FAQs 1 and 2

1.  How can you afford to do this?

Well my first answer to this is that we plan for our 9 months of travel to cost less than it does for us to live in Los Angeles for that same time period.  We have rented out our house and guest house which (mostly) covers the mortgage and related expenses.  We are saving all the money we normally spend on private school, sports, lessons and the LA lifestyle (eating out, trips to Costco etc).  We even got rid of expenses like car insurance and registration.  As for income, we are blessed to have some that comes in even if we are gone - Mark from past real estate deals and myself from a family business.  Also our prospects for making anything additional should we stay home are not great.  The real estate market is dead and the prospects for the coming year are not improved.  We also borrowed from our 401ks.

As to expenses, our main flights cost just over $6000 per person.  There were other up front expenses like insurance, gear and shots.  Our daily budget is $250 per day, which must include lodging, food, entertainment and travel within major destinations (bus, trains etc).  This is of course making me exceedingly nervous.  It will certainly be a new experience for us to keep track of every penny.  There are plenty of other families out there however currently doing it and getting by on less.   I will have to get back to you about how it works out for us.

2.  What are you taking with you?

Well that would be "not enough" according to Mark, and "way too much" according to me.  We will each take a back pack that we can in theory carry.  My pack and Peyton's weigh in at about 15 pounds loaded and will hopefully meet carry on requirements.  Mark's and Wilder's are larger with wheels and will have to be checked.  The guys also have detachable day packs which will serve as their carry-ons and carry all of our electronics.  Each of us has 4 pairs of underwear and socks (yes Ted - JUST 4 PAIRS!).  They are however fancy expensive "travel" underwear which are guaranteed to be easy dry and low stink :)  We have 3 outfits each for hot weather and 2 for cold plus a bathing suit, a fleece and a rain coat.  Peyton and I each have 1 casual black dress and a scarf/wrap.  We also each will take a pair of hiking shoes and the requisite ugly pair of travel sandals.

As mentioned previously we have a ridiculous amount of prescription and OTC drugs - really this seems to me the biggest difference up front from traveling in my youth.  We are prepared for headaches, diarrhea, sea sickness, problems sleeping and allergy and asthma attacks.  This is in addition to the regular meds that are supposed to keep Mark and I from having a heart attack or stroke.  Still on top of that is the large amount of doxycycline we must take to keep us from catching malaria.  Everything is supposed to be in its original packaging which is terribly bulky.

But what takes up the vast majority of allotted space is actually technology and the cords and chargers that support it.  We are addicted, well Mark and Wilder are anyway.  Mostly I chalk this situation up to putting Mark, the techno junky, in charge of technology and security.  One especially extraneous gadget is designed to chart our whereabouts via GPS every 10 minutes and email it to our parents.  Mark wanted to "chip" the kids like they do pets, but apparently GPS isn't reliable enough yet to see through skin, so we will have to keep track of the kids the old fashioned way - by not letting them out of our sight.

We have less than 24 hours before we depart and are going to have to make some difficult decisions about what to leave out as everything currently does not fit!

Our next post will be from the road - first stop Ecuador!

2 Weeks

As I write this I'm sitting in the bedroom that Mark grew up in, our temporary home these last couple of weeks prior to our departure.  His parents have been great to take us in.  We are quite the explosion of people and stuff, as we are still carting around everything we need for all of our varied activities this last month.  We've just returned from a wonderful week with our friends in Carlsbad (thank you Watsons!) and a short girl trip to Oxnard.  Wilder is now the proud owner of a spanking new drivers license which, sadly for him, he is unable to use as we won't be obtaining insurance coverage until we return.  The activities still in front of us include: a week long visit to my parents and family in Phoenix, Peyton's 15th birthday party, church camp for the kids and endless last minute details to manage before our trip.

