Not All Who Wander Are Lost – Lord of the Rings
The above is my favorite quote. I have a necklace with that saying engraved on it even. My greatest desire has always been to wander.
Many months ago (if you recall) I blogged about the idea that my family and I might move to Costa Rica and stay there for a year or so. It was VERY exciting to me, to realize that we could afford to go on my salary. Yes, we would have to sell off most of our belongings (which we did in great part) and we could not maintain a home here in the US as well … but we could go live elsewhere on my income. We put things in motion and started researching places to live and the customs in Costa Rica, as well as the visa requirements. It was a source of stress to think that my work at home income would be the ONLY income we would have but I wanted to make that leap.
Our dreams were kind of dashed when we started talking to relatives. The hints were not so subtle that our leaving would be like knifing them in the heart. And if someone took the children I love more than life, out of the country for a year, I too would be upset. I can understand and so we abandoned that dream with a heavy heart. Maybe if we hadn’t… things might be different now.
I would still love to do more traveling because it has always been a big part of life up until I had kids. My green lifestyle would make travel a challenge but one that kind of excites me. I still hope to find a compromise that will make some extended travel possible. We may have to set down some roots and expand my income so we can maintain a “home base” that we can return to often. Or we can broaden the plan to include a travel group larger than the 5 people in our family. Maybe we could make our home base mobile via a motorhome that could be parked for relatively cheap when we wanted to go beyond the borders of our continent. I follow the blog of several families who have veggie oil motorhomes and they travel the US in them. There are several states I want to see before I decide on the best place to set up our base camp. We have many options for our wandering hearts and I cannot give up on the dream.
I love to read books about families who have made the leap….
Monkey Dancing – About a man who took his two kids on a round the world trip after a painful divorce.
All in the Same Boat – It is about a trial lawyer and a teacher and how they decide to quit their jobs, buy a boat and sail away. They even raise two daughters from infancy on their boat.
One Year Off: Leaving It All Behind for a Round-the-World Journey with Our Children – About a man and his wife who sell off everything they own and use the money to travel with their kids for a full year.
One family, whose blog I follow, just released a new book called “Extended World Travel – How to take a break from the rat race and travel the world with your family for 6 months – or more!” . This family of five is Swedish and they travel for large chunks of time… like 6 months or more, in places all over the world and this book is a compilation of their formula for how they are able to travel this way.
Recent developments in my life have made me realize that the rat race is sucking the life out of us. We need to Grab Life By the Disco Balls and Dance. There is no time like the present and repeatedly ignoring our dreams is not working out for us.
This is my one and only life, and its a great and terrible and short and endless thing, and none of us come out of it alive. – Holly – P.S. I Love You
Do you have dreams of extended travel or some of other wild dream? Are you working towards it every day?
Once our house sells we are planning to travel through Europe for 6-8 weeks with our two girls (3 and 5). It’s a big dream of mine. We’d love to go longer, but….we’ll see. I love that you provided some blogs about this. I have been wondering where to go to find blogs like this! THANK YOU!
Oops. I mean books. Do you know of any blogs like this?
Melodie, here are some that I read:
Zach Aboard: http://zachaboard.blogspot.com/
Toast Floats: http://blog.toastfloats.com/
Those families live on boats.
The Organic Sister – Who travels full time in veggie running motor home: http://theorganicsister.com/
Happy Janssens: http://www.happyjanssens.com/
I also like Expat Mom: http://www.expatmom.info/
She is a Canadian Expat who traveled to Guatemala,and now lives there with her husband and kids. It has great info about living in a different culture and her blog has tons of links to other Expats doing the same thing.
What a dream! I have thought about it from time to time, but ultimately have decided that staying close to family and having stability with friends is also very important. I do hope to do more traveling as the kids grow, just not for such a long time.
Do you have any desire to teach? I know that that can be a great way to live internationally.
I like your opening statement – Not All Who Wander Are Lost. My wife and I are full-time RVer’s and travel around the US. We typically stay in an area 1-2-months then move to another. We are definely not lost. We love this lifestyle. So, get out there and see the world…It’s worth it.
Great Post!
Yes, it can be a bit tricky to both satisfy your travel dream and your close relatives. We’ve had grandparents flying all over the world to be with us when we have been away for longer periods. And when they have visited, we have stayed in one place and spent most of our time, sometimes 2-3 weeks, with them. At times we have rented a house or an apartment for us all, at other times they have stayed in a hotel close to where we have had our camper van. So our traveling has really also given other members of our family the chance to see more of the world:)
I also want to contribute with another Tolkien quote
“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
I read One Year off last summer and Loved it!! I learned alot about various places around the world. It was educational in a sense and very entertaining. I actually shared some of the stories with my kids. Very funny.
I am excited to read Monkey Dancing. Headed to library to get it today. Thanks!!
Yes, it can be difficult for family who would miss you, but the experience for the kids… amazing and life changing. Perhaps family can come visit or you can fly home at 6 months with their help to pay for the tickets. We plan on doing a lot of travel like that with our kids because of the experience it’ll offer them. The grandparents will miss the kids a lot, but that is where skype can help as well as potential visits from them (or vice versa).
XOXO,
Kristen
We are american expats living aborad. My children are 7 and 10 and have lived in SIngapore, Bahrain and now Europe. We travel a lot..this year already having been to amsteram 2x, Bahrain, Dubai, Abu DHabi, and Barcelona. My children go to an international school. Its a great life but my goal is to create more of a home life for them, which Ive done here in Europe. We have pets and routines–we just travel on school breaks. It would be hard with strong family connections back home. We do have a big party with friends when we visit every summer. Come see us-!;)