Next Destination: Freedom of Choice

So, what the heck are we doin’ out here? We have spent six months in South East Asia and are getting questions like, "Are you ever going to move on?" and "Where to next?"

Well, what we are really doing out here is getting PUMPED! We have big news: We are flying home y’all!

t-minus 10 days from boarding a plane and heading home!

OW OWWW! We couldn’t be more excited!

Our big day is rapidly approaching. Ironically, it also marks one year (to the day) since we hopped on our first flight leaving the Continental US on our #nuventures. We had already been road tripping four months at that point, but it was our first leg flying over sea water and banking out into the world.

We were no longer able to just drive the 24 hours home if we wanted. Terror and excitement had a good ol’ time wrastlin’ inside of me.

One year later on November 2, we will be boarding a flight from Thailand back to the States with  drastically different visions, goals and dreams than what we originally set out with.

Right now, we are at the end of a two month rental agreement in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

What are we doing staying two months in one spot? Shouldn’t we be going balls to the walls seeing every temple,  jungle, monkey and elephant we can in the countries we haven’t set foot in yet? We still have loads to do!

Pai, Thailand

Well, our goals have changed.

After 15 months out in the world, our #nuventures have been stretching, growing and aiming for something new: Sustaining a lifestyle of freedom by working while we travel.

A year ago, I would never have anticipated the story I’m about to share with you. We have been evolving over each season we have found ourselves in.

Come on, sit down. Let’s have a chat and I’ll tell you about it.

SEASON 1: TRAVEL TIL EVERY LAST PENNY IS SPENT

We slid into the front seats of our Honda Accord at 9:16 am on June 26, 2014. We slammed the doors shut and looked at each other. We both took a deep breath. This was it.

Adam started the car and we rolled out. When we turned the corner onto Red Rock Ave, we both glanced in the rear view mirror to look one last time. Leaving our freshly painted hilltop cottage for our renter, we only had one thought in mind. We were embarking on our dream.

Our dream of leaving everything; our jobs, our home, our friends and family, temporarily. We were setting out to travel the world. We intended to be gone for two years (I secretly hoped I could survive six months).

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

We were excited to be free and to let the wind carry us to every corner of the world.

Our motivation came from seeing little, diapered babes on our horizon after a series of events. We both felt the pull from deep down. Our response may shock you, but we bolted in the other direction. Adam and I both felt our hearts yelling “Go, go, go! We gotta travel now or never!”

We only expected to return to the States when every last penny in our “travel fund” had been spent or we were pregnant (no, no baby Nubern, yet). We even planned ahead for when we would return without jobs. We have six months worth of “emergency funds” set aside just in case.

Well, our endurance failed us only a few months in.

SEASON 2: traveling is not our only passion

Let’s sprint ahead to month seven or eight in New Zealand.

We were doing one of two things constantly. We were either driving cross country in our camper/minivan Bernie or humping our packs up the Southern Alps for hours, days and weeks at a time.

Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand

We were mastering new physical feats by kicking our tails into major shape. However, our minds were on vacay and were roaming freely.

On these journeys into New Zealand’s backcountry, we constantly dreamed. We dreamed of the future. We dreamed up new ideas; new business ventures, how to make passive income, how to make more time for family, writing a book, and so many more ideas we were just pocketing away.

With each new idea stuffed away, our pockets started bulging. The seams holding them all in were growing thin. Finally, it became painful. We couldn’t suppress and tuck away any longer. We had to do something about these ideas!

We realized we were starving other pieces of who we are. Our imagination and creativity were getting fidgity and were itching to be used!

It was perfect timing, too. Our feet, calves and tails were exhausted, but our minds and hands were ready to get dirty and work towards something. Anything!

SEASON 3: Dipped our toes in TO TRAVEL & WORK

Whew. This feels so good to say out loud and finally confess. Traveling is not our only passion. We have so many other curiosities we want to question and explore.

Turns out, we can only handle straight travel for a few months. We had too many ideas. We saw so much potential in ourselves. There was so much to do!

Now, let’s take it back a step. Before we even left Colorado Springs, seeds of “another way” had been imprinted on our minds. Every night Adam would sit on the couch and research other bloggers traveling long term to learn their ways. While researching, Adam ran across “digital nomads.” Digital nomads are these crazies traveling the world while they work from their laptops.

