A couple months ago, we moved from playfully trying out the idea of a round the world trip out on each other to planning it in earnest. We’d say things like “Well, we won’t be able to make that person’s wedding ‘cause we’ll be in Africa” or “I bet it won’t be this rainy when we’re in Croatia.” We’d each laugh and play along before adding an ever-increasingly more sincere “That really would be great.”
Then something clicked. Jokes started to become more calculated and the punch lines obviously better researched. “Jeez, the Christmas presents I ordered from Amazon are going to take as long to ship as it would take a 40’ car container to get from Panama to Ecuador!” Or “Speaking of clearance sales, vehicles making the overland journey between Cape Town and Kenya would really benefit from high ground clearance and a low gear, especially during the wet season on the east coast between March and May.”
I think I wasn’t sure that Ann was interested in such a long and potentially challenging trip. And I think she was into it all along but wasn’t sure if I was just talking a big game. When we actually, talked about it, it was clear that a trip around the world was something we both wanted to do and understood (at least think we do!) the magnitude of. Since then, our free time (and sometimes not so free) has been spent reading books and online trip reports about people making similar journeys and piecing together what it might take to make it a reality.
I’ve added links to a few of the books and sites that have been the most interesting to us. Of course, if you buy the books off our links, we get a little kickback from Amazon which we promise to use for something AWESOME. Definitely, the most relevant and engrossing site has been one called “Bumfuzzle” that chronicles the lives of a 30 something couple as they leave their suburban existence in the MidWest to travel around the world, first on a 35 foot catamaran and later in a 1952 VW bus. As I write this, they are tending to their newborn baby in Mexico while debating the purchase of a fishing trawler to use as a base for more travels.
