The Beginning...
Who are we? What is this “Adventure”, and why are we having it? What made us turn our dream into reality, and how did we do it?
Are we nuts? (We’ll let the folks with the psych doctorates make that call…)
We (Susan and Tom) are presently a “regular” middle-aged couple living in an all-American small town in Tennessee. But—not for long! The Adventure begins on January 16, 2012!
“The Adventure” is a loosely-planned period of at least 6 months in which we will explore Central and South America, using Panama a home base. While there is a “bucket list” of places to see, our goal is to be as spontaneous and flexible as possible, so that we can savor the both the “expected” experiences as well as the inevitable surprises. That’s why you will see the loosely structured itinerary evolve as we go.
Of course, there is a lot of planning and preparing to do. While we are in the midst of this (a big part of the fun, but also critical to our “success”) , we are also starting this blog to document the Adventure, keep our family and friends informed, and maybe give some inspiration and encouragement to other dreamers out there! We also hope that more experienced Adventurers (of all age groups) will weigh in with their own recommendations, experiences and advice.
This brings us to the question of “why”. Why now, why this journey, what’s the point? We'll be talking about that in the next post. In the meantime...
Susan wants you to know….
A native New Yorker, I have also lived in the Southern US (TN and FL), the Southwest (AZ) and CA. With a lifelong love of travel, I have visited Europe several times, the Middle East and the Caribbean. From 1987 to 1988, I traveled across the US by train, and made my way as a solo traveler from one end of New Zealand to the other. I also toured Australia, settling for a few months in Cairns. For most of my travels, I have gone the “budget route”, utilizing hostels and budget inns and guesthouses. Prior to the Adventure, my most recent trip was to Greece, with my college-aged daughter, this past summer.
As the adventure progresses, I will reveal more about my personal motivations for embarking on the Adventure. Some of my motivation comes from the stage of life at which I currently find myself; some comes from my faith and a desire to see it mature; and some comes from a feeling of deep and serious dismay at the course of recent political and economic events. For now, it can be boiled down to this: I need to get off the work-buy-consume-die treadmill and experience the World outside my office.
Tom wants you to know….
Tom is a bit of a modern-day Renaissance Man - he is an artist, writer, musician, actor, hockey goalie, novice woodworker, gun enthusiast, travel aficionado and avid reader. He is a conservative Christian, with an acute interest in American politics and Biblical apologetics. He loves good food (the four food groups - beef, pork, poultry and more beef) and spiced rum, Southern sweet tea, chocolate chip cookies and cannoli, but loves Jesus and his lovely wife Susan most of all... |
Disclaimer- The focus of this blog will be The Adventure – all of our experiences, triumphs and foibles, photos, impressions of people and places that touch us. While one of the catalysts that helped prompt our “sabbatical” from the USA is our dismay and disappointment with the direction the US government is taking and how our tax dollars are being spent, we are not going to use this blog as an avenue to discuss politics and economics, or vent any frustrations related to those topics. Because Susan is an “armchair economist”, and Tom closely follows political current events, some observations and opinions may sneak into the blog, but only in the context of how they impact The Adventure. We understand that not everyone shares our views, and we seek not to offend, but use any differences of opinion as fodder for constructive discussion.
