Next Up

I've gotten quite a few emails, messages, and phone calls in the past week about the fact that we aren't currently in Mexico. Some of these messages have been sent with fear and shock and “what's going on? Is everything all right? What's happened?” Since I've been bombarded with people worrying about us, I'm hoping to set the record straight right now and answer some of those question.

First of all, yes it's true, our little floating home is currently not floating. It's sitting in a storage yard in Mexico and we are back in the good ol' US of A for a bit. Before you get your panties in a bunch and start freaking out about how we've given up on sailing the world, let me say a few things first. After I'm done explaining myself, feel free to start freaking out and bunching up your panties all you want.

If you know us well, you will know that we are unable to plan our way our of a paper bag anymore. Plans just don't stick with us. There are too many variables and options on our plate for us to commit to just about anything. But having said that, we were committed to leaving Mexico at the beginning of August no matter what because our visas were expiring. Mexico was kicking us out, even if only briefly for us to fill out some paperwork and pay a few pesos before reentering the country with new visas. So again, keep your panties from bunching up just yet because we had to leave Mexico anyway. We had no choice in the matter.

But more than the fact that we had to leave, we've left our boat in Mexico and the reason for this was quite simple. Mexico is hot in the summer. And no, it's not just a little bit warm – it's melt your face off hot. It was nearly unbearable. Sure, we could have stayed in our floating hot box and stuck it out, but why? We weren't in Mexico just for the pure sake of being in Mexico, we were there to see cool stuff and eat tacos. Neither of those things were happening. Once the fiery inferno of Mexico's summer heat set in, we were purely in survival mode. We either holed up in the boat for the shade, or if we were in a town, we ran from air conditioned business to air conditioned business. We were lethargic, grouchy, miserable, and constantly dripping with sweat. Plain and simple, we weren't having fun, and fun is the whole point.

Since we knew we had to leave Mexico to renew our visas already, and renewing visas is as simple as leaving Mexico's border and reentering the country (it doesn't matter which country we go to from Mexico, we just have to leave),we had a few ideas of places to go to make that happen. One option was to simply cross the border, fill out the required paperwork, reenter Mexico with our new visas, and then continue on with our sailing adventure. Another idea was to store the boat, hop on a plane and fly to Guatemala or another country in Central or South America for a couple of months and explore down there for a bit. Another option was that we could buy a car and road trip through the US and Canada and visit some more of our National Parks and friends and family along the way. We even thought about spending the summer backpacking through Europe. All great ideas, right?

Our thinking led us to these conclusions. First, Mexico's summer is just too hot, so, simply renewing our visas and returning to the boat and Mexico was first to be crossed off of the list. We needed a heat break. Second, Guatemala and Central America are both blazingly hot and incredibly humid this time of year. It's the rainy hurricane season with lightning storms aplenty. And did I mention the heat? We still needed a heat break, so Central America was crossed of the list too, even thought ancient ruins and volcanoes were calling our names. Backpacking through Europe was sounding really appealing to both of us. With tons of history, multiple countries with easy access, and a few good friends who live there who were more than willing to be tour guides, it was hard to pass up. And then there was road tripping through North America, with natural wonders on our bucket lists and family and friends we haven't seen in far too long. Europe and a North American road trip were running neck and neck.

In our last 3 years of adventuring, there has been a significant shift in how we view time. Back when we were working, neck deep in the day to day grind, we thought about a week long vacation as an incredible amount of free time. I would dream about all of the things we could do and see in that one week of freedom. Nowadays, one week seems like a blink of an eye. One month even seems like a blink of an eye. So, when we thought about spending the rest of the summer roaming our way through Europe, we couldn't wrap our heads around trying to explore an entire continent in a short 3 months. We've spent 9 months in Mexico and feel like there is still a bunch more to see. 3 months in Europe just wasn't going to cut it. Traveling for an extended period of time through Europe is still high on our list of must do's, but it's not going to happen this summer. We are putting that on our list of future plans and when we do it, we'll be there for a lot longer than a summer. There is too much to see and do for us to short change ourselves.

So, with the powers of simple math and deduction, you can probably tell that we've concluded that a North American road trip is how we are going to spend the next few months. Even though the first couple of years of our big adventure had us traversing the country, visiting our National Parks, and hiking thousands of miles in the backcountry, there are still places we didn't get to see. Those places we missed were mostly due to weather and the fact that we were towing a travel trailer and not able to get our vehicle in to some of those places, so this time around, we are going simple. Living out of a car and camping our way is what is going to happen.

We've been in the States for a handful of days now, and in that time, we've caught up with my brother and his family in Phoenix, Arizona, we've cooled off our brains while absorbing his air conditioning, and we washed away months worth of sweat build up while soaking in his swimming pool. Since we've been here, we've also marveled at something we haven't seen for the entire time we've been in Mexico – high speed internet. Oh how I've missed an internet connection that is faster than the good ol' days of dial up speed.

With the help of high speed internet, we purchased a car off of Craigslist and took a road trip to Southern California to pick it up, we've ordered a bunch of camping gear (I love new gear!), and now we are waiting for all of our supplies to arrive. Once everything arrives at my Bro's house in Phoenix, we'll hit the road and start crossing more things off of our bucket list. As always, we'll do our best to keep you posted on what we're doing and where we're heading. Until then, feel free to put your panties in a bunch and freak out because we aren't on the boat in Mexico. But don't worry, in a few months, hurricane season will be over and the blazing heat of Mexico's summer will be behind us. When that happens, we'll make our way back to our little floating home and continue on.

A road trip to Southern California with our sister-in-law to pick up our new car?  Yes please!  And of course, no trip to southern Cali would be complete without some beach time.

A room with a view.  We treated ourselves on our last night in Mexico for a while with a hotel room with a view and some air conditioning!  

Our little floating home isn't floating anymore.  Don't worry, we'll be back in a few months.

Sailing across the Sea of Cortez and heading for the haul-out and storage yard in San Carlos.

Since our Youtube video series is actually a couple of months behind us in real time, there are still a handful of episodes of boat life coming your way for your enjoyment. If the link below doesn't work on your device, copy and paste this link in your browser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsd1RKsf4aU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goeRMu1OKM0