Now it’s official. The normals (Office folk) know that we’re quitting so I can speak freely. So, apologies for any reference to plans or a big trip, but pre-giving notice I just couldn’t openly talk about it. Any mentions to a big trip were risky and a bit stupid on my part, but we made it.
What:
Well, we’re quitting our jobs and heading out on a big trip.
Why:
This all started maybe 14 years ago. I was hired to work for Earthroamer and we were going to live in one driving around the US for the first year going to events and just being a “rep” to show them off and live a certain lifestyle. Make sure the truck was at events and being seen etc. Year 2 we were headed to Europe and beyond. Cool gig!
Well, it all fell apart when the economy collapsed. In fact, it fell apart after I had rented my apartment and was within 2 days of driving to Colorado for this new life. Over the phone I was told, “Never mind it’s not happening, I would try and get your job and apartment back... “ Earthroamer went under (Then came back to life) soon after, but this is all another story.
I think it was at this time that my mind decided I’d do a long trip like this, I just didn’t know how or when. Fast very far forward to meeting Kelsey. We’d chat about it. We’d talk about how we can either talk about it forever or make it happen. So we tried to start positioning life a bit to make it happen. Then last year at Overland Expo we decided a 1 year deadline was in order to make us do it or shut up talking about it. Time to put our money where our mouth was.
We sold off motorcycles, mountain bikes, furniture, tools and started working on the house or the truck every day bit by bit to get ready. Now, here we are about a month or two out and we still have so much to do.
We’ll get it done, one way or another.
Trip Plan:
There is no plan. This will be hard for some folks to grasp and I get that. No disrespect to the many who’ve gone before us with very detailed proclamations that they are going from _____ to _____, but we just don’t care about that. My biggest fear is that this coveted time off ends up being an obligation to do something we think others want us to do or want to see. So, with that in mind the big plan is this.
1. Take a full year.
2. Head to Baja.
3. Ferry to mainland Mexico eventually.
4. Keep exploring south or wherever we feel like.
5. If the money holds, it would be amazing to go to South America, but that could be an entirely different trip in the future.
6. Document the trip for ourselves and friends with videos and blog posts. I always want to be able to look back at this trip and relive it just like a would a great weekend adventure.
That being the plan,I have maps for every country South of the US. I have tracks given to me by friends of their favorite sections or MUST SEE spots. We may hit it up, we may not. I want to have a lot of “Options” on the digital map, but then we’ll decide where to go day to day and week to week.
Inoculations have been injected, funds have been saved, truck is... almost ready-ish... House will hopefully be rented... Storage unit has been rented. We’ll really just have to see how long the funds last with so many unplanned costs hitting I think it will be less time than I like... we’ll see if we’re even enjoying it, who knows.
Here goes nothing...
Question:
That being said, I’d love to hear of any great routes or tracks you may know of or places you’ve always dreamt of seeing that you’d like to share. We just might check it out!
Here’s hoping Nicaragua chills out.