Exploring the world one word…and one mile…at a time

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…Go!

“Take a last look out on / Turn the key and we’re gone /

Who cares if Monday / There’ll be hell to pay…”

 –Taking Off Today, Adam Ezra Group

 

We are taking off today.  We are hitting the road for the first in a series of trips that will, over the next nine months, criss-cross two continents and five or six countries.

We’ve been planning this day for weeks and talking about it for months, but we’ve each been dreaming about this day our whole lives, long before we even knew the other existed.  The day when we quit our corporate jobs to pursue an authentic, creative life.  The day we awoke with no expectations or agendas or constraints other than the ones we assigned to ourselves.

We’ve been readying our physical selves by losing weight, eating whole foods, and getting fit enough to tackle 6,500-foot mountains and long stretches of road.

We’ve been readying our financial selves by living below our means, sticking to a budget, paying off debt, and saving money.

We’ve been readying our possessions by decluttering, donating, and downsizing, seeking out “the right stuff” instead of simply “more” or “less” stuff.

And we’ve been readying our ride.  We traded in two family sedans for a road warrior, swapping a hybrid engine for all-wheel drive that eats mountains and standard trunks for a wagon that craves gear.

This morning, that wagon is packed and ready to roll.  For us, there is no Monday.  There will be no hell to pay at the office, because there will be no office.  There will be no commute to the city, no gridlocked traffic, and no work e-mail to check.  There will not be anything except the few things we’ve chosen carefully for the trip and a collection of dreams that have been piling up for the past 30-something years.

We know roughly how many miles per gallon we will get on the road, but we have no idea how many words per gallon we will write while we’re out there.  Come along for the ride, and we’ll find out together!

Posted by  |  March 18, 2012 | Categories: Getting Ready, Uncategorized | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Ready, Set…

T-21 hours and counting!  We’re busy as bees cooking meals and snacks to take with us, getting the house ready so it’s sparkly clean when we come home, and packing our gear and the car.  We both have a long training run planned for this afternoon, so we’re working our other chores around them.  In many ways, it feels like a regular Saturday around the house, but there’s a building sense of anticipation with every tick of the clock on the kitchen wall.  Still no decision on the first song, but the tunes are cranking right now!

Posted by  |  March 17, 2012 | Categories: Getting Ready | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Cry Me a River (But Don’t Include That Song)

It’s barely noon, and I’m crying for the second time today.  It was a song that did me in both times: the lyrics of one and the opening chords of a guitar in the other.  Twangy little rock-and-rollers singing about change and loss and freedom.  In other words, songs that were written specifically to make me cry today.  Well, not me specifically, but anyone on the precipice of a big transition that’s been in the making for a long time.  Today’s two songs have made their way to our growing road trip playlist.  We expect to do more than 80 hours of driving in the next two weeks, and that calls for a longer-than-usual set of car tunes.  We’ll mix in old favorites with new tracks, shuffle up the genres, and throw in some spoken word for good measure.  There’s been much debate but no decision yet on the track that will earn the coveted designation of “first song,” the song that will play during those first three or four minutes of the trip.  Even though we’ll spend those minutes driving on the roads closest to our home, we’ll be driving away from what our lives have been and toward what they will become.  There’s a good chance I’ll cry most part of the way to Virginia, too, but they will be happy tears:  tears of boundless relief, tears of authentic joy, and tears born of emotions for which I won’t have words.  With a little luck, the words will come later.  In the meantime, I’ll be content to lean back, look out the window, and listen to the soundtrack of our lives. -J

Posted by  |  March 16, 2012 | Categories: Getting Ready, Music | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

The Rear-View Mirror

So…I resigned from my job at the company I’ve worked at for the past thirteen years.  My last day will be this Friday.  After that, we’ll pack the car, hit the road and start a different kind of work, moving our lives in a new direction.  I mentioned in a prior post that I expect some friction as I wind down over the next couple of days.  That’s okay.  There was plenty of friction in my day-to-day job anyway.  As I sit in my kitchen and reflect on the job and people I’m leaving behind, I also know that I’ll receive encouragement and support from many of my friends and coworkers.  Delivering my resignation turned out to be far less dramatic than I expected (probably because I was wrapped up in my own head about it).  I’m guessing the next two days will turn out the same way, and I’m relieved by that thought.  I’m grateful for the good people who I’ve worked with over the years, and I’m confident that the team I’m leaving behind will be successful .  After Friday, the only employee I’ll be responsible for is me.  I think I’m up for the challenge. – M

Posted by  |  March 14, 2012 | Categories: Getting Ready, People | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Clearing the Last Few Hurdles

