One way to pack for a year

Making do: One  rolling duffel, one day pack

"How do you pack for that?" This was the most common question that we got when we told people about this year-long walkabout. Good question, I had no idea. Seems like I have habitually carried too much while traveling! I did receive a couple of pieces of good advice from experienced travelers that served me well during the process:
1. (from Denise:) "Don't worry about having everything" Good point, I can buy what I need along the way. What a relief!
2. (from Barbara) "You'll be surprised by what you don't need". Another good point, I don't need everything. And that's part of the journey, to live with less...
OK then, here's what we did:
1. Took a "pre-trip" to Nicaragua. This two week trip out of the US helped us remember how differently you use stuff when traveling and helped us see what we didn't use.
2. Started early thinking about what clothes might be useful and how to layer. We are traveling between several climates and cold weather clothes take up too much room. 
3. Limited ourselves to one bag each and one day pack. Necessity is the mother of focus! 

Vamos! Jeff shows results in Sea Tac as we catch our flight out

Party down in Tahoe

It was a grand birthday celebration in Tahoe with sister Karen (aka: the birthday girl) and brother Bill, and sis in law Lu Anne. We hiked, laughed, played the game of life, cruised on the lake, took photos and relaxed. Lots of good stories about how our parents loved that place and really enjoyed it for 25 years! And we planted a special bush outside in memory of mom. Our last day we were amazed to wake up to snowfall and an accumulation of nearly six inches. A fitting way to leave this beautiful location in the high Sierra after a great time together (we missed you Jason, Jess, Katie & James!)

Cooling our heals in Calistoga

After a fabulous visit with Barbara and Richard in Bend, OR we arrived in Calistoga, CA on 5/11. Our friends Chip Sellarole and Tammy Kennon are living in St. Helena soaking up the essence of wine country. We were fortunate enough to meet these wonderful people on mindmyhouse.com and they housesat our house for January and February after moving off their sailboat and getting their land legs back. Having owned a wine shop before selling everything and moving onto their boat 4 years ago so living in the midst of wine country is heaven for them. So fun to see it through their knowledgeable and curious eyes. Tammy, a writer and blogger, passed on some good tips for blogging. You can see her blog at http://ploddinginparadise.blogspot.com/

It's official, we are on the road! We handed our house over to our friends Dan & Matt and cast off the anchor line. Visiting friends in Oregon and California and then meeting Bill, Karen and Lu Anne to celebrate Karen's 60th. Flying to Madrid on 5/27 and have worked out an itnerary: Spain, Portugal and France for 90 days, then over to the UK and Ireland. Once it's cold there, we'll be off to Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Mid-January we hope to go to New Zealand for a few months, then to Australia. That's our plan anyway, we'll be looking for house sitting opportunities along the way. Now we will see what really happens!