The First Plan

Exciting things happening this past Saturday. The first planning session for this trip finally occurred. Zoe and I sat down at our friend Bill's house (one of the surefire candidates for the trip) and just broke out some maps, laptops and documents and dove in. Neither of us knew exactly where to start, and after a lot of writing, deleting and editing, not all that much was accomplished. However it was a start nonetheless, and we think one of the true benefits to this planning session was that we realized how much planning we are going to need to pull this off. At first glance, we knew it would be a very challenging task, but at second and third glance, we have realized just how challenging. The goal is to finish all planning by the end of this year. We remain very optimistic on this. The enthusiasm for this trip is inspiring and I know that we will not procrastinate on something we all want to do so badly. Looking at some pictures and maps hurt though, it just reminds us of how bad we want to be on the road, or in the woods, or on the beaches, or in the mountains, hiking, exploring, living, being. Stay tuned.

The Expedition

Mid October 2011-


"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile. Climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." -- John Muir



I have awesome friends. I also have some stupid friends. Stupid enough that when the topic of traveling across the country for a month during the summer months comes up, we are not only determined to make it happen, we make a pact on it. The overwhelming desire for true adventure and discovery was too powerful to deny and remains that way in the present day. What was most inspiring about the conversations I was having with my good friend Zoe at the time was that, we didn't want to simply take a road trip with friends. The difference is that both of us as individuals had such a strong desire to create our own paths through the journey of life, but our paths were so similar and intertwining that a journey of such epic proportions was inevitable. We discussed who else would be appropriate to bring along with us, and I use the term appropriate because a lot of our mutual friends would be fun. A lot of our mutual friends would make this trip a blast, but that isn't what this is about. This is about discovery. This is about youth. This is about freedom. This is about individualism. This is about commitment. Our good friend Deanna has hopped on the bandwagon because she shares so many of our values, it'd be wrong if she didn't come along for the ride. Depending on the logistics of transportation, we are still determining who will fill the 4th and 5th (if we can fit that many) slots on our journey. The plan was originally to depart on this during this summer, however due to minimal funding and not enough time to plan, the goal is for the summer of 2013. The plan is that we will spend approximately a month traveling the better half of the United States. Most of our time will be spent out west, camping, exploring, and simply traveling and seeing all that is beautiful in our motherland. This blog is dedicated to recording anything and everything having to do with the expedition, from planning to exploring to contemplating. It will be epic, it will be exciting, it will be dangerous, it will be exhilarating, it will be long, it will be inspiring. None of us know exactly what we will get out of it, but that is why we are doing it in the first place. To discover what is out there, and to discover what is inside of us. Welcome to the Motherland Expedition.