At first we were amazed by these people living the real dream and making it happen. However, this concept didn’t fit our mold. We were so focused on the freedom from work, we filed the thought away and kept moving. However, the idea of working while you travel had been planted in our brains and kept nagging us on our tramps in New Zealand. Our dreams and thoughts continually flowed to one question: “How could we make it happen?”

We are on the journey to making it happen. It’s been a slow evolution through dipping our toes in and testing the waters.

FIRST, I started our trip working from the passenger seat

Blessing is the only word that can describe this part of the story. When I decided to leave my job in the Springs, I was invited to work three more months from my laptop on the road while my employer interviewed folks to fill my position. This was my first taste of working and traveling. We had to plan ahead for coffee shop time, but it was totally doable.

SECONd, NUVENTURE CPA was born

While my work was coming to an end, Adam’s was ramping up. He was already working as an accountant for a buddy that had started a new company. While we were in our first month of travel in Maine, a second client called, then a third was knocking on the door and boom: Nuventure CPA was born.

I remember driving through a canyon on our US roadtrip and turned to Adam seeing the dark grey walls flying behind him. “Why are you doing this?” I asked him. I was confused because we had saved up for five years for the freedom to not work and just travel. He was deviating from the plan. He simply replied, “Why not? If I’m going to try my own thing, this is the best time.”

There you have it. I can’t argue with that. Honestly, I have been blown away and admire Adam’s dedication, determination and innovation on his own journey of entrepreneurship.

THIRD, I finally threw myself out there, too

I took a bit longer to want to give the long-term work/travel lifestyle a full go. I foresaw the future of being stressed to the max working and hopefully juggling little ones. While in New Zealand, I was a free bird; no work, no deadlines, no commitments and… nothing to do (except hike). I loved it for the first few months, but like I said I started getting antsy. I was even hanging out in Burger King’s to get solid wifi to watch YouTube videos to learn how to knit. Turns out, I’m not going to be an etsy prodigy banking it from knitting.  Onward ho' to my next curiosity.

That's about as far as I can get! Ha! Purakaunui Bay, New Zealand

I saw potential for a travel company to improve their social media presence. I contemplated connecting with them for over a month. I finally went for it. I emailed them and was hired.

All of a sudden, Adam and I were both working part time and designating more WiFi time at Burger King (our second home in New Zealand). It didn’t take long for our excitement to be channeled into, “How do we make traveling while we work a sustainable lifestyle?”

From just dipping our toes in little by little, we started turning to the digital nomads we knew seeking their advice on how to solve our wifi problems, cloud storage solutions, sim card questions, and other frustrations we hadn’t thought about, yet. These digital nomads became inspiration for us. If they could do it, we had to give it a go, too.

SEASON 4: Revelation

Moving onto to South East Asia: Ubud, Bali to be exact.

Ubud, Bali

We were spending more and more time each day diving into our projects and other curiosities instead of solely exploring our new location.

However, we were maintaining our travel schedule of continuing on to a new place every few days. We just couldn’t throw the internal pressure and mentality of “We have to see everything we can! We are only in South East Asia once!”

We became frantic. We were spending hours and hours researching where to go next, what to do next and how to do it because that is what we were supposed to do: keep traveling, keep seeing. But, with diverting our priorities to different interests, we didn’t have much time to fully explore our current location.

Forking banana pancakes during breakfast one morning it hit me- BAM! Revelation! We were the ones causing our own frantic states.

We had changed our goals and priorities to now invest the time to make this lifestyle sustainable. However, we hadn’t adjusted our timeline to follow suit. What was causing us so much stress was our original two year timeline.

By working hard to build our skills from our laptops, we no longer needed the two year timeline. We were now pursuing a dream of travel being our forever lifestyle by making money as we go.

Now that I really think about it, traveling forever is not our true destination. Freedom of choice is our ultimate destination. Whether we want to travel forever, settle forever or have a constant mix, we have the freedom to make the decision for ourselves.

Ubud, Bali

With all this said, our perspective on returning home had changed. We didn’t see ourselves settling down and needing to find jobs right away. When we head home to the States, we will continue doing what we are doing right now: working from our laptops on our current projects and thinking creatively on how to start new ideas.

SEASON 5: ALL IN

Sitting across from each other with our banana pancakes, we both looked at each other again and took a deep breath. This was it. We officially decided to scrap our “two year timeline.”

We're all in! Koh Tao, Thailand

We were officially giving the “work and travel” lifestyle a full, concentrated effort.

As of today, Adam is working with several clients as a Certified Public Accountant as the owner of Nuventure CPA. I am currently writing a book, travel writing and managing social media communities.

