We must be nuts planning a trip over two years in the future. I’m hoping that once we’re on our way the 2+ year wait won’t be remembered as being sooo long. We’ll look back and see that we were smart to take the time to save up enough money so that we had a comfortable cushion, smart to plan out our home schooling program, smart to plan an exciting yet not bank breaking route – but my oh my the wait..
We’ve taken some small steps. Baharak made the first ‘real’ purchase. She picked up a beautiful Osprey backpack. It’s carry on size (as we won’t be checking any bags), very light, smartly designed and looks cool. I’m considering getting the same one but am waiting a bit. This segment of bags seems to be just taking off and I’m wondering if anything better might come along. If not, I’ll happily buy the Osprey Farpoint 40. It has tuckaway straps, laptop section, hip belt, great organization and clamshell opening. Tortuga Bags look well designed but I just can’t get into the look of them, looks too much like a suitcase. And the Minaal looks awesome but doesn’t have a decent hip belt (still considering it though). Tortuga has a cool comparison page, but they omit the Farpoint (wonder why?).
The other purchase we made was a giant world map from Ikea. Soon to be covered with sticky notes it is bound to become a key tool in our itinerary creation process. Looks great and is perfect for planning. We’re going to stay very flexible with our route, keeping options to stay longer in a particular place if we’re in love with it. But we at least want a good guideline for where in the world we’ll be in a given month. We’ll be chasing summer more or less – but want to avoid places like Tahiti in Jan. Did that once and can still feel the burn. I had to sleep leaning against a palm tree as I couldn’t lay my swollen, burnt head on the ground.
Kasm is getting really excited about the trip and is constantly asking questions about faraway places. He’s learning about different countries & cultures already; we’ll be sure to include him in the planning.
Finally, we’ll be looking to do some house sitting this summer. With the hopes of doing a bit of that on the trip we want to develop a reputation online so that we’ll have some trust in the bank before heading out. We’ll see if we can do a couple not too far from home, maybe in the mountains near here.