About Us

Who: Adam and Megan, married, no kids

What: Packing up the homestead and hitting the road to get to know the world.

When: Coming to a blog near you, Fall 2008

Where: Starting in South America, depart St. Louis MO 10/15/08, then on to Southeast Asia

Why: When else are we going to do it?

Or, if you are particularly curious, or are reeeaaaaallly bored at work, the long version:

We met in college about eight years ago and dated towards the end of our college careers until we were married in July of 2006. Megan is a real estate attorney (she is really nice and honest, though, I swear), and I am a high school English teacher (not as nice or honest as my wife). We currently live in St. Louis, Missouri, and have both grown up and lived here for the majority of our lives.

We caught the travel bug early in our relationship when we took a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico after I graduated from college. The trip was mostly a success (with the exception of “losing” money to a local, but we won’t get into that). We actually stayed outside of the city in a resort, which was nice, but we didn’t experience the culture very much. But since we were college students, experiencing the culture wasn’t quite as enticing as the free drinks and food at the resort.

The next year we decided to go on another trip to celebrate Megan’s graduation from college. We went on a two and half week road trip out west, exploring Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, hiking and biking in beautiful Moab, Utah, hiking to the bottom and camping at the Grand Canyon (something that everyone should experience), and Las Vegas. That is the trip that really cemented the addiction to travel. We didn’t want to come home, and we couldn’t wait until the next trip.

The next year brought about more traveling. First, Megan decided to go to Madrid, Spain to study abroad for the summer for law school. This was the first experience across the pond for either Megan or Adam. Even after that first night in Spain which involved getting lost trying to find their dorm and a monstrous bruise (sorry, honey, had to mention it), the trip was an experience that Megan will never forget. This is a big reason why we want to experience more cultures and travel the world.

With the end of the hiatus of my favorite band, there was certainly much traveling to do. In the same summer as Megan’s Spain trip, I somehow talked my girlfriend into driving from St. Louis to the northern most part of Maine to see one band (this would be my second trek to this same place to see this same band-hopefully not the last either– which coincidentally is the main reason I have the travel bug). The experience was great for the both of us and our relationship, despite all the mud and a certain towing incident. New York City called after Maine, and the Big Apple was a site to see.

Because we took so many trips in the first few years of our relationship, the next year was going to see a break from traveling (or so we thought). When this same band decided to call it quits for good, there was no way I was missing the final concert for a band I had traveled all over the country to see. After one long night out that ended in a certain diner at about 4am, I took the opportunity to talk my wonderfully amiable girlfriend into taking one last trek across the country to see one band (I told you she wasn’t your typical attorney). This time the Green Mountain State of Vermont beckoned us. The first part of the trip involved a lot of lounging and reading and eating and drinking and camping on an island in Lake Champlain. It was relaxing and beautiful. The second part involved rain, and mud, and more rain, and more mud, and some more rain, and did I mention mud? It was not so relaxing and not so beautiful. It was the kind of experience that builds character. 36 straight hours of torrential downpours while sleeping in a tent will do that to a person. But hey, it could have been worse.  We were lucky enough to get into the venue early and not have to wait in traffic for days and then ditch our cars to hike in like so many others had to do.  And at least we got to shower, um, no wait, there were no showers. The bathrooms were nice, um, no wait, they were johnny’s that were being used by tens of thousands of hippies. At least we got to spend it with 65,000 others  who made the same trek.

The next trip was the big one. A life changing trip. A trip that would involve getting engaged at the top of a castle in Ireland, trying to ride ONE bike through the streets of Amsterdam, getting sick in Prague and trying to find an English speaking doctor (which also involved seeing someone “escape” from the hospital), jumping out of a helicopter at 14,000 feet above the Swiss Alps, eating and drinking some of the best and cheapest seafood and wine that Italy has to offer in Cinque Terra (and me completely blowing my law school graduation present to Megan by booking the wrong dates for the bed and breakfast we were supposed to stay in while in Italy–during high season of course).  Europe was marvelous, and after that, we tried to think of ways to fulfill the need to travel, and not just for a one or two week vacation, but for a long, long time.

A wedding and honeymoon followed the next year. The best day in both of our lives came and went. The life of working 9-5 was upon us. Our friends were getting married, having kids, and moving out to the burbs. That is the reason we started this blog. We didn’t want to have kids yet, we didn’t want to move out to the burbs, and we didn’t want to work the same job for the next 30 years. There needed to be some change.

One day, as Megan was reading a blog, she came across a couple who traveled around the world. Literally, around the world. She brought it up to me, and I thought she was absolutely nuts.  After much discussion and research, she talked some sense into me, and we both realized that we were luckily in the perfect positions in our lives to do something like this.

So here we are.  Quitting our jobs.  Selling our shit.  Packing up nothing more than a backpack.  And heading out on a trip around the world.