Random thought of the day:
I’m not a traveler, I’m a liver!
No, not that kind of liver! I should probably explain…
Most everyone doing what we are doing refers to it as travel. If we have a blog, we’re ‘travel bloggers.’ If someone asks what we do, family and friends tell them we are traveling. But we’ve been taking care of this house here in Chapala, Mexico for three months now. That’s not traveling! We live here.
by 
Early in 2010 I looked ahead to my 50th birthday and tried to come up with something appropriate for the end of my first half-century of life. That’s a pretty big milestone, and I wanted to celebrate in a big way. At one point I wanted to go to a big music festival somewhere in South America, but was unable to line one up with my birthday. And by the time we finally decided on the day we would quit our jobs, I was unwilling to spend the money for the flights. So we kept things low-key and celebrated with a meal at a Hibachi Grill restaurant, and an evening at Wine2 with Klara from Belgium.
So here we are, a year later, and once again we kept the celebration low-key. Philip and Shelley came over for burgers. After that, Philip and I wasted some time letting 12-year-olds kick our butts at Modern Warfare back at his place. We also watched a movie with the wives.
And yet in spite of all these low-key subdued birthday celebrations, I’ve had an amazing year! I think it has easily been the most amazing year of my life so far. What better way to start the second half-century? And in that spirit, here are some of the many amazing things I can recall from this last year when I close my eyes…
Record snowfalls in north Texas in February – dubbed the ‘Snowpocalypse’ – work shut down for an entire week!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=360784547271705&set=a.359487157401444.108452.197146780302150&type=3&theater
Leaving work. Being able to spend all day, every day doing what I *want* to do, instead of what someone else requires me to do. Priceless.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=359487184068108&set=a.359487157401444.108452.197146780302150&type=3&theater
Homeless and living in our car. Having a lot less *stuff* to deal with is very liberating. Mental energy and time freed up substantially.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=359487870734706&set=a.359487157401444.108452.197146780302150&type=3&theater
Geology and Geography. Volcanos, canyons, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, oceans, coastline. Arches, hoodoos, mud pots and lava flows. Impressive and awe-inspiring.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=359490574067769&set=a.359487157401444.108452.197146780302150&type=3&theater
Living things. Massive and soaring trees. Bison, wolves, bears, elk, whales, condors and cranes. Forest and grapevines and food crops to the horizon.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=359490957401064&set=a.359487157401444.108452.197146780302150&type=3&theater
Manmade landmarks. The Golden Gate bridge. Hoover Dam. Classic city skylines. Foundations and ruins of two grist mills in Ohio owned and operated by my ancestors in the early 1800′s. Many Dixon headstones in cemeteries from Ohio to Illinois.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=359491940734299&set=a.359487157401444.108452.197146780302150&type=3&theater
Amazing people. The traveling kids from France. The wonderful staff at the Ancient Way Cafe and Campground. The birders at Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge. Dixie’s high school classmate from San Bernardino. Cass and Jim in Napa Valley. Angie and Rand in Seattle. Deb and Mike in Wyoming. Kat and Dell and Jessica in North Dakota and Minnesota. Jim and Mila in Chicago. Dixie’s sister Athlynn in Michigan and her cousin Sue Greene in Ohio. My cousins Dave and Debbie in Iowa and Laverne Beam in Kansas. DeeAnne and Park in Oklahoma City. They took us in, they wined and dined us. Thank you!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=359494730734020&set=a.359487157401444.108452.197146780302150&type=3&theater
My dad’s 80th birthday.
23 States
20,000 miles
All of that, and doing it and seeing it with my soulmate!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=359488480734645&set=a.359487157401444.108452.197146780302150&type=3&theater
For many that would be an entire lifetime’s worth of memories! And yet for us, it is only the first year of (hopefully) many to come full of travel, adventure, amazing sights and people. Thank you for following along with us, and here’s to a great 2012. I hope it is wonderful for all of us!
by When we first started telling people about our plans and handing out our ‘business’ cards I was expecting some negative reactions. I fully anticipated that some would question our sanity, or at least our judgment. I expected twenty questions, or a bit of an interrogation. And yet everyone we told seemed to genuinely be excited for us, even encouraging. They were jealous, they thought it was a great idea, and they wished it could be them.
We have now left our jobs, our apartment, and even our home town of many years, Denton, and co-workers and friends have been bidding us farewell over the last couple of weeks.
Dixie was given a going-away lunch from her boss and office mates, a surprise gypsy-themed dinner and dance from her Jazzercise class, an extra-special Jazzercise class with all of her favorite songs, and a surprise lunch from her fellow court reporters in the County. In addition to this, multiple people gave her $100 checks! Obviously Dixie was very loved and will be greatly missed by all.
Me? I got one free lunch and a hangover. Draw your own conclusions…
But to be serious for a moment, we just wanted to thank all of you for the many gifts you have given, the homes you have given to many of our previous possessions and the support. We hope we can live up to your expectations for our adventures! We will be spending a couple of weeks in the D/FW area tying up loose ends, delivering a few remaining items, upgrading some technology and selling the Kia. We are staying with Glenn’s parents and doing a few home repair items as well.
We hope to finally hit the road by mid-April and head north. We’ll keep you posted. Thanks for coming along for the ride!
by “Nothing endures but change” – Heraclitus (535-475 BC)
A long time ago we got our first urge to think outside the box regarding citizenship. Were we not all citizens of the world? Alas, governments do not think this way. But that didn’t stop us from dreaming of Belize. (follow that link for the sordid details) Now Belize is just one of many ports of call on our itinerary. Our plans have shifted back and forth over the years until we finally got sufficiently dissatisfied with our situation to get serious and do whatever it took to make our crazy plan work.
Initially (a few years ago) we wanted to head straight for Argentina. Our most recent plans started with a few years of RV travel right here in the good old U S of A. Now we have settled on a hybrid plan of sorts. We will still start with some travel here in the States but we’ve dropped the RV plans. We will have to sell the truck and the extra golf cart batteries, but at least we hadn’t bought the trailer yet! We’ll still sell my little Kia Rio5 hatchback and keep the good old Hyundai Sonata. Leather seats, after all. It should hold all of our clothes and camping gear and allow us quick set up and teardown at camp sites. We’ve car-camped for years so this won’t be so new. No need to learn about propane systems and solar systems and water systems. No need to worry about refrigerator fires. Just throw up the tent and the cot and we’re done!
As soon as we discussed this idea of not doing the RV thing I just felt this weight lift off of my shoulders! It felt right for many reasons. First, we had been struggling with the idea of leaving the country. So many places to see that are NOT America. We were beginning to worry we might never leave. The RV was an anchor in a sense, and now we’ve jettisoned it. Second, the truck and trailer were significant expenses, and not the kind that appreciate in value. The car we already own and it’s been paid off for years now. It seemed a very frugal thing to do. Third, we’ve become quite concerned about health costs and insurance. I’ll probably address this in more detail in a future post but we can’t afford to get sick here. Strangely enough this problem all but vanishes in most other countries. This was a big motivation in accelerating our plans.
So we are going to do a bit of a whirlwind trip to start things off. Family in Iowa and Ohio, with stops along the way where the ancestors lie. More family in Michigan. Then a summer trip to Wyoming, hopefully Yellowstone if it isn’t packed with tourists. Finally up to Washington to see friends near Seattle. After that plans are much less specific. We will probably meander south, check out some Redwood trees, maybe sights in Utah and Arizona (meteor crater). Anasazi ruins in New Mexico. And then probably back to Texas for a last visit and to sell the rest of our extra stuff, including the car.
By winter we hope to be in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Belize, Mexico or someplace in that general vicinity. Visas generally last only 90 days so we’ll have to keep moving around for awhile. But that is how we have it planned for now. Serendipity has already provided a friend of a friend who lives in Costa Rica, and we know some people who know some people that do eco-tourism work there. So that’s the most likely point of entry, for now.
Stay tuned!
by 