To set these solid foundations, we are hunkered down in Chiang Mai, Thailand investing hard work and time on our projects until we return home.

SEASON 6: THIS IS HARD!

We are going to be honest with you. No, we aren’t covering our expenses, yet. We are on the way, though!

What we have learned along our journey, is why not? Why not give it a go? We have a curiosity in this type of lifestyle, so we have to try. We know we may discover that this is not what we expected or we don’t want this lifestyle or certain aspects that come along with it. That’s okay. For now, we have to explore our curiosity and see for ourselves.

What’s encouraging is Buddha says “It’s better to travel well than to arrive.” Now, we aren’t just traveling to new parts of the globe. We are on a journey seeking a new lifestyle and learning so much about new fields of work, new ideas, and ourselves.

We are in for a big challenge! It has been hard work. Every day we are walking into new scenarios we have never encountered before. Ey! I have never published a book before. How do you even do that? Just wait, soon, I will have some insight to provide.

The first print of the book It's actually a physical thing, not just a digital file in Word!

We have quickly  come to admire and respect all small business owners and entrepreneurs. It’s a whole ‘nother ballgame when you strike out to do things on your own and by yourself. You can’t just swing by a co-workers desk to ask a quick question any more. On a positive, this has given us more incentive to network and reach out to the experts.

It seems like we have more frustrations than success right now. When we take a step back, we find ourselves excited to get up each day and eager to solve these obstacles and unknowns. We are excited to solve our frustrations because we see the bigger goal coming in the future: Freedom. We have a vision and are working toward it. That’s a cool place to be.

The big question: Is this it for #nuventures?

Hang En, Vietnam

No way, Jose! We see returning to the States as another leg of our journey.

What makes this leg so much sweeter is reuniting with our family and friends in real time. It will be so nice to give bear hugs at the door and have conversations without the guaranteed, “Hello? Hello? Are you there? Yeah, I can hear you now. I don’t know what happened to the connection. Oh, no. Hello? Hello? Are you there?”

so, What’s next?

A glamping we will go! It’s camper van time, y’all!

We hope for a proper camper this time. A toilet and shower would be a great addition!

We can’t wait to shout #homeiswhereyouparkit as we honk our horn and swing into your driveway! I can just imagine Betty Joe's annoyed look through her blinds from next door with our grand entrance.

Here is our tentative US road trip schedule:

• 1st stop: Minnesota: Early November
• 2nd stop: Georgia: Mid- November-December
• 3rd stop: Colorado: January-mid February

Starting mid-February through April we are crossing the US on a road trip with our pals KimblesinBits. They left everything in Chicago to travel the world, too!

We are so PUMPED to see you on U.S. soil!

We are really looking forward to shooting the breeze and chatting with you around the kitchen table. We do miss a good ol' kitchen table. It's been a while!

We have no idea what it will be like coming home. We are preparing for a bit of culture shock.

Any words of wisdom as we RETURN to the U.S.?

Never Did I Ever Expect I Would Ever Do This

But, I did.

There we sat in a grimy bus station on navy blue plastic chairs. The chairs were all connected in rows like ones you would expect to see in any government office’s waiting room. We sat in the second row staring at a blank white wall well worn with scuffmarks from countless travelers coming through. The only fixture on the wall was a tiny clock up to the left.

With my mind on the clock, I realized it was noon. We were sitting there waiting to start a six hour-long episode of transport, and we hadn’t had lunch yet. We would be hopping from a bus to a boat to another bus to reach Cat Ba Island, Vietnam. From much experience, we have learned in South East Asia the ticket counter folks always tell you the journey will be a certain amount of time, but you should always take the estimated time with a grain of salt. You just never know how long it will actually take you to get to your destination. You can definitely bet you won’t be early!

Well, I knew we were guaranteed at least six hours of transport and we had no idea about our access to any food in the coming hours. I have learned being without snacks is not a good idea. Our hangry monsters are sure to sprout their awful heads!

We had twenty minutes before the bus was to depart, so I set off on a mission: food.

The bus station

I squeezed between several men lounging on both sides of the front door to the waiting room. The door opened out into the bus station’s chaotic entry off the main road. Huge tourist buses rolled in one after another. Taxis came swooping in dropping people off, motorbikes were everywhere and at least 30 taxi drivers in light blue shirts were sprinting around lining up for every bus yelling, “TAXI! TAXI! TAXI! TAXI!”