Today brought us three huge steps closer to the road and the freedom that follows it.  We cleared the last few critical hurdles this afternoon, two on the financial front and one on the professional front.  Without going into the gory details, there were three tasks that had to occur before we hit the road but could not occur any sooner than today, four days before we are scheduled to leave.  I can happily report tonight that they all are done and done…and done.  After weeks of waiting–waiting for things to go right, waiting for things to go wrong–we are finally able to take a deep breath and let ourselves sink slowly into the realization that what we’ve been talking about for months is actually going to happen. -J

Posted by  |  March 14, 2012 | Categories: Getting Ready | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Running on the Road

The timing of our first few weeks on the road will coincide with the last few weeks of our training before we run a half-marathon back in our hometown.  It will be my first half (his second), and despite a recent bout of bronchitis, I’ve done a decent job sticking to my training plan during what turned out to be a mild New Hampshire winter.  What’s proving to be a bigger challenge is ensuring we stick to our training plans while on a road trip.  Planning our workouts (especially our long runs) will be critical to ensuring we return home at the end of the trip ready to run the race.  I spent part of today mapping out a workout schedule, taking into consideration which days we have extended drives planned (making it tough to fit in any kind of workout) and which days look like they’ll offer us a big block of free time (perfect for a long run).  We’ll control for the variables we can (like choosing to stay in locations that seem to offer decent running routes) and be flexible when faced with ones we can’t (like weather or terrain or quirks of a small town road).  We’ll also need to be more careful than usual when hiking during the first week of the trip.  We’re planning to tackle some moderately challenging hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains, and what might be normal fatigue or a nuisance injury on any other trip could become a race-ruining injury on this one.  No amount of internet research or advance planning will prepare us for exactly what we’ll find on the road, but having a plan in hand when we set out will give us the best chance of sticking to it while we’re out there.  –J

Posted by  |  March 12, 2012 | Categories: Getting Ready, Running | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Things Just Got Real

I should be reading On the Road or Dharma Bums or The Undiscovered Self to remind myself of all of the reasons I’ve been chasing this life for the past ten years.  It’s not that I’m afraid of quitting my job.  This nervous/anxious/pensive response to readying our gear for the trip is more of a flinch, since I know that the next five days are going to hurt.  I will disappoint some, anger others and likely perplex all.  They won’t understand my motivations, they’ll question my motivations, and they will definitely criticize my motivations.  On Friday, after thirteen years of working in the insurance industry, I will be free to make my own way.  I’ll be free of debt, free of the fears of others, free of contractual obligations and ready to move on.

So, when the haters begin to talk and the questions begin to fly, it will be up to me to call upon the spirit of Kerouac’s “Rucksack Revolution” and to summon Jung’s analytical mind and ability to deconstruct the man-made trappings of what he called “the state” (…which has evolved in our time into “Corporate America”).  Their voices remind me that the American Dream is not just a singular dream, rather it’s any dream.  It’s my dream of hitting the road in the shadow of the travelers before me, experiencing life and writing in my own voice.  Whatever happens from here will be up to me.

In the lyrics of Ben Harper, “the unfinished work of our heroes must truly be our own…”  I’m not arrogant enough to believe that I’ll finish the work of those like Kerouac and Jung, but perhaps I will further their causes and leave an unfinished legacy for the next dreamer to pursue.  -M

Posted by  |  March 11, 2012 | Categories: Getting Ready, Writing | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Time Has Slowed to a Crawl

The anticipation is high, and the waiting is painful.  These last two weeks are moving more slowly than any of the previous twelve months.  We’re distracting ourselves by staying focused on trip preparations.  We’ve sketched out the itinerary for our first two weeks on the road, and it’s shaping up to be a 50/50 split of camping nights and nights spent in other accommodations (like highway hotels or the homes of family and friends along the way).  We have reservations for a few anchor nights, and we’ll play the rest by ear.  I’m obsessively checking the 10-day forecasts for Key West (stunningly warm) and Gatlinburg (confusingly bipolar).  We are planning to camp near Gatlinburg in the Great Smoky Mountains NP, and the overnight temps are still dancing in the 30s.  I’ve started to work on a meal plan so that grocery shopping and food preparation and cooking gear all scream efficiency and economy.  And given that writing will be a major component of this journey, we’ve created several new blog sites, including this one to track our travels.  (In addition to this blog, we’ll each maintain our own individual blogs for topics ranging from food and fitness to poetry and photography.  You can find links to them on the right side of this screen.)  Each day brings us one step closer to the morning when we shift the car into drive and log our first mile.  That moment cannot arrive soon enough. -J

Posted by  |  March 8, 2012 | Categories: Getting Ready | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Counting the Days

After months of dreaming and scheming, we’re down to less than two weeks until we hit the road!  We’re busy readying our gear, ourselves, and this site.  Stay tuned for updates as we get closer to our much-anticipated departure. -J&M

Posted by  |  March 6, 2012 | Categories: Gear, Getting Ready | Tags: , | 1 Comment