I've Been Everywhere

I know, we're so far behind, but the trip kicked off with a couple of rocky days and we are finally getting our bearings here. As of this moment, we are sitting in our hostel in Madrid unwinding from the first week of our journey and taking advantage of a finally reliable internet connection. Obviously we've already made three stops, and I will post about those in time.

This is the short story of our crazy 3.5 day drive across the country in a 26-foot truck. We started off late, paid for it in the form of California traffic and couldn't even make it past Flagstaff, AZ the first day (granted, Michael was basically dying the day before, and I was still sick from a week before). The next day, though, we were feeling much better and finally got on a roll. We drove through the emptiness that is New Mexico, and saw a lightning storm, a huge wildfire, and 3 overturned trucks, and finally made it to Amarillo, TX and a quite... let's just say charming hotel.

The next day was tornado country, and a landscape of splintered trees and leveled barns in Oklahoma and steep climbs in Arkansas. We stayed in West Memphis that night, and crossed the Mississippi to drive through our new favorite state all the next day. Tennessee is simply beautiful (at this time of year at least). The greenest green I've ever seen and a river or lake at most every 10 miles. We stopped in the city of music for some amazing soul food (fried green tomatoes!) and pushed through the night and up the Smoky Mountain Range all the way to Raleigh. I don't think we've ever felt relief like pulling up to Michael's father's house. Mission Penske completed, and leg one of the trip too. And what I learned is our country's beauty is underrated.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

So we are in the airport waiting to get on our plane any minute. We are finally on our way, and though things are a little tense at the moment I know we will figure all the little kinks out and start our journey on a high note. I'm excited for all of the food and new friends and photos (I will be working on the post about our trip out east in our first few days of travel, promise!), and to share it with all the awesome people in my life. Thanks for reading and I'll be posting from another continent sooner than later! 

P.S. Cliche title attributed to Michael, and he is well aware. 

Ready to Start

I really wanted to title this post "the final countdown", but I decided that would put a kink in the mood of our travel playlist. This is simply a reminder that we embark in exactly one week from today, starting with the truck drive through the heartland, come hell (tornados) or high water (literally).

Anyone who decides to take the time to read this, please peruse our tentative itinerary (say that five times fast... just try), and let us know if you or any of your awesome friends/family will intersect with us. We would love to make connections wherever we can! We also appreciate any advice re: the places we are stopping considering how little time we will have to see so many cool cities. That's what the comment section is for!

This itinerary is spelled out in the post before this one, and I've made some minor changes. At some point in the next few days I'm going to do a "what's in my suitcase" type post that one of my favorite bloggers does whenever she travels. Trust me, it's more interesting and fun than it sounds. You try to fit 2 months worth of stuff in a 68 liter backpack...

Where We Left Off

Hey campers. I wanted to post our tentative itinerary for anyone who cares to know. Please, please let us know if we will be intersecting with you at any point or if you are living out in Europe - we would love to see friendly faces along the way! Also connections places to stay never hurt anyone:). Here goes... Subject to changes, detours and whims!

May 31st - June 3rd: Driving cross-country and stopping somewhere near Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, and Crossville, TN before finally touching down in Raleigh.
June 3rd - June 8th: Playing with Michael's adorable niece and nephews.
June 8th - June 11th: NYC baby!
June 12th - June 13th: London
June 13th - June 16th: Paris
June 16th - June 19th: Amsterdam
June 19th - June 20th: Hamburg
June 20th - June 23rd: Copenhagen
June 23rd - June 25th: Berlin
June 25th - June 28th: Prague
June 28th - July 1st: Salzburg
July 1st - July 5th: Munich
July 5th - July 8th: Lucerne
July 8th - July 9th: Venice
July 9th - July 10th: Lucca (and an Arcade Fire concert)
July 10th - July 15th: South of France Galavanting
July 15th - July 18th: Barcelona
July 18th - July 19th: Valencia
July 19th - July 23rd: South of Spain Galavanting
July 23rd - July 26th: Madrid
July 26th - July 28th: Bilbao
July 28th - July 29th: Bordeaux
July 29th - July 30th: Normandy/Le Havre
July 30th - August 3rd: Brugge/Brussels
August 3rd - August 5th: Back to Paris
August 5th - 6th: London
August 6th - Undetermined: Back to NYC!

Just typing this made me exhausted. It's a whirlwind I know, but we can't wait. There is a possibility of removing some places just for the sake of our sanity, but for now, we like our crazy schedule just fine.

Another Traveling Song

So, as most of you know, Michael and I are taking a trip. A kind of big one. Our finally finalized plan is to drive a large truck full of Michael's mother's belongings from California to North Carolina, squeeze in some epic and adorable niece and nephews time, fly to New York, have too much fun and check out Parsons, fly to London, and take a train under water (Bright Eyes theme much?) to Paris. Once there, we are picking up our sweet little Peugeot ride (packing 92 hp, baby!) and cruising from country to country, city to city, in one giant misshapen circle of awesomeness for 8 weeks. 

Knowing me and my camera, thousands of photos will be taken, and we both agreed that it was important to us to chronicle our travels and give our friends and families a way to follow our adventure. I don't think I've ever been more excited for anything in my life, and I am counting down the days until we leave!

I had the brilliant idea of using song titles for each post name to reflect the soundtrack of our journey. Michael gave me one of those "you're cute" faces when I told him [over-enthusiastically] about my plan, but since I made the blog, I'm calling the shots. And you know what makes me EVEN cooler? I'm adding a playlist widget at the bottom of the blog and adding each of the songs that inspires our titles so you can listen while you read! First off is obviously the namesake of the blog, a la The Black Keys. I'm posting our itinerary later today:)