To stay on the outskirts of the chaos, I followed the building to the left and found a tiny convenience store. The shelves were packed solid from the ceiling to the floor with plastic packages of manufactured food; chips, instant noodles, candy, etc. Essentially, just junk. Wincing, I grabbed the best option of chips: Hot Chilli Squid Flavor. "Oh, yum." Then, I noticed cups of popcorn hanging in the madness to my right. “Huh. Well, popcorn sounds more appealing and is healthier,” I thought. My brain didn’t listen to my hesitation when I felt the dust on the container cup. I even stopped and took a second to try to feel if the popcorn was hard through the plastic. I knew I was making the wrong decision, but I was trying to think positive. As I was paying, I thought, “I will probably regret this.”

I squeezed back through the lounging men at the front door to the waiting room feeling like I failed in my mission. I glanced up and saw Adam laughing at me. This further affirmed my failure. He already knew while I was still 20 feet away I had made a terrible decision with the popcorn. “Want some?” I asked. He declined with a shake of his head still chuckling.

I rolled back the plastic and the stale air escaped from the cup. Seeing, feeling and smelling all these warning signs, I still moved forward and popped a piece of popcorn into my mouth. Just as expected: Styrofoam taste and texture. Glancing around the cup, I couldn’t find an expiration date. Most likely, the popcorn was a year overdue. Great.

So this is where packing popcorn comes from!

Without seeing a trashcan, I set the cup down under the seat in front of me. Not wanting to see anything go to waste, Adam grabbed the cup and began offering the Styrofoam to the travelers behind us on the third row of seats. They weren’t dumb. He even asked the locals behind the ticket counter. No takers. I was the sucker. Dang it.

I put my hands on the arms of the plastic seat as if to make a statement to myself. I stood up again, pulled up my big girl pants and thought, “Okay, I gotta find something.” I was determined this time. I squeezed through the same lounging men in the doorway for the third time and stepped out into the chaotic world of buses, motorbikes, taxis, and taxi drivers. Honk! Honk! “Taxi! Taxi! Taxi!”

My mission became finding a tiny Vietnamese lady. “Where is she? I know she has to be here.” Tiny, powerhouse, beautiful, little ladies in Vietnam walk the streets carrying their own restaurant on their shoulders.

And fruit markets!

So impressive!

When these ladies find a customer, they set up shop right on the sidewalk and prepare an egg sandwich or other snacks. You can find these women with five or six people circling her on tiny plastic chairs. These ladies are brilliant and have figured it out. Don’t wait for them to come to you. Find the customers where they are.

We loved these little ladies. Many days we had our eyes peeled for them for lunch or dinner!

Her sidewalk kitchen!

Knowing a little lady was my only hope for a substantial meal here, I scanned the edges of the bus station. “Where is she? No. I don’t see her.” I found a break in the buses, taxis and taxi drivers and ran across the bus station toward the entrance to scan the other nooks and crannies.

While I was scanning and looking, men started yelling at me, “Motorbike! Motorbike!” After months in South East Asia, you get yelled at all the time, so the yelling becomes background noise like the television becomes the comfortable background at home. It didn’t register they were yelling at me, until two men grabbed my arms. “MOTORBIKE! MOTORBIKE!” they yelled in my face.

“Oh, no you didn’t!” A new side of me was immediately unleashed. “Don’t you dare touch me!” I yanked my arms back from them and stared them straight in the eyes. I gave them a forceful, “NO!” like I would yell at a dog I’m reprimanding to show who’s the alpha here. “NO! NO MOTORBIKE!” I saw them back down, so I added, “I want FOOD!” As I said this, I motioned shoving food into my mouth. They got the point. Since I wasn’t going to be a customer, their attention turned to the next person. “Motorbike! Motorbike!”

I returned to my mission. “Where is she? Where is the little lady?” I decided to turn left to head out onto the main street’s sidewalk with no hope in sight. As I started walking, I saw tiny, blue plastic chairs to my left. In America, you would expect to see these chairs in the four-year-old room at the local day care center. Not in Vietnam. These are the seats adults sit on everywhere.

One of our favorite ladies!

She was our favorite breakfast spot and we had to wait in line, because she was everyone's favorite!

“Ah ha! Bingo! I found it!”

I locked my sight onto these teeny plastic chairs and made my way back into the bus station to the seats. Under a tarped roof, I started analyzing my surroundings. “Okay, what am I working with here?” I saw a clear plastic bag of bread rolls hanging from the front of the counter. Then, I saw a stove behind the counter. “An egg sandwich looks like potential here! Alright!”

