This was not how it was supposed to end. Back in October of 2017 when Laura brought up the idea of taking a 9-12 month trip around the world many thoughts came through my mind. First among them was; absolutely yes. We had finally had two stable jobs where we were able to save a fair amount of money and we decided that purchasing a home again wasn't quite where we were in our lives. We both love to travel so it only made sense. Second, Where would we be going?? Obvious choices of Europe and Thailand came into my mind along with bucket list ideas filled with thoughts of safari on the Serengeti and a trek to the base camp of Everest. Third, how do I keep us safe during all of this?

While plans have obviously changed along the way and I still have a bucket list to keep me living for years, the last thing I thought I would need to be thinking about would be global pandemics (like most of us). Keeping the family safe meant keeping a pulse on the local climates and not bringing us into unstable regions, at least it did in 2017. Like many from the US, we have been very privileged to have been far removed from epidemics around the world.

Things have been happening very fast. A week ago we purchased our tickets to Cambodia to spend a few weeks before we were scheduled to be in Bali for a month. We had been going back and forth on whether to extend our Thailand visa for an additional 2 weeks or to head straight on to Bali. Angkor Wat had been on my list of places I really wanted to get to so, in the end, it won...for about 3 days. When we found out Cambodia had closed its tourism visas we decided to take the gamble and just head onto Bali early and extend our visa once we were there for a few weeks. So we purchased tickets to go there instead. Then the real questions started mounting in our heads. Why are we still doing this? What are we going to do if we get stuck somewhere? What exactly are we waiting for that will miraculously make things better? The choice became clear, we needed to buy a third set of tickets, this time, home. The world is just too unstable right now to be on vacation, and any other thought on that is irresponsible and arrogant.

So no, this isn't how it was supposed to end but the great thing about bucket lists is that they never disappear. When things eventually cool off months or years from now we three travelers will be ready to get back out there. To those who followed us on this site, thank you. We hope that we inspired a little bit in you to get out there.

Here is a beautiful sunset to make me feel better.

Until next time.

Jonathan