Update: From the 'What Was I Thinking' File

We are a little more than one month into our travel adventure. So far it has been great! Relaxing. Little to no email. Haven't had to check my daily calendar in nearly a month. Things look to get a bit interesting however. Here's what's happening:

• We decided to extend our stay in Atlanta for a couple of more months to help out the hubby's sister who will be watching her two grandkids while her daughter is away at a two-month training. Even though the kids (age 2 and 4) will be going to daycare the few days a week that the SIL is at work, we will still be more or less watching them, taking them to daycare and activities, cooking for everyone, etc. On the plus side, we will be getting free room and board so this will save us three extra months worth of nearly all of our expenses besides what we would have been paying for an apartment. On the not so plus side, we haven't had to take care of little kids in decades! I think I forgot how! What was I thinking??


• I have also posted my goal to bike from Canada to Mexico this summer online and have a couple of people who are interested in going with me so I guess I really am going! Never mind that I haven't rode a bike more than a couple of miles in, again, decades. But I was so inspired by the Family on Bikes, that I though doing such a ride would be an epic adventure. What was I thinking?? p.s. This evening I will be attending a free bike repair class at the local REI so that is one small step in the direction of this goal.


• I also learned that when our schedule is so fluid and likely to change on nearly a daily basis like it is these day, buying NONREFUNDABLE airline tickets way ahead of time is a bad idea. Although the SIL will buy us new airline tickets to get us to our next destination after our time here is finished, the airline tickets we had previously bought (which we were supposed to use today) ended up going in the garbage because the $150 change fee plus the difference in the cost between the old ticket price and the new ticket price was way more than what new tickets would cost. It still seems like a huge waste of money to me, though. What was I thinking??


• We have also agreed to attend a family reunion in the Philippines in December. It should be a lot of fun. Our goal, however, is to save enough money to get all five kids, their spouses, and ten grandkids to the Philippines. All of hubby's brothers and sisters are doing the same. Talk about expensive! We usually do family reunions every four or five years in order to get ALL of hubby's family together (his mom started this years ago with her six kids. Since then the reunions have gown to include spouses, their kids and now grandkids). We used to meet at someone's house but since the family has grown so much we switched to going on cruises for the reunions because it really cuts down of the cooking and cleaning duty and this way everyone can hang out, or not, bond, etc. The last reunion in the Philippines was over 25 years ago and for good reason--it is super expensive to get there--however the cost of staying there (food and condo rental) are much cheaper than you pay in the US. So the plan is in place, I just need to win the lottery or something! What was I thinking??

So that's all that has been happening so far. One of the best things about our travel adventure is that I am learning to be more flexible and open to whatever experiences come up (usually I am very Type A and need to have everything organized on my Outlook calendar). So far, so good!