My biggest concern currently is that we have yet to find a tenant for our guest house.  This is income we need to make the house payment, and going without really isn't an option.  Second I'm having difficulty getting our health insurance to cover our medications for the time we will be gone.  Mark and I, being older than your typical world travelers, have medications we need to take daily.  Aetna is not terribly sympathetic to our situation and refuses to cover the 9 months needed up front.  The current plan then is to take the first 3 months with us, have my parents bring us the second 3 months when they join us in Europe in October and probably have the last three months shipped to us somewhere.  It isn't ideal, but it's better than paying out of pocket for all 9 months up front.  We are also still working out final details of access to our funds overseas (Charles Schwab account - no ATM fees ever), what specific technology to take with us (netbook, ipad, unlocked iphone), and how we can best manage our communication both locally as we travel as well as staying in touch with those at home (appointments to skype set up via email and of course facebook and this blog).

Another major concern is school for the kids.  They have been taking American History online this summer, both to meet this requirement as well as to try out the system in preparation for completing courses while we travel.  Wilder has found this style of instruction works really well for him.  He is moving quickly through the curriculum and doing really well in the course - Peyton not so much.  This is especially interesting as it is basically the opposite of how they function in a traditional classroom.

Finally, we are spending these last two weeks saying goodbye.  We said goodbye first to our house and pets, and now we are moving on to our friends and family.  9 months isn't forever, but it sure seems like a long time right now.  Making sure we spend quality time with those we care about is a top priority.  We are each amazed at the outpouring of love from those we share our lives with.  The parties and parting gifts are as heart warming as they are heart wrenching.  Through the process we have come to believe that we will truly be missed!

The sensation we are experiencing at this pre-departure point is akin to sitting in a roller coaster car as it pulls you steadily up the incline just prior to pulling you screaming into the abyss.  You aren't entirely sure you want to be on the ride, but there is no turning back.

5 Weeks and Counting!

Finally, we have a signed lease, plane tickets, insurance and backpacks purchased, and are now possessed of the blessed certainty that, barring any disasters, on August 1 we are departing!  Our renters actually move into our house July 1, so we have just one week left to pack up all of our personal items and move out, thereby becoming itinerant nuisances to our friends and family for the month of July.  This will enable the kids to finish a summer school class and attend their beloved church camp.  It will also hopefully help us save up a little bumper for our tight budget.

Now that I'm not so focused on trying to make sure we are actually getting to go, I've noticed myself dwelling on things I know I will really miss.  So as a bit of an ode to both the people and things I love, I've decided to catalogue them here.  And no, they are not listed in order of importance :)

1.  My cowboy boots (what do you mean I can't take them?)

2.  My besties! (This is going to be a really tough one)

3.  Our shower (it NEVER runs out of hot water)

4.  My double wide (lounge chair, not mobile home)

5.  Our kitchen (granted I don't cook in it much, but it's lovely to hang out in)

6.  All of our pets (1 dog and 3 cats) but especially my personal familiar and certifiably crazy cat, Peso

7.  Our family (both sides) - no picture - too many of them!

8.  Halloween - guaranteed best party of the year

9.  High school football games!

(picture to follow)

10.  Our church (complete with the world's best acappella song leader - Willie Norwood)

I don't have much time however to moon about who and what I will miss.  The list of things still to do is very loooooooong.  And really, if I can't live without a few creature comforts then I don't deserve to go! Still, it has been decades since I've traveled in such a low budget (read low comfort) style.  I hope I'm not too old and spoiled to appreciate it.  Wilder, citing times when I've pouted when the weather was bad camping or the view from a hotel room didn't suit me, expresses concern that I may not be up to the inevitable discomforts and sacrifices of our journey.  I tell him the passion I have to make this trip happen, to see the world together as a family and to learn and grow together in the process, will get me through.  I only hope I'm right.

FINALLY! TICKETS ARE PURCHASED!

Map of Flights

After four months of destination and flight research, I swear it feels like I just gave birth.

We purchased 4 One World 5 Continent Explorer tickets for the major flight segments of our trip.  The link above shows the flights on a map.  If you scroll down it also spells out the destinations.

We depart August 1 and will return approximately May 1 of 2012.  We will supplement the big flights with some cheap ones (like Madrid to Morocco)  as well as Eurail passes in Europe.  We also booked a low cost cruise out of Athens and into Rome with stops in both Israel and Egypt.

We now have the basic skeleton of our 9 months.  The rest we will have to fill in as we go!

Where Are We Going?

See a Map of our planned route.

