Comments on: Thoughts from the Weekend

By: Things I Miss About Home | Lives of Wander

Things I Miss About Home | Lives of Wander — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:35:39 +0000

[...] I wrote earlier about the tug of war between the comforts of home and the adventure of travel. Well, here are some of things I’ve been missing about the comforts of our home since I’ve been over here. And, really, this is a pretty simple list, as I don’t have many language problems and the culture is pretty similar. Just some minor quirks and things I think we do better back home. I’m sure we’ll revisit this list while we on our big journey and surely have many more things to add. But without further ado: [...]

By: Travel Take Two: Belize | Lives of Wander

Travel Take Two: Belize | Lives of Wander — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 04:39:36 +0000

[...] also didn’t want to be stuck in a stuffy, dull resort. So to harken back to what I said about last week about adventure vs. comfort, I wanted somewhere that would provide us with a perfect combination of adventure and classic [...]

By: Dahab

Dahab — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:46:30 +0000

Hi guys. I’m a lurker who has exchanged some emails with Theresa in the past (my husband and I did a 7-month RTW trip as our honeymoon). Just wanted to congratulate you on the great website. I’ve enjoyed reading your posts and watching your trip planning unfold. The stability vs. adventure debate truly never ceases, even after lots of travel. We’re dealing with the same issue now. After several stints abroad, and a big RTW trip, most of our friends & family (in Texas, coincidentally ) don’t understand why we’re not ready to settle down. Haven’t we gotten it out of our system? Alas, no. I don’t think it ever leaves your system. The idea of a house & lawn & stability sounds awfully boring to me. But career & family & community are also important to me, and it’s hard to develop those when you’re constantly moving around. We’re dealing with a big decision along those lines now. No easy answers. Sigh. I’ll continue reading along & enjoying your journey.

By: Kango Suz

Kango Suz — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:13:09 +0000

Hey guys,
That post spoke so strongly to the huge struggles my husband and I have when it comes to our ideas of what we want from life. I think it is mostly due to our ages. He’s about 7 years older than I and did the whole ‘Rock Band’ thing when he was in his 20s. Now he just wants to settle down and have stability. All I want to do is save enough and travel for two years. We’re constantly at an impasse. Since we’re also on the ‘rolling 5 year plan’ for kids I keep trying to tell him that we need to do it NOW and that we’ll do his plan when we have kids. He doesn’t believe me. Maybe I don’t either.

Thanks for articulating what I so strongly feel.
-Kango Suz
http://www.startgo.com

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:12:26 +0000

Becca, great to hear from you guys and it was great seeing you this weekend. It’s gonna be fun keeping up with your growing family on your blog. You always hear about people lying about being younger, but never older! It’s strange how weird people “up north” act when you say you’re married and young.

And Matthew, I think we’re on the same page about feeder roads, I would believe Austin has them and I have never been to Arkansas. On the plus side, they do make it easy to recover from missing an exit, but that’s about the only plus I can think of. Meanwhile, they make the road one gigantic billboard and make it feel like cars are always merging/changing lanes/trying to hit me.

And finally, Ruth, I think we first adopted the “rolling” five year plan right about five years ago now, so we truly have been taking advantage of the flexibility. Five years sounds far enough away to not be real … but then, after a year, you start thinking about whether it’s four years now … and nope, it’s still five.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:51:06 +0000

I agree with Laura. We are regularly asked about our timetable for children (especially now that we have a house) and our primary motivation for NOT yet having kids is that we have a few places we need to see together, most of which will not be affordable once we have little ones. This fall we venture to Spain, so Bryan can see where I lived for a year, and we have thoughts of at least one more trip out of the country before babies. Jeff, i appreciate your description of a “rolling five year plan” concerning kids. I have adopted the 5 year plan, but I neglected to add the “rolling” part to allow for greater flexibility…good thinking.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:49:42 +0000

One of the biggest sacrifices I can imagine making once we have kids is having to give up some of our traveling, at least for a little while. I don’t think kids necessarily have to mean an end to travel, but they will certainly limit where you can go and what you can do. I guess the next few years of our lives will be dedicated to travel within the US and my dream trip to Vietnam and Thailand will need to wait. I just can’t imagine never wanting to travel and see new things though. Home is great, but there’s so much else out there to experience!

By: matthew

matthew — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:29:34 +0000

Popping out a few kids is the best way to get indebted to the man.
And Jeff, we will have to further discuss the idea of feeder roads to make sure we are on the same page, but by definition Austin and Arkansas have similar road situations.
And well, any claim about the superiority of Texas goes right down the you know what once the topic of feeder roads comes up. Those things are worthless.

By: Gregory

Gregory — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:31:12 +0000

This isn’t completely on topic but nor is it completely off topic, but I think a read of “Suburban Nation”, touches on this idea of settling down and staying put (a uniquely American perspective at such a young age). I know, you’re shocked I read a book, but it was required for a class. Not only did I read the entire book (oh yes, every page), I actually really liked it (if you stay tuned I’ll have a review of it soon). Of course its from an architecture/planning perspective, but again it definitely hints at getting our slice of suburbia, settling down, and not questioning why we do this to the ends for these authors, that we need a return to traditional walking neighborhoods. I think “Suburban Nation” should be required reading for all Americans.

By: Becca

Becca — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 04:48:16 +0000

Hi Blackingtons!

It was great to see you this weekend and thanks for visiting our blog.

Wow, I absolutely could have written this post, except a lot less eloquently! And from the other point of view. We obviously are on the other parallel, with a young family. I too wish I could live two lives, one like yours traveling and unencumbered and the other, my life.

It’s funny how encountering old lifestyles and friends can make you say, “hmmmm.” It is strange, living up “North” and visiting Houston. Here, like I said, we are the odd ducks, being young(ish), married, and with child(ren). Although, I’ve adopted coping mechanisms, like not telling people how young I am. I’ve actually told an accidental fib and aged myself a couple of years. Whoops! And having kids, ages you a bit, so you don’t look so young. In Houston, we fit right in, in some regards. But as a “Northerner,” can one ever fit in? That’s another post.

Don’t feel that you didn’t convince anyone – we plan and would love to have an opportunity to travel when the kids are old enough to go or at least fend for themselves. But, I don’t know if you convinced me per say, because I’ve always wanted to travel. Alas, it must be later.

I guess you would consider me perfectly comfortable in my hometown and in my routines. But there is part of me that wonders what I am missing. Right now, I’ll have to live vicariously through you younguns/old marrieds.

Becca