SEATTLE, US — A lot of people have been asking us what it will be like to travel around the world. This seems a strange question to pose, given that neither of us has done anything even remotely like this before. Apparently, they assume our research into the trek has given us this kind of insight.
Well, honestly, we have no clue what it will be like. We've both taken long vacations — a few weeks, even a month or so — but we've never been on a vacation that had no definite "end". No return tickets. No day by which to show back up at work. No "home" to leave early and go back to. That much I can say tends to be a little disconcerting.
One of the other concerns is, of course, all the things we won't have with us. Here, I offer the first half of our list of things that Erin and I will miss the most during our trip:
Bubba and Gwen (our cats).
Well, this one sort of goes without saying. And, quite frankly, we're still having a little trouble coping with this one. So let's just quickly move along.
Salad.
Erin is a vegetarian, so she's usually happy to consume most kinds of produce. I, on the other hand, was raised to loathe and fear vegetables. To people like me and my Dad, our idea of vegetables with dinner is rice and potatoes (and corn, if we're barbequeing). If there were ever any kind of requirement that our dish contain something green, you could be sure we'd be eating salad. The great thing about salad is that you can disguise any vegetable-like qualities with a few pounds of blue cheese and bacon bits.
Unfortunately, when travelling to places like Central America and Asia, one of the first rules they tell us is: "Don't eat anything." Then, in case you find a way around that, they clarify it with "Don't eat lettuce." And the only thing worse than not being able to eat lettuce is having to eat other green vegetables. Blech.
Tea.
Specifically, good tea. Really good tea. Being able to wake up first thing in the morning, shuffle into the kitchen, and exercise my tea snobbery. To our advantage, there will be several former British colonies along our route who've managed to retain their knowledge of finer tea, and avoid falling victim to the likes of Lipton. (This is what we get for throwing it all in the Boston Harbor.) But only one of these countries lies in our path over the next six months, and I'm guessing none of them carries Rooibos on their convenience store shelves. (Okay, technically that's not tea, but an infusion — but close enough. And if you knew enough to call us on that, you're more of a tea geek than we are.)
Getting mail.
Although we won't miss the 341 pieces of junk mail we get each week, that other one parcel of mail be it a package, letter, greeting card, postcard, or free trial size packet of Pert Plus — will be sorely missed. Although we'll "offically" still have mailing addresses, we won't physically be there to see anything sent there. We'd actually be fine not having mailing addresses at all, except that our credit card companies insisted. Also, Ed MacMahon needs to know where to leave the check for us.
Our featherbed.
Some say home is where the heart is, others say it's where you hang your hat, still others say it's the only place where you can walk around naked and not get arrested. I say that home is where you lay your butt at night. And our bed, with its featherbed is about the most comfortable place I've ever found for doing that. In fact, I'd be surprised if we find any sleeping surface in the next several months that's even half as soft as the bedframe we sleep on, let alone the mattress or featherbed on top of it.
In fact, being on that featherbed right now makes this a great place to...... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz