A Year Outside The USA
Popocatépetl -- the active volcano in Puebla, Mexico, east of Mexico City
Last year we almost made it. Unfortunately we screwed up and didn't think things through and ended up returning from Mexico to the U.S. after only 360 days abroad. We missed that landmark by five days!
But not this year! We left the Ft. Lauderdale airport in Florida on June 30, 2013 and haven't stepped foot on U.S. soil ever since. Today actually marks day 367, and it will be another month before we return to Texas.
Going forward, this might actually be the last time we're outside the U.S. for this long, at least for the next few years. In November we'll return to Mexico and set up shop back over on the West side, on Lake Chapala, south of Guadalajara. That means that, when it comes time to 'reset' our tourist visas, we can't just jump in a van and cross the border by lunchtime. We'll have to fly, which opens up some new interesting opportunities to see family and for Glenn to maybe take in some extra work-related conferences. Our time outside of the U.S. will shrink to six-month windows.
For most of our lives, we never imagined spending this much time away from our home country. I was 46 before I ever (briefly) left the United States. A few short years later and I'm living in a foreign country and have been outside the U.S. for fourteen of the last eighteen months! We're doing pretty much what we dreamed we would do when all of these crazy plans began to form in our heads back in late 2006.