We’ve been back in the states for about a month now and we’re slowly recovering from the reverse culture shock of being back in the USA. It is always so weird to come back and experience our old world. Kind of like visiting an alternate universe where we used to live long ago. It’s funny how some days we feel like we don’t even know the old Kathy & Kyle at all and we’re visiting a foreign land here. Other days everything feels comfortable and normal. It’s an interesting adventure for sure.
Once we decided that we didn’t want to come back and live permanently in the US, we thought that travel would help us figure out where Home is. But what we’re starting to realize is that all this long term travel is not about figuring out where Home is at all. For us, it turns out that this journey is more about figuring out what sort of life we want to have. And we’ve discovered that the kind of life we want to have can be had in many different places. What we want is a certain type of simple lifestyle…a slower pace…to feel like an integral part of the community…to not have to work full time just to pay for everything…to have the time and freedom to enjoy life and spend it doing things we love with people we enjoy.
We’ve discovered that we really love living in developing countries, particularly in Latin America and SouthEast Asia. It’s also showing us that we really REALLY love to travel and we don’t want to give that up. So it is looking like the long term plan will be to live 6-9 months of the year in one spot (this year, that spot is Honduras and Guatemala) and then spend the other three months of the year traveling. So here we are, back in the USA to take care of some business that is better handled stateside. The bonus is all the time we get to spend with all the people who mean the most to us. And we have the freedom to extend that time, so we’re going to do just that.
We’ll be here in ABQ until mid-March, and then we’ll spend a month or so doing some traveling in the US. We’re heading to the South for a bit. (Hi & WDE to all you Auburn folks! And Hi to all our friends in GA, SC, & NC! We’re coming your way!) We’ll also head up to NYC and then out to Texas. It’s time for a few reunions, weddings, adventures, and good times before we head back to Central America to spend the rest of the year in Guatemala and Honduras. It’s a year for celebrations and spending quality time with the people we love the most. And we’re looking forward to doing just that on this domestic adventure.
It’s a new year and with it comes a brand new updated website design. It’s been our goal for a while to make the website more streamlined and easier for everyone to use. We still have a few tweaks and photos to add or update, but the new site is up and running and we could not be happier or more excited about it. Go check it out! Special thanks and shout outs to Kevin Donnigan at Anything Graphic for his fantastic website design and mad skillz, and to Lori Patton at Design 5Sixty4 for her beautiful logo and header designs. We are so lucky to know both these talented designers and even luckier to get to work with them to make the website better than ever.
Coming up in 2015:
We want to help you travel more this year. So, every Tuesday, we’ll be sharing some of our secrets and tips to make travel easier and cheaper for you.
We’ll also be talking about some of the strategies and activities we did to realize our goals and how you can make changes and choices to live your dreams as well. Watch for those posts on Thursdays!
Of course, there are always more adventures to share and photos to show and you’ll see lots more of both in 2015 as well, including up to date posts on what we’re doing that week as well as flashbacks to faraway places we visited in the past.
The goal this year is to really invite you into our lives and our travels and share even more of what we are experiencing. We hope you’ll come join us!
Up next, in two days we leave for Portland & Vancouver to see Kat’s cousins. It’s been so long since we’ve all seen each other that Kyle has never met them. We can’t wait!
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