I walked up to the counter. As I approached, the man behind the counter stared at me blankly. I pointed to the bread rolls to explain, “I would like a sandwich.” Suddenly another man stood to my right and handed me the entire plastic bag of 12 bread rolls. “Oh, no thank you,” I said. “Just one,” putting up my index finger to indicate one. Understanding me, the helpful man to the right grabbed one bread roll from the bag and handed it to me. I looked down at his bare hand wrapped around the bread and was aghast! Just like a mechanic’s covered in black grease. Well, the helpful man’s action created reaction in me. So, of course, I took the bread in my hand and then handed it on to the man behind the counter like the three of us were working on a bread roll assembly line.

The man behind the counter reacted the same as I did. He took the bread in his bare hand. I looked down at his hands and they weren’t much different than the man to my right. “What am I doing?” I was thinking. The man behind the counter looked at me like, “So, what do you want me to do with this?” My Vietnamese went as far as hello and thank you, so I started explaining a sandwich with my hands. I’m sure he interpreted my charades as I was trying to open a book or the Bible. His confused expression didn’t change. Needless to say there was a lot of confusion going on. I started channeling my mom in this interaction, “Just keep smiling Lindsey.”

Suddenly, I was shoved from behind and had to take a step forward to catch myself. A little lady pushed past me in between the two counters to get to the stove. The little lady! She had arrived! Victory!

The man behind the counter stood there holding my piece of bread in his hands as the lady started to prepare the stove. Then, it was like time turned to slowmo. In one motion the man released his index finger from my bread roll like a British man would release his pinky from a cup of tea. Slowly, the man’s greasy hand moved up to his nose. “No! No!” I screamed in my head. His finger continued on and his first knuckle vanished into the depths of his nostril! "NO!" Then with a flick of his finger I was back in real time, and he simply passed my bread roll to the little lady.

“No WAY! I just saw that.” I said to myself. “I cannot believe I am still standing here.” My bread roll had passed between four sets of bare hands and through a nose picker. To my amazement, instead of walking away and forfeiting my order, I grabbed a second roll and handed it to the nose picker to make a second sandwich for Adam! “What am I doing?”

I hadn’t realized it, but I had obviously caused some drama in this little nook of the bus station. I glanced behind and saw everyone staring at me from their little plastic chairs. One of the girls got up and approached me. “I speak English. Can I help you?” She tilted her head down with her ear toward me as if she was trying to hear me in a loud bar. As I was trying to explain myself to her, I noticed her gold earrings. “Oh, those are cute. Wait, what? Do those say…?” I was in disbelief. I was in Vietnam and this helpful, beautiful, sweet girl had gold earrings spelling f*$@. “Wait, that can’t be right.” I blinked and took a double look. Yep, they said f*$@. Well, this girl who spoke English with explicit English earrings only understood the word “two” out of my, “I would like two sandwiches.” She just looked at me in confusion with a, “Sorry, but I don’t understand,” expression. Still channeling my mom, we both politely giggled, bowed to each other and parted ways in a failed attempt.

My attention turned back toward the counter and the sandwiches. The lady at the stove had cut open the rolls like you would a sandwich. She turned to me holding up an egg with a questioning look. I nodded with a, “Yes, please!”

Woohoo! If I had a cowboy hat in Vietnam, it would have been flying. The little lady understood my charades! We were moving along and heading toward an egg sandwich, folks!

As I waited for the sandwich, I stood there standing in disbelief at my reality. I so wanted to take a picture to capture the moment and remember this ridiculous situation. My internal battle became, “Should I stick out even more and take a picture?” “No,” I told myself. I had stood out too much already. So, I waited. Finally, both egg sandwiches were steaming hot and placed in a plastic bag. My mission finding a tiny lady was a success! I was on my way.

In my before South East Asia life, I would never, ever, ever, have eaten anything from this grimy, nasty, greasy bus station. I would have said, “Oh, never mind. No, really, no thank you,” and would have politely bowed out. But when in South East Asia, your standards drop on food preparation and you fight for two egg sandwiches made with greasy bare hands from nose pickers. I was fierce to make the next six hours more comfortable no matter what! I didn't want to add hangriness to the experience of lugging our backpacks from bus, to boat to bus in the unbearable Vietnam humidity.

I couldn’t take it any longer. I would never be in the bus station again (hopefully) and I just had to record this moment for my memory. As I was walking back for the fourth time to the lounging men at the waiting room door, I turned around and snapped a picture.

