We have not been entirely honest with you, and for that I apologize.We have been carrying a secret with us for the past 3 years that has been growing and burning inside us with such fervor that we cannot contain it any longer.
We are not going on a two week vacation to France this summer like we've been promising in our recent posts and promoting on our Facebook fan page. While we are still going to France for two weeks this summer, what we are doing is a bit more involved than that. Since all of our other hurdles are out of the way, and my coworkers discovered our plans last week (resulting in a very interesting and awesome discussion), it is finally time we make our announcement and let the biggest secret in travel blogging history out of the bag...
And the kicker? We are leaving two months from today.
The Biggest Secret in Travel Blogging History?
Angie and I have been keeping a secret. Perhaps the biggest secret in the history of travel blogging. My 150 day adventure in Asia in late 2010 did not have an abrupt end a third of the way through the planned itinerary just so I could come home and marry Angie. There was a secret clause that only a few of our closest friends and family members knew about. My part of the deal on coming home included a stipulation that when Angie finished graduate school that we complete my trip, together, plus any extra that she would like to see.
As of next month, Angie will be officially finished with graduate school. That means it is time to complete the adventure.
Woa, woa, woa - slow it down. Secret clause? Complete your trip? What the heck are you talking about?
For those readers who are new to this site, I should probably take a step back and explain more about our history and purpose. I founded this site in 2008 as a way to plan for a 14 month trip around the world that I was going to take in 2010. About six months later I started to date Angie, who was just starting her PhD at the time. She couldn't come with me on the trip, but was super awesome and was going to let me go anyway. We decided that it would be best for our relationship if I only did half of the trip, which ended up being a five month adventure from Tokyo, Japan to Singapore over approximately 150 days. Angie came out and visited me in Singapore and Thailand at the end of the journey where we got engaged, we went home together, and the rest is history.
Or so we said.
Our secret agreement with each other actually came about before I even left for that trip when we realized we wanted to be together and would likely not make it 14 months apart from each other, even with frequent visits that I offered to pay for. So I made a difficult decision and chose love over my full travel plans. My dreams of seeing the world long-term apparently ended just as they began, or at least that is how we described it. Until now.
With Angie's graduation in May, and my last day at work just a few days before that, our upcoming future is a year of unemployment - and that is just the way we like it.
Buy 9 Years, Get Your 10th Free
For years, my running joke with Angie has been that she needs to do a long-term trip because she has been in school for far too long. Four years for her undergrad with me and five more years for her PhD. I quit with a masters because anything past six years of combined advanced education was more than I could take. But Angie is now almost finished with 9 continuous years of education - in chemical engineering no less. As a reward, and because I just cannot stand being at home anymore, we are leaving. Her 10th year (and most of the 11th) is on me, and my gift is the world.
So, we're off in just two short months to finish what I started. I will no longer be traveling solo, and instead have a new travel companion to explore, eat, and share everything the world has to offer. We'll be doing everything I did not do in 2011, plus a little extra for her. The longest running secret in the history of travel blogging has now been revealed; and we can finally, after more than 3 years of cryptic posts, be fully honest with all of our plans for the future. It has been a struggle to keep it under wraps, and at times been quite painful for us too. But in the end this has all been worth it. Ending my trip early, saving for 2 1/2 more years to do it right: with the one I love.
But just where are we going on this long-term trip? We're going to make you wait just a little bit longer for that.
Our itinerary comes next!
