The Boones Are Checking Out

15 and a WU.

For those non-sailors among you, "WU" (pronounced "woo") stands for wake-up, and in 15 days and one wake-up, Tatyana and I will be trading in our suits for cargo pants.   As I write this, we have sold or stored most all of our furniture; Tatyana is presently snuggled up across a pair of deck chairs, sipping the last of the rum and wondering out loud how we can possibly distill our lives to an envelope of forwarding instructions.  But, with each passing day our apartment echoes a little bit louder, and the stack of boxes gets a little bit taller.  And on March 3rd, distilled or not, we're checking out.

We've always talked about doing this, but always in vague terms and never anytime soon.  Then last Fall we had "the talk" -the one where Tatyana finally pins me down to a timeline on making babies, and--to both of our surprise--I don't freak out.   But, one great adventure at a time, and there is no way either one of us is going to commit to twenty-odd years of the kind of crap we put our own parents through, without first having one last hurrah.  And this is it.

The purpose of this trip is to see the countries that we are most unlikely to visit over the next twenty years, either because we wouldn't dare unleash future Boone children on unsuspecting third-world nations, or because as we get older we will be less and less inclined to tolerate sleeping on floors and executing bowel movements without the luxury of toilet paper.  We will skip Europe and the mediterranean countries altogether -we can do those any time.  The same for South America -it's close enough to manage a visit.  We will save New Zealand and Australia to share with our kids when they're old enough.  As much as we would love to visit the central Asian countries, Uncle Sam has a long row to hoe in the PR department before Americans will be truly welcome again in the middle east, and we don't want to go anywhere we aren't wanted.  

So the focus of our travel will be on eastern Africa, Asia, and South East Asia.  This week we'll post a rough outline of the trip.  We've planned as little as possible, tying ourselves down only to the dates and places necessary to secure guides for the more adventurous legs of our journey.  We will mostly wander, planning as we go, so that we can truly enjoy the freedom this trip affords us.  As it stands, we should return mid-December, but like everything else, we'll just play it by ear.

Stay tuned.  In the days leading up to our departure, we'll post a few notes on our preparation and gear. Then, from the road we'll post updates whenever possible.  You can reach us on our gmail accounts, and I suspect we'll be checking Facebook frequently.  We're very excited to begin this new chapter in our lives, and we hope you'll check in now and then to read about the kinds of things we'll be putting in our mouths.

Onward and upward,

T&T