3 Years Later – The Final Post

Trip Video

Over the last 3 years, I have been asked many times, "when are you going to write the Final Post?" My response has always been, "yeah, I need to do that . . . " as my mind wanders off thinking about our trip around the world. Well, after 3 years of procrastinating and maybe just not wanting to post the Final Post, here it is. I assume the reason that I haven been avoiding it stems from the fact that the act of doing so brings an official end to the trip. The prod I needed was Jennifer posting a picture of Halong Bay on Facebook a couple days ago stating where we were 3 years ago. 3 years ago?! Really?! The other prodding came from my desire to convert the blog into a book and the book really should have an epilogue.
In the time that we have been back, Aaron graduated from Williams College and started his professional career at J.P. Morgan in New York. He absolutely loves living and working in Manhattan. Noah has passed up Aaron height wise, topping out at 6'5". He is a Junior at Apple Valley High School and thoroughly enjoys hanging out with people other than his parents after 7 months of too much Mom and Dad time. Jennifer is on her 3rd job since our return, landing for the 4th time at IBM. I sold my internet company and went back into the project management consulting business. Jennifer and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary with a trip to Kauai!
The last few days in Fiji, the final destination on our trip, we spent a lot of time reminiscing about the previous 7 months. We discussed the experiences we had, the people we met, and potential impact they will have on how we live our lives. Other than those deep philosophical topics, we also chronicled how we got around the world. We took 33 flights, 103 taxi rides, 99 bus rides, 29 boat rides, 4 car rentals, 6 train rides, 37 trips on the subway, 5 bike rentals, 16 trips in friends cars, 1 cable car, 19 Tuk-Tuk rides, 4 trips on a Cyclo, 4 scooter rentals, and 3 types of animals (horse, camel, and elephant).
Looking back on the trip, we feel blessed that we were able to take a break from life and experience all that the world has to offer. The picture to the right pretty much sums up how we feel about taking 7 months to travel the world. This little boy is from Ubud on the island of Bali in Indonesia. It makes us want to go back to Bali, since we did not spend enough time there. Better yet, we need to figure out when we can do another trip around the world. It might have to wait until we get Noah through college.
Until next time . . .
Click on the following link to view a 15 minute video/picture summary of our trip ==> Trip Video

Going, Going, Gone!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

Yes, the title of this post is a reference to an announcer calling a home run. For you non-baseball fans, get used to it. I doubt it will be my last reference to the great game of baseball. I felt that it was an appropriate title since it seems like we have been going, going for quite some time.  We did manage to leave enough of the details to cause an emotionally and physically draining final week in Minnesota.

We underestimated the amount of effort and emotional drain on getting our house ready to be rented, relinquishing the day to day operations of KinderMark, selling/donating the Durango, and putting our lives into 1 suitcase and 1 backpack each. We would like to offer a big thank you to those who stopped by, called, and prayed with us during this past week. All your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes are greatly appreciated.

We are writing this in the Ft Lauderdale airport in Florida, waiting for our flight to our first destination, Lima, Peru. The picture above is of Jennifer sitting in the Ford family airport command center. She is using the Laptop while charging an Ipod, camera and Skype phone. Between the three of us, we might create a drain on the Peruvian electrical system.

While Jennifer was working on the computer, Noah and I grabbed our gloves and went out into the sweltering Florida heat to play catch. Florida is not a dry heat!

Off to Peru!

We're Going!

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” - Lao Tzu

Our first step was to commit to taking 7 months out of our busy lives to travel the globe rather then just talking and dreaming about it, which we had been doing for quite some time. Let me tell you, that is no small step out of the comfort zone.

Our initial questions were - "Where will we go?" - "What will we do with our house?" - "Can we afford it?" After committing to the trip and researching where to go and what to do, the questions changed to, "How can we fit everything into ONLY 7 months?" - "I know 30 countries is a lot, but what do we cut out?". We were able to reduce the number of countries to 19 (20 if you include beginning and ending in the United States). The following slide show is a pictorial view of our trip itinerary.

Good bye for now. We need to get back to packing, getting Aaron off to college, getting the house ready to rent, and turning the business over. We leave in 3 weeks!

Where Are We Going?

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” - Henry Miller

20 Countries in 204 days! Click on the map to check out the countries that we are visiting. To return back to the Ford Explorers Blog, click on the Back Button in your browser.