GPS Tracking

Technology is crazy. Have you heard of inReach or SPOT? They make GPS tracking devices for adventurers ranging from hiking enthusiasts to Bear Grylls-level explorers. We're somewhere in the middle of that (side note: I like to think that I'll have some adventures that push towards the latter end of that spectrum during my life. One can only hope). Outside of the family check-in ability and the SOS/mount-an-international-rescue option, there's also a fun, handy-dandy, pin-drop map ability. You'll see what I mean:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=04qj8AK5FISLSq6TET3OROC2UZlhgl4sm

Any time we drop a pin, it will show up on this map here. It's unclear whether or not a pin fades after 7 days - so that may or may not happen.

Introduction: Hello & Welcome!

Shortly after I graduated college and moved to New York City, I met a guy during a work event who was writing spontaneous haikus for anyone who asked. He handed over control of his typewriter during his lunch break to a young 8-year old boy, who took to the haikus with great enthusiasm and serious deliberation. I approached the boy and asked if he would write me a poem. The result was the following haiku, which has remained forefront on my fridge for the past year and a half:

Adventures are cool

They are also cool and neat

You should go on one

Out of the mouths of babes…. 

Spend all the time you want pondering the burdens of our generation or the confusion of finding direction in life, but sometimes things just don’t have to be that complicated. And when that’s the case, to quote Tom Robbins, “all a person can do in this life is gather about him his integrity, his imagination, and his individuality — and with these ever with him, out front and in sharp focus, leap into the dance of experience”. So here we go. I know these upcoming months won’t only be cool, but will be cool and neat, and have no doubt in my mind that a grand adventure is exactly what we should be doing.

I was initially hesitant about the idea of keeping a blog, but I believe it's going to be a good opportunity for reflection these next two months (which will help me slow down my natural inclination to continuously be moving forward). For me, this blog is an opportunity to delve deeper than I would otherwise into some of these upcoming experiences, a platform to share this with friends and family (and assure my mother I'm still alive), and a record for me to look back and remember forgotten details of a great adventure. Please be patient with me if Anna writes something beautiful and thoughtful and I end up photo-vomiting all over the place.

If you'd like to get a notification when we have a new post (Mom, pay attention here), you can enter your email address in the "Follow Us" bar on the right side of the page. Don’t feel shy to comment or respond or get in touch, it keeps this interesting for us!

So: the actual trip. I'll let Anna get in to more details (if she wants) about the initial plans, this post is wordy enough as it is. But for right now, Anna flies in from Tucson to LA this Monday, then we fly LAX to Bangkok Wednesday night. Yes, we're missing New Year's Eve. In fact, we're missing New Year's Day. As in, we're completely skipping over January 1st, it won't ever exist for us. It feels symbolic, but of what I'm not exactly sure. My friend Corey had a good interpretation: "Maybe it's that you're diving into life with such gusto and vigor that you completely overshot the first day".

Sounds about right. 

Here we go!

- Thea