Introduction to the Big Idea

So here it is… the big trip. Meghan and I have been dreaming about this for three years and it is finally upon us. But let’s back up a little bit. First off let me say a little bit about Meghan. She has a passion for travel and has instilled that passion in me over the nine years we have been together. Prior to our relationship she had traveled all over South America and Mexico on family trips, studying abroad, volunteering, and vacationing.

Shortly after we started dating in January 2001 she left for a 5 month trip to Mexico and left it up to me to come find her. I did, and she showed me a new way of traveling that I would instantly come to love. I will always remember the first day of that trip, my first trip out of the country, chasing a beautiful woman whom I had only met a few months earlier. I was a little scared about traveling in a country where I did not speak the language and a little scared of traveling for so long with a new girlfriend. Meghan had been volunteering for two months and I was to meet her for a month of backpacking around southern Mexico before she would continue on to Central America with a friend. Without speaking a lick of Spanish I was able to make it out of the airport in Mexico City, hail a cab to the nearby bus station (at the gringo price) and secure a bus ticket to Oaxaca.

After a very long day of planes, taxis, and busses I found myself in Oaxaca at one of the cities three bus stations. It was shortly after dark, I was very hungry, and wanted to get to my final destination for the day. I found a payphone and dialed the phone number Meghan had given me before I left the states to let her know where to find me. No Answer. Actually not even no answer, no connection. Crap. Just as the panic started to take hold Meghan emerged from the crowded streets! It turned out the number I had was for a broken cell phone and Meghan instinctively picked the right train station at the right time. Wow. It was at that moment that I realized that everything would be just fine on this trip, and for all the other wild adventures to come.

So here we are nine years later. No longer fledgling college students trying to burn some steam before stepping out in to the “real world” of responsibilities and commitments but a married couple, choosing to live life to its fullest while we are young. We have rented the house, packed up all of our worldly positions, parked the cars, and are ready to head out.