The last couple of months in Portland were a crazy, stressful time. We went through what remained of our worldly possessions, sold or gave away what we could, and put what we couldn’t (or wouldn’t) part with in storage. The house was cleaned, painted, recarpeted and repaired such that our renters will have little to worry about when it comes to maintenance. Our final act as Portlanders was to throw a going away party to say “until we meet again” to the many wonderful friends that we will miss dearly while we are away.
The first leg of our journey is a short hop down to sunny southern California. We are currently in the middle of a two week visit where we will attend a nephew’s wedding, see friends and family, and get some much needed R&R. From here, we will be flying to Stockholm, Sweden. Then the real adventure begins.
This “pre-launch” to California has given us an opportunity to battle test our gear one last time while still having all the conveniences of being in the States. We quickly learned two things. First, we still have too much gear. It will take one more purge before everything will fit comfortably into a checked and carry-on bag for each of us. Related to the first learning is that the choice of bag is as important as what you put into it. On an intellectual level this is a no brainer, a quality bag is easier to pack and more comfortable to carry when packed to the gills. However, in practice, we attempted to use luggage we already owned rather than go out an buy everything new. Lucky for us, REI was just a few miles down the road from where we are staying and Fara now has a shiny new carry-on backpack that will make rushing to a plane or train a little easier.
The vision we have for this site is to use it as a way to chronicle our journey, keep friends and family up to date on where we are and ensure everyone that we are alive and well. To do our part and give back to the nomadic community, we will also post about lessons learned along the way and fill in some of the gaps of how we went from a gainfully employed forty-something couple to nomadic travelers in a few short years. We don’t have a definite plan yet of how often we will be posting, but will strive to keep it on a regular schedule.
So “until we meet again”, that’s all for now.