Thanks so much for following us as we get ready for our upcoming year of ADVENTURE!!
Our family leaves very soon and everyone is asking questions like 'Where are you going?', 'How can we follow you? and 'How is something like this possible?'
Anyone who knows our family knows that we love adventure and trying new things. We always want to explore new places and learn new perspectives. The kids have decided our family motto should be
"We Should Go There!"
As a couple, we want to show our children the world. We want them to see new places, hear and speak different languages, try new food, and experience different cultures.
We've listened to postcasts about traveling and people who drop their jobs and go for it... and we've been inspired but also curious. Is that possible? When? How? What about our jobs? What about our cat? How would we still pay our mortgage? Where would we go?
At some point, we just had to go for it. Our kids will miss grade 4 (for Ava) and grade 7 (for Rachel). It seems like it's a now-or-never thing. It's never going to be the perfect time, and we are never going to have saved up enough or have everything perfect.
But we are going.
And we are pretty stoked!
Here is the current itinerary:
July 1-6 West Virginia for family reunion
July 6-19 Meggan and Jason go hiking in Colorado and support friends at the HardRock 100 ultra
July 19-23: Virginia to spend time with Jason's mom
July 23-Aug 3 - Iceland
Aug 4-16: Norway
Aug 16-24: Sweden
Aug 25- Sept 3: Denmark
Sept 4-10: Meggan and girls in Southern England while Jason does the "Dragon's Back" 6 day stage race ultra run in Wales
Sept 12-Oct 12: one month in Killarney, Ireland
Nov 12 - Meggan runs the Athens Marathon in Greece
Feb - Italy
The first part of our European trip (July 23-Sept 12), we travel around a lot more. We are more in 'vacation>work' mode for this portion of our trip, enjoying Northern Europe during the summer months. But by the middle of September, we will plan to settle in a little more. A month in Ireland. Then likely we will aim to spend a month in many locations from that point forward. Coutries of significant interest (not listed above) include France, Spain, Croatia and the Balkans, Jordan and Egypt. Details tbc...
We have rented our house, sold our Subaru and lent out our other car. A friend is taking care of our cat for the year. We have put all of our personal belongings in our garage and fit everything that we need into our backpacks!
Jobs? What about our jobs!?
Jason will continue to work as a Team Coach at our local University, but he will reduce to a part time remote contract for the year. He will shortly complete his international coaching certification and will continue to coach with his business JasonOliverCoach. I will see some patients via telehealth, continue with online mentorship to other physical therapists, and continue teaching exercise classes online Adventure Physical Therapy. I will continue to see clients via Telehealth as a part of my clinic, Rise Health, while I'm away.
When I first told my supervisor at Rise Health that I'd like to take a year off to travel, the first thing she said was "Well, that's an experience you'll never regret." ... Talk about a supportive work environment! 💚
What to pack?!?
There are a few moving parts to the first 3 months of our trip. Different states and countries, different climates, different activities. Some people have said '2 tshirts, 2 pants, sandals, and hoodie and you're good to go!' ... But instead we decided to pack things like bear canisters, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, tents, clothes, and a trumpet! We are taking bigger packs than we orginially wanted to, but that's ok.
Wait, tents?! As my friend recently said: "But they have HOTELS in Europe!"
It turns out, those hotels aren't very affordable! AND we love backpacking and camping. So we will be carrying all of this gear with us, at least until September. For us, summer = camping and backpacking and being outside. So let's do this!!!
