It is so exciting to have a tentative travel plan laid out for our round-the-world journey. As of now, our planned launch date for this trip is the beginning of October 2012. That officially gives us another seven and a half months to get everything in order before leaving the country. The idea to do this trip really only solidified about 6 weeks ago and in that time we’ve already begun to sell or give away a lot of our excess belongings – thank you Craig’s List and Goodwill. I never knew how grateful I would be for our minimalistic decorating style and empty, unused rooms until now!
We have the giant check list of things to accomplish in the next several months including getting the house ready to rent, finding storage for the few things we’d like to have once we return, setting up vaccinations, visas, figuring out our travel system (bags/clothes/gear), booking our RTW ticket, selling a car, driving cross-country with 3 unhappy cats to the ‘grandparents’ and saying our final family farewells. It really is a LOT to think about.
What made our plans feel official was giving notice to my boss about 4 weeks ago. I stressed hard about that conversation, even developing premature hot flashes at sighting his car pulling into the office on ‘D’ day. A big part of me feels it’s just insane to give up a job I love in this unstable economy to go spend our savings and forgo retirement contributions. Then again… another part feels it’s just crazy not to. Depending who you ask, you only live once and I think we would regret more deciding not to take this incredible opportunity while it’s here.
