So, where are we going?

For those who have been curious, here is a quick glance at our route as planned thus far. For some reason I couldn't add our stop in the Galapagos (off the coast of Ecuador) so that is missing. Plus our route from Rome to Istanbul is going to be a day by day adventure, so no stops are mapped out in that region.  But this will give you a general idea of our destinations! 

We should be visiting a total of five continents...and the number of countries is yet to be determined...

A To Do List...

Yesterday hubby and I hung a large map of the world on the wall in our guest room.  It looks awesome, is a nice reminder of our dream, and is obviously very useful in plotting out where we want to go!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So that brings me to an update of our planning.

A few of our basic To Do's right now include:

• More research on destinations, where to go, when to go, how to get there.
• Looking into RTW flights - there are many options and companies that do this, so it's a big task!
• Also looking into Trans-Siberian, Trans-Mongolian Railway
• After these things are more narrowed down...visas, immunizations, etc
• Looking into various volunteer/work abroad opportunities.  We don't want long-term commitments, but would love to help where we can or make a little money along the way/save on room and board costs, etc.
• Figuring out what our monthly cost will be if we keep our house, cars (one lease, one own).
• This is a big one for us.  With only planning to be gone about six months it seems crazy to go through the hassle of selling our house.   Plus it's very comforting to know what we will come back to.  It's also a bit intimidating knowing that if we go this route, we will still have to pay all our costs while we're gone, with no income being generated, and with having to pay for our adventures.
• Our ideal situation would be that we could rent our house out (to a friend or acquaintance) while we are gone.  We would charge enough to cover our expenses and then we would just have to hope nothing crazy happened to our house while we're gone.  I'm just not sure who we could rent to - most of our friends own houses or don't live in the area.  Plus six months is a short time for someone to be there and then have to move again.  However, it would be fully furnished, so it could be a nice option for someone who's just kind of "in between."
• Further, we don't know what the future holds.  Maybe on our trip we'll find out that we want to move somewhere else or find a way that we can continue to travel more.  Then if we need to sell our house we have to worry about it then and we could've already had it taken care of and not been continuously paying on it.  I also don't like the idea that if something goes wrong while we are away, that we'll have to be thinking about it and it could affect our trip because it might prevent us from fully getting away. 

So, these are our immediate tasks, concerns, and thoughts right now.  Among all of the things going on in our everyday life!  We are headed to Colorado this weekend to visit one of my best friends and her husband.  It will be nice to get away, ski in some REAL mountains, and enjoy their company.  I just can't help but feel a little guilty for spending money when we have this larger goal we are working towards.  But we're travelers by nature...to not go away at all until our big trip would be torturous!