Howdy.
Whether we’ve known each other a long time, or we’re just meeting for the first time: it’s good to see you.
First: an apology (of sorts).
This is a large adventure. In fact, if you’ve got a moment, it's a twelve-storey adventure with a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour portage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying 'This is a large adventure.’
And as Captain Blackadder wisely said, an extravagant adventure requires an extravagant plan.
Yet after a full week with underpants on the head and pencils up the nose, we realised that we’d actually have to plan this thing ourselves: no-one else was going to do it for us.
Credit: Richard Curtis, Ben Elton, Rowan Atkinson & BBC.
Although technically, that was a crisis. This is an adventure. Turns out underpants don’t work for both
The thing is, it’s not our fault. So please don’t hate us. Hate the ‘rona. That horrible life-sucking, depression-and-anxiety-causing, insidious virus which has ripped millions of lives apart, and caused the cancellation of plans beyond counting.
Because it’s the Coronavirus which forced us to do this thing.
Back in 2019 Lisa and I, ever the planners (you’ll see a pattern here if you stick with us!), booked a trip to the North West US, to visit dear friends from a previous adventure (more of that another time, if you’re interested).
That trip was scheduled for 3 weeks of June 2020. It was carefully shoehorned in around a Secret Cinema booking to watch Dirty Dancing (because no-one puts baby in the corner), and tickets to see the Killers in London (because we never have, and they are definitely on The List).
You could be pretty confident things would be back to normal by summer 2021, right?
Then Covid 19 came along, and blew all those plans to… well. Choose your child-friendly analogy. The plans were gone. And I know everyone reading this will have had something similar happen to them.
When you’ve had to put up with a 3-month lockdown, barely allowed out of the house, forgetting how to hold a conversation with your friends, replacing birthday parties with skype parties, and spending your entire life staring at a computer screen, we all looked forward to those holiday plans. They were our hope.
When May 2020 rolled into June, and it was clear we weren’t going to be able to get into the USA, that hope took a bit of a kicking. Life went on of course, and for that we were always grateful – but it seemed a little less joyful.
But it’s not good to wallow in self-pity. So we picked ourselves up, and rebooked the same holiday for 12 months hence. A full year away again. You could be pretty confident things would be back to normal by summer 2021, right?
And then, sometime around August 2020, we booked ourselves a ski holiday, for February 2021. We like skiing, and February 2021 was going to be my 40th birthday. So we got some friends together, and organised a group ski holiday. Something else to look forward to, once all this Coronavirus misery was behind us.
You can see where this is all headed. Again.
I think that’s enough history. The point I’m trying to make, if you’re still with me, is that what Lisa and I are setting out to do now is the accumulation of 3 years’ worth of holidays. There has been lots of planning, and a fair dollop of good fortune, but here’s what the itinerary looks like:
February: 2 weeks skiing in Austria. I have a deferred 40th Birthday to celebrate with some great friends.
March: Fly to Galapagos (via Miami). See some amazing stuff. Meet my brother and his family on their boat. (Again – more of that next time. Let’s call it ‘Chapter 2 - Will’s Brother’). Get on the boat. Sail South West. Cross the Pacific (or at least, the biggest uninterrupted blue bit of it. 3,000 miles, give or take).
April: Arrive in French Polynesia. Try to keep smugness to a minimum. Fail. Island hop.
May: Fly to Seattle. See friends. Go hiking, cycling, maybe even skiing. Definitely drink a few beers. Laugh til we cry. Revisit all the places we love there.
End of May – Mid June: Cycle from Seattle to Los Angeles. See the US Pacific Coast in all its glory (all 1,500 miles of it). Meet people, have thoughts, and most importantly on a bike: get the most infuriating ear worms for a whole day at a time.
Mid June: Reach LA, visit more friends, relax, take a deep, deep breath… and fly home to England!
And get our heads in gear to return to our day jobs. Because yes – we both have them (we couldn’t afford this trip otherwise!) And we’re incredibly lucky enough (see note above about dollops of luck!) to have compassionate bosses and colleagues, who have allowed us this time off, on this adventure of a lifetime.
So, like I said: howdy!
We are currently knee-deep in life-admin, trying to sort out various flights, transfers, freight deliveries, insurance, and all sorts of leaving home faff. We’ll try and keep you updated as we get closer to D-Day. The (very bright, snowy) light at the end of the tunnel is that once we’re on the plane, it’s either done or it’s not getting done!!