Tracy Carolyn Photography

Madison, Wisconsin May 2012

Apparently, people have questions.

I’m perfectly happy to answer questions, believe me.  Particularly about something I’m so excited about.  However, there are a few basic questions that I think John and I have collectively answered about 8 jillion times.

Yes, that is an accurate figure.

So, I present to you the World Tour FAQ.  Please take no offense if instead of answering your questions in person we redirected you to this site to read the answers instead.  We still love and embrace your curiosity :)

Where are you going?

Here is the brief rundown as it is loosely planned: US, Mexico, Cuba, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Belize, New Zealand, Fiji, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Japan, Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Italy, France, and Ireland.  Plus or minus a few countries, depending on how things shift along the way (Malaysia and Vietnam, for example, are on the bubble.)

For you visual learners, please see the map.  Yes, it is a lot of places.  We reserve the right to change our minds at any given time.

What country are you most excited about?

What an absurdly difficult question to answer.

Let me put it this way: there are no crap countries on our itinerary.  We didn’t add in a few losers just to make the winners shine – we are only going places we are both excited to see.  Usually I answer this with the country that I think may resonate most with the person asking the question, but please know that we are excited to visit every singe destination on our itinerary.  Otherwise, it would have gotten scrapped.

Do you have all of your flights and hotels already booked?

Nope.

We used some frequent flier miles to book a few flights, but for the most part we are winging it.  Our general plan is to balance one week of being tourists with four weeks of taking up residence.  For more about that, see this post.

How did you pack for this?

There are two answers to this one, from both the male and female perspectives.

I researched packing lists of other world travelers, visited REI a few times to look at potential items, color coordinated the clothes I’ll be taking with me, and made endless lists.

John shoved some staples into his backpack the day we moved out of our apartment.

So far, both of us are happy with what we’ve chosen to pack (though we both have more for the US portion of the trip than we will internationally.)  So I guess it’s kind of a crapshoot.

Are you going to get sick of each other?

I’m not too worried about this one.  We’ve traveled together many times for weeks at a time, and we both work from home on a regular basis.  We are very good at spending a lot of time together – and excellent at speaking up when one of us needs alone time.  I suspect we’ll have a fight or two (or 10), but on the whole I think we will be just fine.

How can you afford this/how did you budget/how long did it take you to save up?

We saved a good amount of money last year, but traveling abroad becomes a lot more manageable when you don’t have carrying costs at home (rent, utilities, car insurance and the like.)  So it doesn’t cost as much as people seem to imagine.

Our estimated budget is about $100 per day.  In countries like Guatemala and Thailand this is an absurdly high budget, while in places like Europe and New Zealand it may be a bit tight.  We anticipate it will all even out over the course of the year.

We saved a good amount of money last year to help pay our expenses, and John can still work and earn income while we are traveling.  Win!

Will you be blogging?

This is the number one question we get.  The answer is, of course, yes!  I will be posting images to this site, and John will be posting his narratives here. Please check them often and leave comments liberally to encourage us to continue!

Can I come visit you?

Please do!  We are encouraging all friends, family and loved ones to come visit us while we are abroad.  Just check in to see when we will be in the part of world that intrigues you, and I’m sure we can set something up.

If I missed the burning question you are dying to ask, please leave it in the comments and I will add the answer for you!

Where We’ve Been

It’s been a serious whirlwind tour of the Midwest over the last month.  We covered 8 states (Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado), and visited countless family and friends.  Nearly every meal was spent catching up with a different person, and most nights we slept in a different place.  By the end we were feeling a bit exhausted, but so grateful we were able to see each and every one of those smiling faces.

The Highs

• Seeing everyone we miss throughout the year.  And even getting to photograph some of them.  (Like this adorable guy, these sweet neices, and all of this family.)  We already can’t wait to see you all again when we get back.
• Camping in Kansas, Missouri, and Wisconsin.  Unseasonably warm nights made this a super pleasant option for lodging without crashing in on family and friends every night.
• Trading our skills for two exceptional dinners at St. Louis restaurants, a week of free yoga classes, and a few free nights at a bed and breakfast in Missouri wine country.
• A Brewer’s game and brewery tours in Milwaukee, biking on the Capitol City Trail in Madison, dinner in Chicago’s Chinatown, enjoying cocktails boatside on Lake Michigan…just so many delightful little adventures.

The Lows

• John getting hit by a car while biking in St. Louis.  Fortunately he is fine, but his bike got roughed up to the tune of $400 in repairs.  The driver took off after hitting my hubby, leaving us with the bill.  What the what, crazy St. Louis driver.  Seriously.
• Camping in South Dakota.  It was just way too cold.  Especially when one of us was coming down with a cold.

Things I’ve Learned

If we did all of World Tour at this pace, I’d probably quit after the first month (ok, maybe six weeks.)  Moving around every night is exhausting, and turns life into an indistinguishable blur.  Thankfully, we’ve already planned for this and have no intentions of moving this quickly throughout the world.

I can also tell that I’ve already packed too much stuff.  I intentionally added more clothes to my bag than I will want for the international portion of our trip, but most of those extras seem superfluous.  It shouldn’t be too hard to pare my wardrobe down even further now that I know which clothes really work and what I don’t need.

What’s Up Next

We will be in Colorado for the first half of June.  My sister is getting married in Evergreen and then I have an event to photograph in Denver.  Following that, we’re headed to another wedding out in Cape Cod and a week on the beach!