Arriving at Mt. Rushmore At some point during our last few months in Oregon I got the notion to take Bear, our dog, to Mt. Rushmore. I know that makes me sound crazy. But taking Bear to Mt. Rushmore ...
We pulled out of Portland last Monday morning, our car packed to the brim, the gray skies spitting rain. We cracked the windows and the dogs pushed their noses into the open air, panting happily. Bea...
There are times in life when you feel like you control the strings and other times when you feel like you’ve been sucked beneath a wave, tumbling and turning in the vast grayblue of the ...
Housekeeping: Literally Things are crazy around here! We’re packing boxes and tying up loose ends, making decisions about what to keep and what to give away, determining what we can’t let...
Have I ever mentioned that I have the good fortune of knowing some of the most kind and amazing people on the planet? It’s true. Wherever I roam, I somehow always sniff out great people and the...
On Monday, it didn’t feel like my last week of work. Even on Tuesday and Wednesday, as I began the process of cleaning off my desk and sorting through my files, it still didn’t fee...
Those of you that have been following this blog for awhile have read these words before: “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Martin...
RTW Countdown: 2.5 weeks until departure Status: Anxious, excited, busy ********** We leave home in less than twenty days. I have six days of work left, Brian has twelve. The month is flying b...
I am not a follower of any particular religion. Instead, my beliefs have evolved to include a variety of spiritual practices. I’m as likely to pray to God as I am to celebrate the solstice and I regu...
An old friend of mine, whom I have known and loved since the mid-90′s, asked if I would share her story with those of you that read this blog. Proof that I have known Jamie for a long, long tim...
Blue skies and sunshine have arrived in Portland, at least temporarily. Oh, but the pull of doing what we need to do versus enjoying the time we have left. In the end we chose the latter. Such...
We’re loading up on travel gear This past weekend Brian and I spent a barf-worthy amount of money on items for our trip. Our travel savings took a pretty significant hit. The upside? We have a ...
Countdown: 36 days until our trip begins Suddenly we are in a time crunch- leaving in just five weeks. How did that happen? Like a rock tumbling downhill, it took awhile to gather speed but now we ar...
Kim’s note: This is a guest post by our friend Will Volpert, owner of Indigo Creek Outfitters, a whitewater rafting company in Ashland, Oregon. Last year, Kim published my guest post about In...
Oregon is making it easy for us to leave. For weeks now, the sun has been hidden behind a thick and low-lying layer of clouds. It’s gray, dismal, depressing. And every day, as certain as suns...
Much has been written about the loyalty of dogs, but what I love about them isn’t their devotion to me so much as their devotion to being alive. – Steve Bauer I found my dog, Bear, who wi...
On the second day of our trip to Washington’s San Juan Islands, Brian and I load the dogs in the car and head to Shark Reef Park on the southwestern shore of Lopez Island. The country roads ar...
I wanted to visit the San Juan Islands in Washington long before the New York Times named them the number two destination to visit behind Santiago, Chile. With our days in the Pacific Northwest comi...
Here’s something I’ve been hearing a lot of lately: “Wow, your trip is so close, you must be nervous.” Me? Nervous? Picture by loco, flickr creative commons I’m caught ...
Photo by -Patxi Izkue- flickr creative commons The domestic leg of our trip around the world, our U.S. road trip, is only 76 days away and it’s coming together beautifully. When I was a kid th...
Last month at our local Meet, Plan, Go travelers meet up, a fellow soon-to-be world traveler asked if anyone knew of a gigantic pre-trip RTW to do list. I didn’t, but I did know I could whip o...
Our friends Bethany and Ted over at twoOregonians are hosting a {digital} dinner party– and we’re invited! What’s a {digital} dinner party? Basically, it’s an opportunity to m...
Photo by goingslo, Flickr Creative Commons In college, I wrote a six word poem: This is not a love poem. Except, I struck out the words like this: This is not a love poem. Then I turned it over to my...
Like any big life change, leaving Oregon has filled me with a mixture of anticipation and nostalgia. I want time to speed up and slow down simultaneously, like some cartoon road race, I envision mys...
Guess what today is. Nope, keep guessing. Oh! So close. Okay, let me help you. It’s payday. But today is no ordinary payday. Today, after years of pinching pennies and eliminating debt and wat...
Photo by allspice1, flickr creative commons I have a favorite quote which I have recited to myself hundreds of times over the last three years: “There comes a time when one must risk everything...
In 2005, when I first started running, I was too embarrassed to call myself a runner. I believed that there was some mythical point I had to reach- a certain number of miles logged or races run or a...
Is that the evil gnome that lives under the cubicle? Nope. It’s Brian! Brian and I had very different experiences telling our employers about our plans to leave our jobs to travel. My boss ha...
16 Weeks Until Departure: An Update We leave to travel the world in 16 weeks. 16 weeks! 16 weeks is nothing. 16 weeks is so totally almost here. Emotionally, I’m in a really great place. I...
I was reading through my journal earlier today and was struck by an entry from a year ago in which I documented a dream I’d had. After re-reading the entry this morning, I can still recall the...
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