One day, some adventure ago, the ‘turning 30’ conversation came up. It was still a few years away when we started talking about it, but if you know Brendon and I, you know that we plan shit well in advance. Anywho, we both knew that we wanted to do something BIG to celebrate it/make it not seem so crazy/look forward to it. Not 100% sure how turning 30 is supposed to make you feel yet but we have heard bad things so in hopes of avoiding all negative feelings ‘The 30th Year Plan’ was created. The adventure of all adventures – driving our bike to the tip of South America – and back? We don’t know yet. We can decide what we want to do next once we get there. There are a few ideas floating around – drive down one side, up the other + head to the other side of the world + maybe come home (probably not) after I turn 30, June 2019, would be ideal (sorry mom +dad)…We’ll keep you posted.
And yes, the plan has a name because that is the kind of person I am. I’d like to write a book about it someday or maybe not. I might just blog about it. I haven’t decided so you will just have to wait to find out!
Bren turns 30 at the end of October 2017 (YAY!) but we are planning to leave earlier so that we can hit Central America’s dry season starting in late September. Leaving summer 2017 – date undecided.
Here is a list of things we are trying to do in preparation for the trip:
+Learn Spanish (#1 most essential) – Ongoing – We have completed a course at www.skillsuccess.com that we found for $2 on groupon earlier this year. We are also using DuoLingo and will be starting Rosetta Stone next….but please don’t try to talk to me in Spanish because I have learned nothing. There has also been discussion of taking a Spanish course once we get down South.
+Research visas, border crossings, overall logistics of travelling across multiple countries and map out routes (#2 most essential) – Ongoing
+Write a will – Completed last fall – that was weird! I struggled to decide what to do with things while Bren was like “who cares, we will be dead.” Good point. Morbid? No. We know the struggle of unexpected death, if the worst should happen, we want it to be easier on our family by having everything in order for them.
+Buy KTM Adventure Bike – Completed March 2016
+Complete upgrading to basic, lightweight and compact gear. – Completed July 2016, realistically this should be ongoing. We have everything we need but we probably will always be continuously upgrading or changing things as time goes on. We are constantly researching and learning about new products and getting advice from people doing similar things.
+Purchase a water filter system – July 2016 – We bought this one: http://www.cascadedesigns.com/msr/water/treatment/hyperflow-microfilter/product.
+Build a better first aid kit – After chopping off the tip of my big toe in Nicaragua this year we quickly learned that our first aid kit needed some work. – Completed but always open to making it better.
+Take first aid course – This is good to have in general and see above point.
+Research and decide whether we are going to get a trailer – https://trailtail.com – We would really like to make do without it but it might not be realistic since we are sharing one bike, might be nice to have. Still pondering this.
+Research and decide on if we are getting a SAT phone
+Rent house out – Summer 2017
+Save Money – Ongoing – Once we have saved what we think is enough, we need to save more
+Create a daily budget – This will depend on how much we are able to save. We are leaving on a 3 week bike trip soon and will be attempting to live on a daily budget of $100 to practise living and sticking to a set budget. I will let you know how that goes.
+Research – Ongoing – We have been busy reading blogs, articles and books that others have written about doing similar journeys (see the ‘Books” page of our website to see what books we are reading)
+Overall get our shit together – immunizations, make copies (hard and soft) of all our important information (licenses, birth certificates, passports, etc), a billion other things that I am sure we have already thought of and even more that we definitely have not thought about yet.
We are not going to pretend that we already know everything. Sometimes listening to other peoples suggestions has saved us a lot of trouble down the road. So that being said, any advice, tips, suggestions are welcome!