This lady had been watching me during the entire sandwich fiasco. She says hello!

Full bellied, happy campers on the bus! Onward ho to Cat Ba Island!

Your turn now! What are the lengths you have gone to get some food in your belly?

Homesick.

Homesickness. The waves take over us often and pound us at different angles every time. Sometimes it lasts an hour, sometimes an afternoon or morning, or sometimes several days.

Homesickness is sneaky, too. We find ourselves sad, irritated or in a funk and at first we don't know why. For the first few months on our #nuventures, I definitely knew when I was homesick. It was obvious because I would be balling my eyes out and blubbering, "I'm so sad! I miss home. I just want a shower!" Now, it comes in a different form where I find myself sulking around, unmotivated for the day ahead, or groggy from sleeping too long. I end up cleaning our room or reorganizing my things for the umpteenth time. How many times can I reorganize a backpack with 15 items in it?

It creeps up on Adam, too. He has spent a solid week sleeping every day all day long. In the seven years I have known Adam, I have only seen him cry three times. The most recent was when we were Facetiming family and talking about missing everyone back home. We really miss you guys!

I simply miss calling up a good friend and going for a hike. Or, randomly asking friends for a game of Settlers. How we miss Settlers! On a different level, I miss the feeling of being on autopilot. Out here, we are constantly researching, mapping and getting lost. No matter how many times we practice “controlling our attitudes,” getting lost is never this wanderlust dream we envisioned from our Pinterest pictures. It's so frustrating!

We were so frustrated with being lost in the endless maze of rice paddies! The farmers were even giving us funny looks. We finally gave up, hopped off the bike and stormed off in opposite directions. 

What I miss the absolute most (even more than dark chocolate) are the long hard laughs that come with being with good friends and family that know deeply. We are constantly on the move adjusting to new places, meeting new people, learning new cultures and are always on a first impression basis. Of course this is exciting and these aspects of traveling have us eager to keep going. However, sometimes we are human and just want the comfort of a good friend.

When we arrived in Vietnam, homesickness snuck up on us again and it took us days to realize the grip this subconscious feeling had on us. We were staying in our hotel room more than normal; not really interested in adventuring out. We thought it was because of the crazy humidity outside or the fact that Adam didn't have much control over his stomach. Either way, we felt a bit confined to the room and homesickness welled up again.

In our brainstorming sessions of figuring out the why’s of our unmotivated funk, we realized that every time we move to a new place we seem to be on this emotional roller coaster. We bounce back and forth from extremes of, “Wow! This is so exciting! I love it here! Let’s stay a while!” to “I’m sad and I don’t know why.” The reality is the constant changing and adjusting makes us emotional wrecks, ping ponging us back and forth between euphoric excitement to sadness and wanting the comfort of familiar.

In Lombok I caught myself in a bummer mood because we didn’t have any friends to call up to hang out. I channeled some Beverly Keasler and changed my attitude. Well, if I can’t have my family and friends here, I have to make new friends with those that are here. Finding friends became an adventure.

I miss being able to throw a party. I mean, look at all of these awesome decorations! What a tease!

I may have channeled a little too much energy. We randomly saw a couple we had met previously in Bali. We pulled over for a quick chat and asked the couple to hang out later. I caught myself saying, “We are available tonight, or tomorrow all day, or tomorrow night, or the next night. Well, all week! Anytime! You just let us know!” After we left, I turned to Adam, “Did I sound desperate?” Without responding, Adam thew his hands up in the air with a yell, “We have friends!!!!”

if we are homesick, why don’t we just go home?

1. We do get "shots" of home.

Amazingly, we have gotten to meet up with some of our great friends and family while on the road. During the weeks prior to seeing our friends, the anticipation builds and we can't wait! Then, the time we do get to spend with them is so cherished and so great it fills us with a sense of home for several weeks after.

Look at all these fine folks from Georgia in NZ!

Three awesome days in Krabi, Thailand with Dan Fran and Ashley!

2. Reality.

When we are down, we are real with ourselves and think about life before traveling. We had highs and lows all the time. Going back home would be a comfort for a short time, but then everyone would go back to business as usual and we would be doing the same thing as we are doing now. We dreamed of this lifestyle for five years. Can our homesickness be solved by a FaceTime chat with our moms, dads and friends? Sometimes just going for a walk outside helps, too.

