Ready to take-off

OMG we leave tomorrow! Summer in Tahoe was amazing, and even more so with friends visiting every weekend.  As much as I cannot wait to take-off on our gap year, I could have stayed in Truckee forever. Time on the lake, hammock hangs, hiking, kayaks, SUPs, BBQs, cocktails on the deck, naps - see what I mean!  But alas, we have a plan and we’re killing it on the execution (did you expect differently? 😊).  All that said, the final “cya laters” were my least favorite part of this summer. Though David may feel differently, I’m telling everyone ״NEXT SUMMER IN TRUCKEE” (sign-up sheet coming Spring 2025).

We’ve had so many fun conversations with friends and family about this whole adventure and the planning for it that I thought I’d share some of the questions and discussions we’ve had. Perhaps information gathering for those contemplating something similar or maybe just ‘cuz you’re inquisitive. And just to cover off on the legal stuff, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I’m also linking out to products and services we’ve found to be useful and may receive compensation (I mean, why not?).

FAQs (in no particular order)

How much luggage are you bringing, what are you packing in?

This was a whole discussion that I lost, which doesn’t happen all that often. But just to be clear I was not the one who wanted to bring a large checked bag; I wanted to try and do this whole thing with a roll aboard, but David disagreed. We went with a Samsonite duffle with wheels. It’s bigger than I’d like (our is 30”), and so David will be the one carrying it up flights of stairs when needed (pay back’s rough). But I see his point as the extra space is pretty nice - I’m not a sore loser.

Clothes…the first 5-6 months will be cooler, 60-75F during the day, so we invested in some Merino wool: Smartwool shirts for both of us, some longer sleeve as well from Bambas. And, after a very informative conversation with an expert at REI we went with Darn Tough socks. We bought into the Merino wool dream as it will allow us to wear items numerous times without smelling bad while keeping bag weight to a minimum. Speaking of weight, this is a super handy little tool!

We also made room for a few “luxury items”, travel speaker, binoculars, MagSafe travel charger, heating pad.Only time will tell what we found most useful.

And the best for last - LARQ water bottles - game changers for safe water while traveling and they just launched a new version. Ours won’t arrive until just after we leave, but Josh or my brother will bring it when they meet up with us.

When is your flight home?

We don’t have one! We have one-way flights everywhere, strange I know. We’re currently have flights into mid-January taking us to Vietnam where we hope our friends the Schmidt’s and Jackman’s will be joining us.

Are you coming home at all during the year?

Nope.

What did you do with your house?

We are fortunate to have a beautiful home in Saratoga, CA and even more fortunate to have found an amazing family to rent our home for the next two years. We placed an ad on Zillow, held an open house, had a ton of applications and ta-da!

What happens with your mail?

We’re using a virtual mailbox, MyTraveling Mailbox. I didn’t even know this was a thing until we started planning this trip. Basically we have an address on Steven’s Creek Blvd in San Jose. The service we signed up for (and there are a lot of them out there) collects our mail, sends us a photo of the envelope, and asks if we want them to (a) open & scan it (b) forward it (c) shred it.

Do you have medical insurance?

OH MY, medical insurance. I’ll keep this on topic, but could really go on and on and on with how much I hate U.S. medical insurance. We bought travelers insurance with World Nomad, it includes all the basics (emergency medical & dental, trip delay, trip cancellation, evacuation), we also have a lot of this coverage through our upgraded credit card Capital One Venture X and lots of travel reward benefits as well.

We will need to take care of a few things while we’re traveling like teeth cleanings and vaccine updates - we plan to pay out of pocket for these as past experience and research has shown medical care outside the US is usually pretty inexpensive, if not free.

What are you looking forward to the most?

All of it! And being surprised by the unexpected.

What do your parents think, how do the kids feel?

I was so scared to tell my Mom, concerned she’d feel like we were abandoning her, and given I’d already moved away once (from LA to the Bay Area) so I really dreaded her feeling like that again. I was surprised and so happy when she told me, “I’m going to miss you so much, but you and David should absolutely do this!”  David’s parents have said pretty much the same to us, they are all excited for us and wish us safe travels and adventures.

The kids are 100% jealous and wondering if we’ll still pay for them to travel with us. That’s silly of course, they can pay their own way (omg, I’m such a liar; being away from them for so long will be the biggest challenge of this whole year, and if the cost of a flight means I get hugs IRL, I’m there with my credit card ready to go.)

Are you staying in hotels, apartments?

All the above.  We really enjoy having a place to return to and hang out in while traveling; something more than a room with a bed. It lets us do a little meal prep and go lighter on eating out, especially with my gluten free needs and our preferred diet without meat or dairy. But on shorter stays, less than 3 nights, we’ll be staying in hotels as well. We’ve been booking hotels through the Capital One travel site where we get 10x points and that’s already funded some flights using points.

In addition to AirBnb / VRBO, last fall we joined HomeExchange and started exchanging our Truckee home. We’ve earned “guest points” on this platform and have already used some for various domestic trips (Mammoth, Baltimore for Rachael’s graduation, a weekend in Sonoma). It’s been great and we’re going to continue to do that in some cities - we’ve got some amazing places lined up in Croatia, Norway’s Arctic Circle, Valencia and more.

We’ll fill in the holes with AirBnb / VRBO for longer stays where we couldn’t find a HomeExchange. We’ve even found  and booked apartments through booking.com

Do you need someone to accept your wine club shipments?

Ha - I’m not kidding, many have asked. And the answer is, “no”, we don’t trust any of you with our wine 😏

I think that was too long, but let me know. Hopefully informational and entertaining!

P.S. send us texts, emails, photos - we’ll be sharing our life on the road, please share your life with us as well - miss you already!