So What's the Plan, Stan?

Our tentative itinerary (November 2009-July 2010):

• From Austin to Rome and Sorrento, Italy for a week
• Then to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia (to visit my brother, who is currently living over there)
• Back to TN to visit my family for Christmas
• A quick stop in Austin to change out winter wear for warm weather gear
• Down to Quito, Ecuador, with a week in the Galapagos Islands
• On to Bangkok, spending 6+ weeks circuiting through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia (so cliche, I know) :)
• Then to New Delhi, India, hopping south to Kerala
• Dubai (where we will hopefully have enough Hilton hotel points for a nice stay!)
• Cairo
• Eastern Europe (Turkey, maybe Ukraine... things are still up in the air this far in advance)
• Paris (I told Brian we have to stop here for at least a couple days since it's the "City of Love" ...which might be useful for rekindling after spending 8 months together 24/7, haha)
• Finally back to Austin

I'm sure there will be changes depending on circumstances, family situations, our likes/dislikes, etc., but this is our "Susan has to have a plan" Plan. (I'm just one of those types!) Life has a crazy way of screwing with even the best laid plans, it seems, though. But hey, our plane tickets are one-way, and we're just purchasing as we go along, so Universe, go ahead and throw some curveballs our way! (If you're listening, Universe, I didn't REALLY mean that - I was just trying to make a point about how I can be flexible if I absolutely HAVE to be.) :)

So that's the plan, Stan!

You're WHAT?!!!!

After a couple years of planning and many years of saving, Brian and I are finally planning to break out of the cubicle and depart on our 8-month backpacking trip around the world in November. And what better timing, as I just recently found my first gray hair! Brian has taken to referring to our trip as "The Amazing Race - Special Olympics style", but maybe that's giving us too much credit, ha. No, we actually have a fair amount of travel under our belts... and between the two of us we have missed flights, been pickpocketed, gotten stuck in foreign restrooms, been chased by the police, and even spent 9 days trapped on the US/Mexico border due to a flash flood (thanks for the rescue, park ranger!). Call us greedy or adventurous or just plain loony, but we still want to see more! So, barring any major disaster, we're putting aside our jobs, having a couple friends move into our home and look after the pets, and embarking on a loose itinerary that will take us 40,000 miles over 5 continents.

Things we are looking forward to:

1) No more gray hairs, stomach ulcers, joint pains or quarter-life crises. Is this really what defines the 20s these days?

2) Instead of explaining to our grandkids/nieces/nephews that we spent our youth living vicariously through others, we will be able to read our own travel journals to them just as my 92-year-old grandmother recently read hers to me about her 1937 trip to Italy.

3) Being able to feel the sand in our toes for days at a time. (I don't think my office would have appreciated me filling my cubicle with sand!)

4) Discussing "transparency" only in a "Look at the beautiful transparency of the Mediterranean Sea!" sense.

5) Burning 1000 calories a day exploring rather than 10 calories a day pushing the elevator button and walking to coffee break.

6) Spending the same amount on nice lodging in Southeast Asia as we would spend here on a Taco Bell burrito.

7) Finally having a real excuse to wear the same pair of pants 5 days in a row.

8) Trading worry lines for tan lines (well, maybe "freckle lines" in Brian's case).

9) Finally seeing the photos in our travel magazines with our own eyes.

10) Taking cooking classes in foreign lands (American cooking didn't turn out to be my thing - I kept blowing up the microwave - but I'm convinced there's another style of cooking out there that I have latent talents for...)


“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson