John Earwood
I am expanding on a half blog post I began in Cambodia in December 2016 and am now finishing a year and a half later. I found this on my iPad while sitting in a bar in Portland. In re-reading my words from eighteen months ago written half a world away, I am struck by the fact that it still resonates. Things took a slightly different turn in 2017 than we expected, but it still resonates, and that is important. So first the old, and then the new…..and then the now (June 2018).
I write this sitting in a hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia as I wait to go to the airport in a tuk-tuk to get Claire. Watching the staff here give alms to the monks this morning caused me to reflect on what I am thankful for and what I find is truly important to me.
So here goes nothing….
2016 ends in a few hours, and I suspect that it will go down as among the my most momentous years. I married someone who challenges and inspires me each and every day as I struggle just to keep up with her. What do I mean by that? I think being with Claire has helped me find myself again and nurture an important part of myself I had lost sight of. We joke that we share a piece of the same brain, and maybe we do. Claire has rekindled the fire of adventure and discovery that had almost expired for want of tending. I was the kid who worked every day after school to save money to fund a 5 week trip to the British Isles at 16. The kid who applied to spend his first semester sophomore year in Italy. I had just pledged a fraternity and made an incredible group of close friends. Still, I packed up and left to go to Italy with 20 people I didn’t know. This was in the time before cell phones or the internet. You had to plan how to get money by cashing Traveler’s Checks. There were no ATMs. Calls home cost dollars per minute. If you think about it, pretty unusual stuff for a 19 year old. And I did it again the fall of my senior year. At a time when most people were embracing their last semesters, friends and parties, I went to London. Not typical, but I never thought much about it then. When travel and new experiences were involved, I always sought out the road less traveled.
Somewhere along the way that person all but disappeared. Choices were made and that drive for adventure, discovery and travel was exchanged for a big firm job, a big house, a country club and all that accompanies that lifestyle. There were trips, but not adventures.
I think Claire and I really complement and inspire each other and that may be what it is all about at the end of the day. We have traveled together a great deal. This year was no exception –
BVIs, Italy, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, an Laos. What an exciting year of exploring new places! Hello world, I’m back!
Present day (early 2018) — Portland, Oregon at a French Bistro feasting on happy hour oysters and cocktails and missing my girl. I finished up editing one post and am feeling good and optimistic about life and the future. I read this old half blog that never got finished and thought that it was a perfect continuation of my train of thought. [also, I really need to just write more so that I can post more and not ruminate on these things for years and years…].
What did 2017 bring? Not the far flung travels we had envisioned as we brought in the New Year in Siem Reap. We called an audible, and it is still playing itself out – we bought a thirty-five-year-old 46-foot Kelly Peterson sailboat and refocused ourselves on the journey. It’s still playing itself out in the sense that there is a ton of work to be done on an old sailboat – fixing the heads, plumbing, electrical, batteries, engines, lights, instruments, fiberglass repair and the list goes on and on. Although I have said a few times “what have we gotten ourselves into?”, I (somewhat surprisingly) am still very positive and confident Wabi Sabi was the right call.
In addition to thinking we needed more space if we plan to live on the boat for multiple years, we had the opportunity to buy Wabi Sabi without a note. We still owe quite a bit on Cuchulain (which is still available for sale if anyone if interested). In order to leave before “traditional retirement” age, we decided we needed to cut costs and save cash. We have a bit of a plan on how to do that, and I will try and give the outlines of our path to escape at some point. Primarily, we thought buying Wabi Sabi would allow us to save for the trip while refitting the boat. Refitting the boat is a bigger bite than we had first thought (and I thought it would be a big bite). But, you eat an elephant one bite at a time, you find the joy and beauty in the imperfect and you revel in the journey and the adventure. And you get to know your boat really, really well.
What that has meant for us (in addition to me yelling lots of “sailor words”) is that we didn’t do a ton of traveling in 2017, and we have sort of re-prioritized travel going forward. The hurricane wrecked our BVI trip in 2017. So much for lobster on Anegada for Thanksgiving….but a Blowing Rock Thanksgiving with good friends was good time (always is). We also did some great short trips to Charleston and Asheville in 2017. We had hoped to spend some time sailing, but that didn’t happen. We will continue to plan for some big adventures – 2018 has on the books a tandem cycling trip in and around Split, Croatia with a stopover in London, England. We also hope to get in some long weekends on Wabi Sabi (assuming I get the water system re-plumbed and the batteries replaced) and a few other escapes (including New Orleans which I am sure will be featured in the coming months). Most of our time will be spent working on the boat or enjoying the mountains. And enjoying Claire’s 2018 hobby – homemade sour dough bread. I can’t wait to wake up to bread baking in the South Pacific.
June – 2018…. And just like that we “come about” on a new, unexpected course….no Croatia and the house in Blowing Rock for sale. As Claire detailed in an earlier post, we bought a small “farm” in the mountains outside Boone, NC. We are continuing to adopt the sell everything that has debt attached to it approach. While it seems that 3 houses and 2 boats is going the wrong way if our plan is savings, if we sell the two we have in mind, we are MUCH closer to the reality of leaving. We also will be able to have a place to keep for when we come back home.
If we don’t sell the two that are listed, I’ve told Claire we are listing everything and seeing what sells. Regardless, 2018 has been filled thus far with excitement, stress and projects. We remain hopeful that we sell a house and a boat. Soon. Stay tuned.
