Vantastic Voyage

This entry is written in 3 parts due to the limited free time I’ve found to write.

Part 1: Our Return Home

Part 2: Appreciation

Part 3: Our Last 10 Days In Europe

Part 4: Digestion

Part 1: Our Return Home

Where to begin? Before I cover the last details of our trip it is worth catching those of you who have chosen to follow this blog up on the last couple of weeks first. Our wonderful van adventure has come to an end. We arrived home on October 15^th, near exactly 10 months after leaving home. Though we aspired to make it a full year, the job I accepted could start no later than the 26^th of September after some discussions with my new employer. In addition, we had burnt through our money we had saved for the trip and our last 2 weeks we were living off the kindnesses and generosities of our wonderful families and friends (If viewed purely as a financial figure). So, while we may have been able to make the funds stretch 2-3 more weeks, the timing could not have been much better and we had enough money to get us home. We decided to surprise as many people as we could coming home and tell everyone we would be home 6 weeks after our actual return date. This idea was inspired by our dear friend Ana Morales who had done the same after being away for a long time from Spain. Who doesn’t love a good surprise? A surprise, or the unknown after all, is what makes life exciting and interesting, good or bad. The videos speak for themselves I suppose, some really great moments.

We had some helpers in order to make the surprises possible, our most slick operation being my sister dropping her car off at the Portland airport for us. It had been a long while since I’d driven another vehicle and the little 90’s red Chevy Cavalier (Rosie is her name) was waiting for us in the economy parking lot with the key in the stored in the gas cap compartment. The limited view was instantly apparent and I felt as if I was in a cave after driving Mac with it’s enormous windshield and cockpit. Just as noticeable was the jolt of power and speed of the car as I whipped it around to pick up Ratha and the bags.  The transition home has been simply fast since landing in Ridgefield. We arranged 10 days for relaxation, reflection and (believe it or not) recovery from our adventure before my job would start. Our trip was not a vacation exactly, though we did find times where we could relax if we stayed in any one place for a while with zero obligations, social engagements and the daily navigating and hunting for places to stay for free. There were a few such instances, but they made up a very small percentage of the trip. The 10 days flashed in front of our eyes and was gone. We spent all our time with family, friends, getting back on the grid and even made a little trip to Smith Rock, Oregon with my folks. To give an example of how fast the time went, within 5 minutes of surprising my parents I had a leaf blower in my hands cleaning off the pavement for a party they were hosting that night. I got a haircut 20 minutes before my first day of work started. I am drafting this message at 30,000 feet somewhere between Narita, Japan and Saigon, Vietnam which marks my 3^rd day on the job and will return home in 3 weeks. I received my visa and passport the morning of my flight on the way to the airport.  It arrived 1 hour after it was expected at a FedEx in the direction of the airport. I managed to find a couple of moments of inactivity and seclusion in this time prior to this trip, though only brief moments.

That brings me to the thought of time. As I desperately attempt to digest our adventure in the midst of the aforementioned chaos, I realize that the finite resource of time is limited for us all. The more time that goes by, there is an ever stronger recognition of this and I feel it will shape many decisions on how and with whom I spent it.  It is certainly too short to dwell on mistakes made in the past as the saying goes. We have been fortunate to have had this unforgettable adventure and to have seen many places and peoples, experience languages and cultures and taste a variety of cuisines. There is so much still to explore and you couldn’t see it all in a lifetime. The world is in a state of constant change and what we have seen this last 10 months may likely be very different in 10 years from now. We are transforming as a species and our capabilities and connectedness to the world in the palm of your hand as an example is absolutely incredible. So how is our time best spent? I suppose we all have our own definitions, but I hope we are able to focus only on the things that are making us happy.

Part 2: Appreciation (Also drafted at 30,000 feet. En route from Myanmar to Mongolia)

I’d like to take a minute to express the gratitude and appreciation for all the special people involved in this trip. We met so many kind, generous, open, caring people who lent us a hand, opened their homes, bailed us out of sticky situations and whom gave us unbridled hospitality as foreign strangers. As we have discussed many times on this trip, it has not been the accumulation of places we have been, nor monuments and sites that we have seen that will be so long remembered or highlighted as the pinnacles of the adventure. It will be the time spent interacting with genuine people that will be most memorable. We have been offered a tremendous amount of kindness from new friends and strangers that enriched our experiences significantly. We hope we will have the opportunity to return the favor and hope to have some visitors met in our travels.  You made our trip special in so many ways. We were made to feel like family and are overwhelmed by what you have given us.