So now everyone wants to know where we are going.  Well, that is what I've been working on full time since I finished school.  Figuring out where we are going is actually a very challenging job!  We want to go everywhere, but obviously with only 9 months and a limited budget, we can't.  Even our list of the places we can't miss is too long.  Everyone has someplace they really don't want to give up.  Wilder has long wanted to go to Australia.  Mark has a very good friend in Germany he really wants to visit.  I want to spend a lot of time in southeast asia where everything is sure to be super affordable, and Peyton insists we cannot give up South Africa, even though it is a very long way from everything else!  We also want to see the Galapagos, something in the South Pacific and maybe Easter Island.  Our original plan was all the southern hemisphere to avoid expensive Europe, but I've figured out there is pretty much no way to get into and out of Africa (or anywhere else for that matter) without going through London and Hong Kong.  Then there are other places we wanted to avoid, like Japan (for expense even before the earthquake), China 'cause Wilder and I have already been, India because we feel like the trip will be challenging enough without it, and sailing past Somalia due to pirates (and also most of North Africa and the Middle east as well).  Actually all of Europe was also originally on our no-go list due to expense and our belief the kids will be able to go there later.  Still, when you start to look at routing it can switch up all your plans.

Then even after you've settled on desired destinations and laid out a logical route, there are lots more decisions.  Do we want to buy an RTW ticket from one of the airline alliances, buy a series of one-way tickets from a travel agency that specializes in these routes, or do what lots of independent travelers recommend and wait and buy tickets as we go?  Each option has pluses and minuses.  Buy as you go gives you complete flexibility but is made more difficult with four people and can leave you stuck sometimes waiting for an economical option to be available.   An RTW ticket restricts you by miles (max 39,000) and segments (max 16) but allows some otherwise too expensive options (Chile to Easter Island to Tahiti to Auckland), and while they require you to fix your destinations you can change your dates as you go with no penalties.  The travel agency provided a lower total cost and more flexibility in selecting a route but then you are committed to all your tickets and will incur fees when trying to change anything as you go.

So anyway, you begin to see the challenge.  Here is our route as of right now.  It changes daily, but I think we are getting close.  The current plan is to buy a One World Global Explorer ticket in and out of Quito Ecuador.  This both makes the ticket $2000 cheaper than originating in the US and also gets us further and more stops.  Of course we have to pay to get to and from Quito but it will cost closer to $1000 and maybe even less if we include a cruise (lots of cheap ones out there) one way.

Quito, Ecuador (gateway to the Galapagos)
Barcelona, Spain (also Portugal)
Budapest, Hungary (over land to Istanbul, Turkey)
Frankfurt, Germany
London, England
Capetown, South Africa
Johannesberg, South Africa (camping safari)
Hong Kong
Bangkok, Thailand (from here also Vietnam, Cambodia and possibly Malaysia)
Sydney, Australia (maybe Melbourne)
Christchurch, New Zealand overland to
Auckland, New Zealand
Tahiti (hope to take fabulous 14 day freighter cruise)
Easter Island
Santiago, Chile
Lima, Peru
Back to Quito (then perhaps cruise thru Panama canal to Miami then home)

So what do you think?  Many of the choices (like London which is crazy expensive) were just because we have to go through there anyway and so of course we will have to stay and see, but not for too long.  We currently have contacts regarding volunteering in both Quito and Thailand and are hoping to establish more.

The other question I hear is are we excited?  Well, some days I'm excited and some days I'm scared to death.  More on that later!

Help for Our Itinerary!

This weekend has been a crazy ride.  Recently we had begun to despair at finding a family who wanted to rent our home furnished and equipped - the missing vital ingredient to the viability of our trip.  Mark used that as an excuse to build a second story in the barn - idea being that we could move everything we owned up there, thereby becoming attractive to a more traditional tenant. Well now the barn loft is built, but the amazing news is that the perfect tenants appeared on our doorstep on Thursday at 3 and by Sunday at 11 we had a deal.  Suddenly my crazy dream, which is now officially just 2 months old, is really really real. We are going! The Pullens are going RTW.  We are excited, we are overwhelmed, and we are going to be very very busy. Because ready or not, we are leaving on our RTW trip in 4 (actually somewhat less than four) very short months.

