Thank You from DINKS Travel!

 

This is our final post as DINKS Travel. We would like to thank you for following our adventures, sharing encouraging words, and offering support. Your generosity is greatly appreciated and we are thankful for each and every one of you. We would like to send a special "Shout Out" to our Bring Back Cocktail Hour sponsors who gave us something special to celebrate and helped us experience local food and drink from around the world.

When looking back at 2014, it seems appropriate to include a few statistics:

• 375 days (and counting) off of work
• 66,000+ flight miles
• 15,000+ drive miles
• 4,000+ rail miles
• 29 countries visited
• 23 US states visited
• 2 Canadian provinces visited

As the days and miles passed we encountered countless sites, foods and cultures, and challenged ourselves in ways we never thought possible. Along the way, we made new friends and learned a little bit about ourselves.

Now that we have initiated steps to rejoin society, we're reminded of a quote from Ernest Hemingway, "It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."  We're thankful for the journey we have completed and equally excited about the next journey we're beginning today.

Good Fortune is with Us

This is being typed as we fly across the ocean towards Hawaii to kick off our Asia-Pacific tour.  We have, and continue to experience mixed feelings of sheer excitement, fear of the unknown, and lots of “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

These varied feelings are to be expected and we know this journey will help us grow individually and as a team.  We have worked hard to get here, but there is something to be said for hedging one’s bets.

Our good friends, Rich (affectionately known as Richie B) and his lovely wife Laverne (aka Elle) gave us a beautiful little Buddha statue for good luck.  They purchased it specially for us while traveling in Thailand last November.

The baby Buddha is joining us in our travels; after all, one can always use a little extra good fortune.

WHERE WOULD YOU GO?

Today, Matt's high school French teacher (Hello Mme Brubaker!) asked for more information about our plans.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, we will keep this post brief and let the above graphic do the talking.

We have not created a set agenda for our adventures.  Our approach is to remain flexible and avoid over-planning in an attempt to retain a reasonable level of spontaneity.  Have you ever wanted to go to a train station or airport and choose an unfamiliar destination from the departures board?  We hope to do that on this trip.

Now that you have an idea of the general geographic regions we intend to visit, please comment and let us know if there are "must see" sites, cities or experiences that we should pencil into our informal itinerary!