Thank you to the supportive friends and family, the words of encouragement prior to this trip and as we putted along the road with Mac, steadfast (mostly). Your love, interest and financial contributions have allowed us to spend outside of our budget to make new memories, provide comforts, and let us know how much we are cared for. We hope to encourage and inspire those reading to take an adventure of their own, be it travel, a new job, a new place to live, taking a risk to start something new or challenging. If you are on the fence about it, DO IT. Make the sacrifices necessary to do something that’s scary and uncertain. Who knows how long we will be here on this earth. I might not make it off this current flight on my way to Mongolia, but I sure as shit hope I do. There is a lot more to do and when we push ourselves outside our comfort zone, doors open, growth happens and life can change no matter how small the task or how old the person, I believe.

Part 3: Our Last 5 Days In Europe

Our last 5 days after leaving the Dolomites went quite quickly with a lot of time on the road and pushing Mac hard through the Italian and Swiss alps – again avoiding tolled roads. We trucked up the mountain nearly 2,800 meters to reach the summit of Passo Stelvio. It was hairpin turn after hairpin turn both up and down. On our way up we passed an old couple going the opposite direction in a convertible who were cheering us on as we crawled 12mph up the mountain in 2^nd gear at maximum speed. The mountain was littered with cyclists, motorcycles and trikers (3 wheel motorcycle/car)? We continued to push Mac pretty hard those few days and we were very glad to have hit flat ground again. We spent a night in Lucerne, Switzerland, which was very expensive for everything except Swiss Army knives. We passed through Liechtenstein on a blazing hot day. We stopped in a small town and did a wine tasting in a vineyard that was owned by the current prince’s family since the early 1700’s. I honestly thought that after you have had a vineyard in your royal family for over 300 years, your wine would be pretty damn good. Wrong. We didn’t walk away with the pricey, less than tasty wine, but because they can’t export their wines, I suppose it would make for a pretty unique gift. It was so hot we went to the 4 Frank water-park in the town, yes it was awesome. We went down on the water-slide a few times and they had this wave pool of sorts that would never be found in the U.S. for liability reasons. There was this huge, heavy, hard as cement ball attached to the bottom of the pool by a rope/chain. There was a motor pulling and releasing this ball up and down creating huge waves and no barrier between you and this thrusting orb. It was intense, and would not be surprising if it had already or will claim some lives.

 

We stopped in Heildelberg, Germany after a full day of driving. We were nearly out of propane gas again and had no groceries so we stayed in the Aldi grocery store parking lot next to the river so we could get some cold yogurt for breakfast and walk into town. The van was taking a bit longer to shut down all the way after those long days of driving and I let the clutch out too soon and suppose you could say I killed it. The van sprung forward and elevated what felt to be 6 inches into the fence bordering the parking lot and the river. We explored the city a bit the next day after driving closer to town and were hit with a sudden opportunity to stay with a good friends’ cousin and family in the Netherlands. We were about 4.5 hours out by the GPS, which meant maybe 6 hours in Mac. It would be our only chance to see these people as we were set to stay with Ingrid, Toine and Reggie at their home the next evening. When we went to the car, we noticed our license plate was gone. We thought it was strange that someone might take just one license plate and not the other. It dawned on me that it may have been knocked off the night before when I ran into the fence. The picture below is what we saw after returning to the parking lot some 8 hours later. We raced to the Netherlands and arrived very late, waking up the busy working cousins of our friend from Ridgefield but all was good the next day. We spent the day in the middle of the sun packing and preparing our car to deliver to Utrecht the following day. It was a good deal of work, we also washed the car with their own industrial car/pressure washer complete with soap. It just so happened that this day was the hottest day in the Netherlands in 105 years. That was an actual statistic, I couldn’t believe it. We had no shade other than hiding behind Mac’s shadow he cast. The family was very sweet, grandpa Wim cooked us a nice breakfast and took us into town to the feed store with him. He introduced us to a man that had owned a windmill that was in his family for many generations. We got a personal tour all around and inside the windmill and it’s 4 stories. We got special treatment because of Wim’s relationship to the man, it was damn cool inside that thing and outside for that matter. Wim has a construction company that his son is taking over and they have their families all living on the same plot of land and have a host of animals from deer, pheasants, horses, emu and more. It was a really nice time and they also lent us suitcases to use. Very kind people.

