A Little Background Info

I thought I’d use this post to catch everyone up on how Daron and I got here, for those of you who haven’t been in on our plans since the beginning.   It all started with Daron’s 40^th birthday, four years ago.  Being a milestone he wanted to do something big and so we booked a 10 day tour of Guatemala to celebrate.  We loved it!  It whetted our appetite for international travel.  When my 40^th birthday came around the next year I wanted to do something equally special –either a hiking trip in Europe or a yoga/meditation retreat in Thailand.  We couldn’t work it out because Daron was out of vacation for that year and I was too busy at work to take a chunk of time off.  We started dreaming about “what if” – what if we had more time, no job to get in the way, a chunk of money, etc.  The seed had been planted. 

Fast forward three years later and after much research and discussion we’re ready to take action.  Here are the highlights:

Dec 2009:  Daron gets laid off from Carestream Health.  We interpret it as a sign that NOW is the time to take action on the trip.

Jan 2010: We talk to our real estate agent about putting our house on the market. 

Feb:  We immediately get cold feet and tell our agent we’ve changed our minds (It was the first step and such a big one.  Even though we felt prepared, it was scary to finally commit).

Mar:  Our real estate agent calls and we’re still not ready (we have so much to give up:  a nice house, Beth has a great job, we have a cat we love; it’s a good life).

Apr:  We call our real estate agent and put our house on the market (we know we will regret it if we don’t follow our dreams).

May:  We get an offer on our house, to close June 30^th.  We book the cruise that takes a month to get to Australia, leaving in Sept.

Jun:  We jump through all the hoops of house-selling (almost backed out of the deal twice while in various negotiations).  We sell all of our furniture and some of our other household items.  Beth gives notice at work, probably the hardest thing she has ever done.  The house closes successfully on June 30^th.

Jul:  We put our remaining items in storage and sublease an apartment for one month in Old Town Fort Collins, above the Crown Pub.  We feel like college students, sleeping on a mattress on the floor and eating off a card table.  Daron visits his family in Washington for 3 weeks.

Aug:  We move again, this time leasing a room above the garage of one of Beth’s co-workers.  Everything seems to be going smoothly, until Beth’s Dad has a stroke in early Aug.  Beth flies home with Daron to help her parents, along with her brother.  Her Dad slowly improves during the month.  

Sep:  Beth’s last day of work is Sep 2 – such an emotional day and week (I still miss all my fellow Bohemians)!  We rent a U-Haul for our stuff and discover that it’s too small, so we decide last minute to store it all in Fort Collins, along with our second vehicle, rather than take it to California.  We find a great home for our kitty.  We drive to California and have a nice time visiting Beth’s family before boarding the ship.  Everything is going according to plan.  

So far, so good!