"Normal People Don't Do This"

Ronald Reagan National Airport

That was my response when my darling husband Ben first told me of his grand plan to travel the world. We’ve been asked many times over the last 18+ months how we ever came up with this idea in the first place & truth be told Ben surprised me with it driving southbound down I81.

We were headed for our annual 4th of July shindig at my parents & I was dog tired having just wrapped up my then jobs annual 2-day conference & Board of Directors meeting. I was in no mood to chit chat, half asleep in the passenger seat, when the idea was thrown out to the universe “What do you think if we took a year off & just traveled?”. “Normal people don’t do that” was, as you may have guessed, my first response; “We have jobs and a house….and a dog for goodness sake - we have responsibilities. I don’t see how we could pull it off”. Well that was that for now as I rolled back over & resumed my nap.  

Fast forward 3 days later, after a sun & fun filled weekend and we were headed back northbound this time, home to DC and our “normal” lives. For whatever reason, it was I this time that turned to Ben & asked…” what did you mean take a year off & travel…. what are you thinking exactly?”. And the rest as they say was history…

Well not exactly history, it took a year & a half of planning, financial sacrifice & saving, amazing family & friends support (including keeping previously mentioned dog), and breaking the news to our respective companies. There were more things than I can count that kept me up at night, stressing & worrying over what would go wrong or hold us back (promise to dedicate a full post or more to the in & out logistics of it all for those who have asked) but as I sit here boarding “the flight”, the one-way ticket to Santiago, Chile, I can’t help but feel it was all worth it.

Our house on our last day home...

Sure, it wasn’t always easy & I’ve had more than one moment of panic in the last few months, even unwavering Ben looked over and uttered “we may be crazy” a mere two days ago, but in the end, we’ve rented our home (pictured above) & packed the rest of our world into our small travel packs (below). Come hell or high water we’re off & in the end we may both we right…we may be crazy & perhaps normal people don’t do this, but who ever wanted to be normal anyway? 

Our "home" for the next 11 months....

First stop...Santiago!