3. Pride.

When I tell Adam I am missing home, he immediately says, “Well, go home.” His response is out of a previous agreement we had prior to heading out on our #nuventures. We had prepared ourselves for a time when I may need to go home before Adam was ready. Our predictions turned out to be completely opposite than what we expected. Adam misses home and talks about home more than I do. However, in my moments of homesickness, my pride takes over. I see “going home” as giving up. We dreamed of being on the road traveling for two years. To not be able to push through the challenges is giving up in my eyes. So, I’m not just going to quit and go home. Maybe I’m too stubborn for my own good.

4. Scared.

We recently were in a museum in Hanoi and started to walk down the steps to leave. We were in a funk again. As we were heading down, Adam turned to me and said, “Should we just go home?” That one question sent us over the edge, and we spent the rest of the day planning how we were going to return home earlier than what we had originally planned. When we were really thinking about this option, I started getting scared. Wait, what will it be like going home? What will we do? Am I ready for the culture shock? Will we be able to just hop back in with our friends? This nomadic lifestyle has become normal for us, so going home will be a huge change and a shock to the system.

5. We see the light at the end of the tunnel.

After our "not-as-awesome-as-expected" Christmas last year in New Zealand, we decided for us the holidays are meant to be spent with family. We are going back to the states for the holidays this year and CANNOT WAIT! We are already dreaming of the huge bear hugs with everyone, the belly rolling laughter that comes with good quality time, Dominick’s delicious Italian food, pizza with real sauce instead of ketchup (this is real y'all), Zaxby’s, feta cheese or any cheese at all, greek salads, and American football!

what do we do when we are homesick, instead of booking a flight home?

Well, all of our solutions come from other travelers we have met along the way who have shared what they do.

1. Jo from England: bakes and calls home.

We are rarely somewhere with a kitchen let alone an oven, so instead of baking we call home. Our families will agree they see and talk to us way more now with us living across the world than when we lived in Colorado!

Climbing with Sam and Jo in Banff. 

2. Johnny and Nikita from England: Watch movies based in London.

We never thought of this, but the next time we watched The Secret Life ofWalter Mitty for the 50 millionth time we realized it was so comforting to see familiar buildings and settings in the US.

I guess we didn't sound too desperate. They said yes!

3. Pascal from England: Calls her girlfriends.

So, now I intentionally plan dates with girlfriends back home and I think of them like coffee dates we would normally have. Just seeing their faces and hearing their voices for even a quick ten minutes makes a world of difference.

Peter and Pascal biking from the US to Mexico!

4. Karen from Chicago: texts her friends OFTEN.

I took this idea and have been trying to send funny, random stuff to friends through Viber or Facebook. It has helped me feel not so far away or out of the loop having small conversations bouncing back and forth with my good friends.

With Adam and Karen in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietman. We feel like we've known them forever!

After hearing that everyone else experiences homesickness, it makes me realize it’s okay to feel homesick. Now, I try to accept the emotions and feelings, be okay with them and move toward connecting with home to feel better.

We are also transitioning from just straight traveling to working while we travel as “digital nomads.” We were recently interviewed by Mish and Rob from Making It Anywhere in their new book Travel While You Work: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Business from Anywhere! If you want to know how to make this lifestyle happen, follow these two! We read the other interviews from the other digital nomads. Everyone seems to spend a part of the year in the States, England or Canada and then they adventure out again. As we dream about our future and working to sustain our freedom of location, this may be a good plan of attack for us. We'll have the comfort of home for part of the year and then adventure out again to fill our nagging travel bug.

We are learning the emotional realities of living as unsettled nomads with lots of highs and lows and how to cope with the lows.

What do you do whenever you feel a ting of homesickness? Please leave a comment and share!

"Let's Process Some Quintessence!"

We've been watching too much Walter Mitty lately. Embarrasingly, too many times to count. In our defense, it is the only movie we have. Consequently, the Quintessence of Life has become a theme. You remember from the movie, “The quintessence of life... what is that? “Sir, it means so rich and full…” “All right... Let’s process some Quintessence!”

Watching Walter all the way back in Canada. 

On our journey, we have defined our own Quintessence of #Nuventures. Our quintessences aren't the places we go, but the people we meet.

An encounter with someone doesn’t have to be a deep, meaningful relationship by any means. For me, I found quintessence as I was simply waiting for coffee in Bali. All of a sudden this fireball, red head from Texas sent me on a whirlwind. In a matter of minutes, she smacked me in the face with wisdom, experience and straightened out my entire vision of life. Then, with a pat on the back, she was gone. Who would have guessed a red head from Texas in Indonesia would be my voice of clarity? Ha! Gotta love Texans!

