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Today is March 2nd…. Can you believe it?  I don’t know when this happened but I feel like just a few weeks ago we were six months from our trip and now we are only 1 month and 20 days away!!!  This is insane!  And now the nerves are starting to set in.

We are so unbelievably excited for our trip but we are also nervous as hell or at least I am.  And that is to be expected right?  Here we are quitting our jobs, selling all of our possessions and taking off into the unknown.  We have a general plan and idea of what we are going to do but once we leave that is it.  There is no fall back for us, no safety net.  We are going forward with this and that is it.

The nice and comforting thing is we know we are not alone.  A lot of people have done this.  There is a whole community of travelers and bloggers out there who have left behind “the conventional” way of life and are making a living by traveling and doing what they love.  It is rather reassuring that others are out there.  Sometimes the world has a way of making us feel that we are very much alone but in this case a quick google search shows us that sooo many people are doing what we want to do and successfully too (and we love all these blogs too). It really is an inspiration!

PACKING

Of course now that it is March it is time to start finalizing plans and figuring out the dreaded packing issue.  We are in the process of writing lists (I am a huge list person) of what we are selling, what we are donating, what we are putting into storage and what we are packing.  Packing is definitely going to be the hardest for me.  I have always been a suitcase person but I am thinking that on such a long trip I am going to need to finally break down and get a backpack.  After moving home from Rome with 6 suitcases, a backpack, and a travel bag all over 50lbs I can see how helpful a travel backpack will be.  So in addition to figuring out what I am going to pack I need to figure out what I am packing it in!  (Any suggestions would be lovely!)

This is the growing pile of things we need to either sell or donate. Anyone want my shoes??

With it being March we also only have a few weekends left to get everything done as well which is making the last month and 20 days feel even more constrained.  Both Alex and I will be working all the way up to 3 days before we leave so that does not allow us a whole lot of time to get things done!  We really are going to need to maximize our weekends and of course we are going to be out of town for two of them…..  Our to do list is only growing but I hope soon it will plateau and we will be able to get things done.

THE TRIP ITSELF

In addition to trying to sort out our possessions we are also in the process of planning the whole damn trip!  So far we have Iceland ironed out and we have almost figured out the USA road trip.  We have accommodation for most of the places we are visiting but we still haven’t figured out Santa Fe or Nashville/Memphis.  We also have to decide if we are going to rent a car or if we our going to drive our trusty 1997 Honda Accord across the country.  Renting a car may be more expensive but at least we will have air conditioning and we don’t have to worry about our poor Honda falling apart or not being able to sell it when we reach New York.

We are hoping our wheel decides to stay on the car if we take our Honda…

Then of course we have planned none of the UK.  We plan on spending 5 days in London and then heading up to Scotland and possibly seeing Wales afterwards but that is all we have.  (Once again, any suggestions would be lovely!)  We are then heading to Spain.  Running with the Bulls in Pamplona was just recently suggested so I think we will be going to Bilbao and San Sebastian for about 2 weeks with my best friend Christopher around the time of the festival for some surfing, some beach time (there will be no sea urchin chaos this time, hopefully….) and of course running with the bulls.  We will then be heading down to Barcelona for about two and a half weeks.  My sister will be joining us at the end of the month and we are planning on doing some cava tasting, camping along the Costa Brava and then heading to Andorra before we fly to Croatia for SOUNDWAVE!  After that it is all question marks.  So we have through August 18th planned…..Who cares about the rest of the 6 years we will be gone….

We are so excited to head back to Soundwave and Croatia!

MONEY

The other thing that has become pressing is our money for our trip.  We are in the home stretch with work, savings and collecting as much money as possible before we go.  BUT there are several large and expensive purchases we need to make before we go.  For starters our list of gadgets has grown.  I need to purchase a new laptop; we are looking into getting a GoPro and along with that a stabilizer, a mic and final cut pro.  I need to buy health insurance, obviously very important, but also sorta expensive.  And we are starting to book accommodations.  These things are all awesome but they are also starting to suck up some of the budget (as we knew they would).  It is just scary to see the savings we have worked so hard to build diminish but everything has a purpose.

This pretty much sums up how we both feel right now….

So this is basically where my mind is at right now. It is going to be a chaotic crazy push to April 22nd but it will all be worth it. And of course besides all the things we need to do for our trip before we leave we also need to make time to see all of our family and friends to say goodbye to everyone. Six years is a long time and our leaving is not without heartache as we are saying goodbye to our family and the really awesome people we have met since we moved back home. California will always be here for us though and it is time for us to step out into the great unknown and take the next adventure.

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Ashley

Ashley is a passionate traveler and all around geek who loves to nerd out over ancient ruins. Her passion for history and art drives her to explore the hidden depths of a culture and share them through her photography and writing.