If you’re reading this blog, you probably already know that Chad and I are taking a year away from our usual professional endeavors to work online while traveling for a year. Two important things to understand about this experiment are 1) we will be working; we can’t afford to take a full year off from earning anything, so we’ll each be attempting to utilize our skills, talents and work ethic to make enough money to break even on this year; and 2) we’ll be home every four months or so for an extended period (at least 4 weeks) to reconnect with family, friends and our community.

Many, many, many people do this, which is one of the reasons we think we can. They’re sometimes called “digital nomads” or “location independent” or “long-term travellers.” Most of them work online, whether through remote employment with a company or as an entrepreneur or freelancer. You can find out more about how Chad and I hope to earn an income on the “Hustles” page. It includes links to the various businesses we’ve started. If those don’t work, I have backup plans upon backup plans, which include such varied things as teaching conversational English online and learning to code. But we’re going to give entrepreneurship a try first.

It has been a challenge for family and friends to wrap their heads around our planned travel schedule, so I’m providing it here as a handy reference. Basically, this is an experiment in 3 legs.

Leg 1 – Europe (May 24-September 17)

• We leave May 24 to make our way to Budapest, Hungary, stopping in Reykjavik, Frankfurt and Vienna along the way. We’ll get to Budapest by May 31 for a conference called Brain Bar Budapest, at which Chad is a featured speaker about cities of the future.
• We’ll spend June 8-15 in Prague, then head up to Berlin to catch German’s first match of the World Cup with a bunch of fans and tourists at the Brandenburg Gate. From there we’ll go to Wroclaw, Poland, for a Poland match or two, then briefly to Slovakia, then back to Budapest.
• We’ll spend the bulk of the summer (July 1-August 16) in Budapest.
• We’ll be in Turkey from August 16-September 15, starting with three weeks in Istanbul and then several days each in Capadoccia and Ephesus.
• On September 15 we’ll fly to Frankfurt to catch our September 17 return flight home.
• We’ll be home from September 17-October 24, guestroom surfing between our folks and maybe some friends.

Leg 2 – Mexico/Colombia (October 24-February 20)

• We’ll fly from COU to Mexico City on October 23 to spend a week or so tooling around central Mexico to as many ruins as Chad can stand.
• Starting October 29, we’ll spend a week in the city of Oaxaca, which will include Dios de las Muerte.
• We’ll arrive in the beach town of Puerto Escondido on November 5, where we’ll be through Christmas.
• We’ll end up with one more week in Mexico City to ring in 2019 before heading to Colombia around January 3.
• We’ll have about a week or so to explore Colombia before checking into our apartment in Medellin on January 11.
• We’ll fly back to the US on February 20, possibly flying into Florida to meet up with Chad’s folks before heading back to Missouri.

Leg 3 – Asia (mid-March-June)

Exact plans for this leg are pretty up in the air, but will include Thailand and Japan.

From there, we don’t know. If we like this and are making it work financially, we have lots of ideas for a 4th leg (current top contender is a roadtrip through the western United States). Or maybe we’ll be tired and want several months at home in Columbia. Or maybe we’ll be broke and need to get  jobs at home in Columbia. Whatever happens, I think this experiment in travel and freedom will make for a great year. Please stay tuned to see if anything turns out like we think it will!