A New Beginning

Six years ago Shawn, Baylie, and I took a giant leap into an adventure that a lot of people dream of, but most of the people I know probably thought was slightly insane. We sold a bunch of stuff, put our house up for rent, pulled our child out of school, put our pets in "foster care", and set off around the world. At the time, we really only had a minimal of travel experience, and most of that was of the neatly structured "vacation" type of travel. I had an intimidating itinerary and we planned for a full year of exploring together. We made a lot of rookie mistakes and struggled at first to find our travel rhythm, but we ALMOST made it every place on our list. The personal and financial cost was high, but I continue to believe that this defining experience was a success and was completely worth it.

Now, in the middle of some major life changes - some natural and bittersweet, and others unexpected and difficult - Baylie and I are off on our own to finally add the African safari that got cut from the end of our trip in 2012. Baylie gets to return to South Africa and Zimbabwe to show me some of the places she went two years ago with The Traveling School, and together we will drive along the Garden Route to Cape Town.

I am grateful everyday for this amazing best friend of mine, and even though she has already started traveling on her own I think we still have some great trips ahead of us together!

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