Leaving home.

Untying the tethers.

So. You spend all your life building security around yourself. Careers, house, revenue property, stocks, friends, family, wife. And in one fell swoop, you get rid of it all. (uhhh, except for the wife family and friends, that is… uh, sorry hun...)

Here's the thing: travelling was part of the deal when I married my wife. And not just a little trip. What can you see in a few weeks? Ya, not much. Go big or go home right?

But how do you go about travelling for a year? This is such a foreign concept to me!! (Its also a foreign concept to certain family members, who I think are having a hard time deciding if we have lost our minds or not) Couple this travelling thing with moving to a new city, and it has seemed like such a monumental task!

Here's how you do it:

1. Quit your jobs. Do they offer unemployment insurance to travelers who come home to no jobs? Anyone?

2. Sell you house. Actually in our case we had to sell two, oh and one was turned into a dump by our renters, and we had to reno it first. This wasn't the one week project I thought it would be. (Try 7 months from start to sale).

3. You need to hang out with all the friends that you will miss over the next year. I'm sure we missed many. (And I blame you, not me... jk. But seriously, you shoulda called. )

4. You need to pack a single year into a backpack. Seriously, while Annie is going for less is more, I figure whatever doesn't completely squish me will only make me stronger. (How much can you squat?)

You ever get that feeling that your forgetting something?

5. Say goodbye to family. Aww, warm touchy feely moments!

6. Plan the trip! Oh wait... Uh Annie did you plan anything? No? I didn't either... Uh... ok so forget the planning and get on the plane!

Going to Ecuador baby!