The man that defined our quintessence on Koh Mook Island, Thailand was Chest, the owner of Coco Lodge. Upon our arrival, the island seemed similar to any other. We saw white sandy beaches, clear water lapping the sand, romantic bungalows lining the beach, jungly mountains as the backdrop, and smiling locals. At the other extreme, the Thai dogs were scavenging, motorbikes were roaring and plastic trash served as the grass.

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Our adorable neighbors!

However, once we met Chest, Koh Mook came alive! One night booked at the Lodge turned into a week stay!

Our bungalow was one of the cleanest, most comfortable and coolest places we've stayed in SE Asia. Add Chest to the experience and we got the icing on the cake!

Even at first glance you know this man has character and a great story to tell!

Chest had quite the reputation preceding him on Trip Advisor and Travelfish, but we didn’t expect to fall for him like everyone had promised. As we got to know Chest, we learned he has formed such close friendships with his guests he has officiated several of their weddings! Words cannot describe his warm hospitality balanced by an aura of absolute chillness. His life motto: "Relaaaaax. Take it eeeeeasy."

How can you argue with that when you sit on his front porch with a Chang in hand, chatting about life and watching the sunset?

Size has nothing to do with how big of an impact you can make. We compete for who's taller!

Adam and my curiosities were raging from all of the new things we were seeing on the island. With Chest's genuine pride and excitement to share Koh Mook with us, our curiosities were transformed to awesome experiences as he opened doors and threw us into everything.

On a morning walk, we heard pounding and went to investigate. We found ladies gathered together all pounding away. "Chest, what are they doing?" "Ah! Making chili paste." The next morning, I jumped in on the action.

You simply pound/grind fresh chilis from the garden with the pestle. Occasionally, clear the edges of the mortar so you don't lose any of the goodness. It's more about hanging with your girls and catching up on the local gossip:)

During our time on Koh Mook, the monsoon season was just starting. With the stronger winds and waves, the blue crabs were pulled out of hiding. Perfect for fishing! Chest got us front row seats to watch the action (we were too lame to wake up at 3 am to go out on the boat.) The fishermen dragged their nets off the boats around 8 am, cleared out the crabs and finished the chore of untangling the nets for hours with a team of family members. Our appreciation for the seafood on our plates has grown exponentially!

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This man had to use a hammer against his butcher knife to cut through this monster fish!

The blue crab. 

Being surrounded by locals living on chili and crabs made us eager to hop in the kitchen and learn how to make Thai food. "Mai bpen rai (no problem)!" Chest opened his kitchen up to us every night to learn how to cook from his staff.

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A little fish here, a little pork there, throw in some herbs from the garden and stuff them in banana leaves for steaming. Then, onto grinding more chili paste, prepping the crabs and sipping on Chang. Voila! A delicious homegrown meal from the garden and the sea.

Everyone was invited around the big family table to dig in on the delicious feast each night. 

Chest’s most treasured adventure to share with his guests was a full day on his boat exploring around the island. First stop: Emerald Cave. With the waves getting bigger, we had to jump ship fast and start swimming toward this tiny hole in the cliff. The waves pushed us through the hole taking us deeper into the pitch black cave. The name "Emerald" comes from the last color you feel like you will ever see as you go deeper into this unknown, scary, black abyss. Terrifying bellows of a distant monster in the cave (actually, the waves hitting deep, unseen corners) kept me praying during the entire swim. Fear factor for sure! Finally, there was a light at the end with more emerald green! The waves washed us all ashore onto a hidden paradise inside the mountain!

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Every fear was worth overcoming for the moment of floating in the waves onto the tiny beach. 

The adventure of Emerald Cave was followed by snorkeling all around the island. Chest lives here and snorkels everyday, but his passion for the sea and finding Nemo  is unwavering.  We were the ones dragging him out of the water!

Smiling after hours in the water. 

We have learned we can’t seek out these people that define our quintessence of #nuventures. How can we? They are the people God surprises us with that make our most memorable moments. The spontaneity of the encounter and their unique character makes it all so exciting,  adventurous, and so rich and so full.

We love getting to laugh when we hear others' stories! Share yours with us! What kind of characters have you met recently?

Want to meet Chest yourself on your next adventure to Thailand? Visit him at Coco Lodge: http://www.kohmook-cocolodge.com. He'd love to show you 'round!