We spent the next evening with Ingrid and her parents catching up, having some good laughs and conversation. It was so nice finishing our trip there, coming full circle 10 months later. I was quite pumped as they gave me an awesome present to take home. The tiger shirt!!! I couldn’t believe it, and I had to make sure with Toine that he didn’t want to part with it. He looked hesitant and if he’d given it much more thought, maybe he would have changed his mind. I thought I caught a longing look in his eye if only for a brief moment. We did our final baggage weighing and packing the next morning before taking off for Utrecht and Ingrid was very excited to take some items off of our hands. We made use of a hotel voucher near the airport and dropped our bags and boxes there before meeting Donna and saying our farewells to Mac. It was a sad moment on the inside and we have since found ourselves missing him and the open road. We took the train from Utrecht to Amsterdam and spent a few hours meandering the streets before heading to the hotel. We passed the red-light district and saw some middle aged U.S. Americans smoking marijuana for what I imagine may have been the first time. We walked back through the same area 15 minutes later to find one of them flayed out on the ground looking like he was in another world with a crowd around him. We had genuine concern for the man until we had realized we had just seen them smoking just minutes earlier. That somehow put us at ease?

I am now writing again in the air inbound for Seoul, Korea. This work trip has been quite eventful both good and bad. I am currently on hour 14 of my now projected 51 hour return travel time home due to bad Mongolian weather and missed connecting flights. Some aspects about this trip have been nothing shy of disastrous, this being the cherry on top of the oh-so-wonderful cake. The string of mishaps has been laughable to the point of near insanity. If someone is up there testing my patience, I hope I’ve received top marks.

Part 4: Digestion

It has truly been an amazing adventure on the road and can’t believe that it has already been one month since we have finished. I haven’t had a chance to breathe yet since returning home and have had little time to digest what we just experienced these last 10 months. I suppose I am in dire need of a little peace, quiet and reflection. Looking through the many photos documenting places, people and moments feels unreal at present. I suppose the appreciation will continue to solidify each time we recall memories from this experience.

I am glad that we made it back, each in our own singular pieces, and together. I know there were times where Ratha may have considered murdering me in cold blood while I slept, but proud of her restraint and resolve. It is not easy living in a 5.5’ X 8’ box with someone for 10 months and it provided a test or two to be sure. Secrets cease to exist in such an environment and it’s not 24/7 romance in case our documentation has been misleading. I’ll spare details and let your imagination and intelligence ponder the vast possibilities of what I may be referring to. That being said, it was eye opening, challenging and rewarding. I wouldn’t do anything differently if I could go back in time, though the experience has made us savvier for this kind of travel. It’s a hell of way to get around and see things you may otherwise not be able to afford both financially and with your time. When you’ve got the freedom to go where you want, when you want, things remain a mystery and if you change your mind about a destination, you need only turn the wheel. I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but recommendations from locals and other informed travelers trumped well-traveled areas every time with rare exception. If there is a replacement that’s better than local knowledge, someone please let me know. Although I must say that we used a 2007 version of Ricky Sleeves (Rick Steves) Ireland guide and it came a not too distant 2nd place.

Relationships are what make every one of our worlds wonderful. We all depend on one another in some way and need each other. They open doors, provide guidance and much, much more. They are an integral part of our lives and having good ones enrich, empower and inspire us.

We hope you have enjoyed following our European van adventure with Mac. This blog has helped us to document some of our stories and hope it has provided entertainment and/or insight into this type of travel and again, ignited inspiration in some form to you. A thousand thank-you’s to family, friends old and new, and the many strangers along the way! We hope another grand adventure lies in our future.