Opening it a crack

"Remember what Bilbo used to say: 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.' " -- J.R.R. Tolkien

And, so, we start with a quote...

Those near and dear to us, have heard us talk for years (many, many years) about the idea of an around the world trip. We tried it once before, and were only weeks from purchasing our plane tickets, then the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 changed it all. Nathan (our son) was only in middle school and we just weren't ready to take the plunge in January of 2002 as we had planned.

Seemed like there was always something that came up--work, graduations, etc.--and we never quite made it. Not to say that we didn't have some travel adventures along the way. We went to the Amazon jungle in Peru (and began a wonderful friendship with Chris and Lev) and took a trip to Scotland that we still talk about all the time (sorry, folks).

So, we learned our lesson, and we are saying that we are "planning" our trip. Once the tickets are in hand, we'll switch it to we are "taking" a trip.

We knew we wanted to keep a blog during the trip, but by starting it now hope this might be a great way to get travel tips from other folks--so this is not just our ramblings (yet), we can really use all of the help any of you can give on where to go, what to do, and sometimes, what not to do.

So, this is our first step to opening our door and we'll just have to see where we may be swept off to!
Robin