Permanent Vacation

As some of you already know, Erin and I returned the the states this past week. Although, the final journey home felt more like a gauntlet than a homecoming, it is still awesome to be back in the greatest country on Earth (just kidding.... but seriously). By the time we landed in Colorado we had been in an airplane or an airport for the previous 38 hours. My good friend Ryan Pelton once again picked us up from Denver International to take us straight to breakfast. It's been 6 months since we packed up and left Portland and I have once again found myself in Boulder, Colorado. I've spent the last few days catching up and seeing, hearing, tasting some of the best sights, sounds and flavors this nation has to offer. Not surprisingly, many people have been curious to hear about the trip, "how was it?" is a pretty broad question to answer, just as I'm sure you'd find difficulty in picking your favorite part of the last 6 months. But the genuine curiousity has made for more thoughtful personal reflection, continuously creating original dialogue on the same couple topics. 

The other big question everyone has been asking is, "What's next?". Well I'm here to announce the 2014 Great Expectations North America Coast to Coast Road Trip featuring Evan Butteris and Erin Luck! In about a weeks time we will be packed up saying goodbye once again. We will head straight to California for 2 weeks, then work our way east to New York and Boston. We expect to be on the road for 2 months and I'm excited to have a pretty open schedule the whole time, so I will pencil you in for a beer when I'm in your town. Living out of a backpack was fun, but living in a Toyota Corolla sounds palatial. 

Also, the trip ended really well. After spending 3 weeks hiking and beaching in Indonesia, we flew to Malaysia Borneo for a week. We were able to see and do a lot in 6 months, but we also had a lot of down time which I spent repeatedly trying to predict my future. Luckily I am usually wrong. I expected the last few days to be a time of deep reflection, a flashback montage of highlights like the videos I watch on youtube. However, it was more like changing the channel mid-movie, not having much time to find the message. Maybe in the near future, the hindsight will set in, but now I'm just living one day at a time.

Well, hopefully I will be seeing you soon. It's been interesting to run into people who mention they've been reading along, I appreciate your enthusiasm and hope I was able to communicate the thoughts and feelings that come along with an experience like this. Throughout my time in Asia I met a lot of people from around the world making a similar decision to spend time overseas. What I learned is that there is no typical traveller, the most common trait amongst them (us) is the willingness to accept the unknown. I described our itinerary to many people that would blame either time or money for their inability to achieve a similar goal of theirs. However, every person has just as many hours in a day, and you have your whole life to work and make money, why save these things for retirement? It may seem reckless to put so much on hold, but when I am old and grey I'm certain I will look back and laugh at the times I didn't compromise. 

That's all I have to say about that.