Now we need an itinerary (where in the world should we go), and plane tickets (the variables are completely overwhelming), travel gear (we have to carry everything we need for 9 or 10 months on our backs), inoculations (ouch -  in more ways than one because they are ridiculously expensive), online classes (Literature, History and Math x 2),  a new roof (because tenants tend to frown on rain gushing thru the ceiling), homes for our pets and . . . . . more faith than we ever thought possible!  But what is weighing especially heavy on our hearts tonight is how much we will miss our amazing friends and family.  Because we are especially blessed.

So now as we sit here as a family working simultaneously on three computers, in our newly remodeled kitchen, with the heat on, along with most every light in the house, we feel like we are planning a trip to the moon.  But lucky for us, other families have made this voyage and we plan to follow in their serendipitously well blogged footsteps.

So now we are asking everyone we know, or even those we don't, to please weigh in.  Where in the world should we go?  Now is the time to let us know.  Because the world is our oyster!

How To Teach Geography to Teenagers

So I had a glimpse recently into a concrete benefit of this trip that we've yet to depart on.  During the past year each of my two kids took a semester class in geography.  They approached the course with varying degrees of effort and success, but what they had in common was a general lack of interest in the subject.  Each of them slogged through the content, and both were surprised and dismayed to find the final exam included actual maps full of countries and capitols they were supposed to be able to complete. Honestly I didn't pay a lot of attention.  I was busy with my own classes and I'm sad to report that, while they do work very hard at their schoolwork, I am pretty used to their frequently uninspired approach to learning.

Then, last week, something happened that made me pay attention. Wilder, during a casual discussion about possible RTW routes, left the room that houses the television to consult a decorator map that hangs in our living room with the purpose of locating, then comparing and contrasting, the locations of Easter Island and the Galapagos.  There ensued a discussion of the relative merits of each during which Peyton referenced a report she had written during a previous year and we googled the two destinations to add to our knowledge.  They were interested, and they were engaging in the learning!

Since then we've spent a lot of time together comparing and contrasting potential routes and destinations.  I don't believe it's exaggerating to say the kids have learned more about geography through the process of planning this trip than they did in a semester of classroom work.  It appears the concept of road schooling is already bearing fruit!

Many of you have been asking how we plan to handle the formal portion of the kids' schooling.  The answer is we don't have a complete plan yet but we have lots of ideas.  We are very lucky in that our kids attend a wonderful Catholic private school with very high standards but also with visionary leaders.  They clearly believe in creativity as a vital element of learning and in technology as a powerful tool to aid in the process.  We are looking forward to working with those leaders to forge a creative plan that will ensure our kids get the formal education they need while still allowing us to provide them with this life changing adventure.

What Else Will we Learn?

Geography is perhaps the most obvious of subjects to benefit from this trip, but I know there will be many others.  Opportunities to practice and work on our Spanish language skills will certainly be frequent.  Also in 10th grade the curriculum includes World History.  What better way could there possibly be to learn the history of the world than to visit the sites of the events you are learning about?  Literature has lots of possibilities as we plan to select reading materials that are relevant to the regions we are visiting.  Our physical education program is guaranteed to be fabulous as our main mode of transportation will be by foot and highlights will include bungee jumping and the like.  Finally our kids study religion and this subject too lends itself beautifully to world travel.  I can't imagine a better spiritual education than low cost travel through the developing world.

Why Motivation Matters

While the degree I'm working on focuses on leadership, it is technically a doctorate of education and therefore I have some coursework in that area.  The professors at Pepperdine are great, and were really key to the genesis of the big idea and my decision to pitch it to my family.  On the topic of education one of my professors recently paraphrased a quote by Barbara Lamping in order to draw us a mental picture depicting the problem with unmotivated students,

"Standing and lecturing at students who aren't interested in learning, and calling it teaching, is like throwing marshmallows at their heads and calling it feeding."

Another of my professors, Dr. Mark Allen, during a discussion about our recent reading of Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed exhorted us with,

"Students are not vessels to be filled, but fires to be lit."

I believe this trip is going to help light the fire in my kids, to excite them about learning, and to bring them back with a new and better appreciation for their teachers, the subject matter, and the vital role they themselves play in their own education.