the Endemic Utila Igunana in Honduras (www.utila-iguana.de), and the Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation in Argentina (www.eledenflorayfauna.org). We both want to volunteer since it is a great way to learn the culture through locals and working there, because it is great to add to a resume for when we return from our trip, and because we feel the desire to do good work while traveling. It also helps that many of them offer inexpensive accommodations, food, bikes, education in the language, and we can meet fellow travelers. Even though the three groups listed above were located in Central and South America, we plan to participate in more in various countries.

Soon we are going to have to tell work that we are leaving. This will make the trip feel like it is REALLY going to happen. It won’t be easy for me. I like my job. Even thought it has its ups and downs, it never gets boring. My boss tells me how much he appreciates the work I do, and talks of promoting me to other aircraft and promotion within the company. The issue is that it takes so long for it to actually happen. So I made the decision to leave  and never look back no matter what happens.

I feel very fortunate to be able to take a journey like this with Rachel. A few years ago when I decided on this trip, I expected to go by myself. But life is real when shared. It all came about one day when I watched a movie about a journey like this. I instantly felt comfort in the character’s trip and decision to leave everything behind. Owning new “things” has never been part of my personality. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have new ipads, a new truck, buy a home, and have the latest and greatest (I did buy a kindle which was the first thing I bought for myself in a LONG time). But I have always felt a pressure internally to hold back on purchases like those. In no way shape or form do I look down on all the great possessions people own, but they weren’t for me….just yet. So when Rachel and I decided to take this dream trip of ours, I knew why I felt that way.

So here we are. Planning our dream trip. We call it our Great Adventure. There is a lot more to do and put together. But all in all we are super excited. Two and a half more months to go!

Today we got our yellow fever vaccines at the Broward County Health Department. It feels very official now that we’ve completed this step for some reason. Nick’s Dad generously supplied the other vaccines we needed at his office (3 for me and 6 for Nick so far) but yellow fever is only administered at an official Travel Clinic or your County’s health department. I went to South Africa in 2007 so some of my vaccines have not ‘expired’ yet, but Nick had to start fresh. We have one round left for the Hepatitis A/B series and we’re done!

Here is what we’ve have received for this trip:

• Typhoid
• Tdap (Tetanus/Diptheria/Pertussis)
• Hepatitis A & B combo
• Yellow Fever
• Meningoccocal Meningitis