Let the Packing Begin

Yes, those are all glasses and books.

We finally have our storage unit leased as of today and took our first loads of stuff down today. The last week has be a slightly depressing, slightly exciting bout of packing. Mostly what we have packed up has been my rather excessive collections of beer glasses and antique books. Yes, I chose to collect the two most impractical thinks, and the two most difficult things to move. Sometimes I think, why didn't I get into collecting stamps? Packing books into boxes has to be one of the most frustrating things ever. Every time I pulled out another good sized box I think, "Ok now this one is going to hold a bunch of books!" Of course, every time I only fit like 8 books in and have to wrap it up. And then it still weights like 30 lbs.

All this is going on right as I'm mourning the loss of my basement brewery as well. It's not died though, just moved on to a better place. That is, to my homebrewer friend's house for long term brewing use. Gotta keep the beer flowing. Although it is truly the end of an era. Centuries from now, they may recreate my brewery in a museum to illustrate my humble brewing beginnings. But seriously, I brewed a lot of damn beer down there (2200 bottles of beer and 130 bottles of wine give or take a few) and I'm going to miss it.

I had kind of a terrifying thought the other day in the midst of all this going on. We're not going to have a home in about a month. Of all the adventures I've been on, I've always had a home to come back to with my bed in it to sleep in. Its not as if we're really going to be homeless, since we know where we're going to be staying, but its just that I won't have that place to come back to that has everything set up just how I want it. My bed, my living room with my recliner, my basement brewery stocked with any number of impractical beer glasses.

Its also just such an exciting time though. We're going to be free of our possessions and obligations a month from now, as we set off on a real adventure. I don't really know whats going to happen on it; I do know it's going to be awesome though. I guess these contradictory feelings of fear, sadness, joy and excitement are pretty much the nature of all things worth doing.

Sweet Reunions

We are so lucky to have reunited with our dear friend Kaitlin while she was in town for Thanksgiving.  After trudging through rain soaked cow poo for days in Galicia together it was so nice to share a warm evening with her and her family and experience "normal" life outside of the Camino.  This girl got me through some severe trail breakdowns and I can't imagine the Camino without her.  You should check out her blog which includes her incredible art, photos, and diary of the Camino. 

Run Turkey Run!

This Thanksgiving we'll be carrying on our tradition of participating in the Thanksgiving Day 5k & Family Stroll on the Sprint campus in Overland Park.  We started running in this event last year and had such a nice time that we decided to make it a part of our Thanksgiving tradition.  Of course we think that all of you out there reading this should come out and join in the fun.  This morning run makes one feel slightly better about the second and third helpings of turkey and pie (pumpkin AND pecan, please!) to come later in the day.  Also, as a bonus, you can just dress up as a turkey! When does that happen?

So...who's with us? 

Cheap Trips by the Charity of Others

After finishing up the Camino, I've been giving a lot of thought to traveling super cheap, and also the idea of living off the charity of others. We never actually did it on the Camino, but we certainly heard stories of people on the trail who either because of whim or necessity, asked locals for free room and board. As far as we could tell, most of the local people obliged. We even heard a story of one group that stayed at someones house, and when they went to leave they left some money on the homeowner's counter top before letting themselves out. Just a little while later, after the local found the money that was left, they chased the peregrinos down to give them their money back.

Its a pretty crazy idea, just to go stay with a stranger for free. Anyone who knows Lauren and me, knows that our home is always open, free of charge, room and board provided (within reason, don't get any crazy ideas). Although, I don't know that I wouldn't feel a little uneasy about staying over at another persons house for more than a night or two without repaying them somehow. Maybe its just that rugged individualist streak imbued in us by our frontier ancestors (or at least our frontier ancestors' mythical representations). Either way though, staying with someone else sounds like an adventure to me, and would no doubt make the trip more memorable and cheaper than just booking a hotel or hostel somewhere. The best part would just be meeting locals who just enjoy meeting other travelers (no, not those travelers), and who can give you advice on all the places to go or not go (mostly the places not to go).

Another bonus to this whole lifestyle is that, as with many things these days, the Internet makes it just that much easier to find like-minded charitable people with whom to bum a couch. I just thought I would share some of the websites I'd found when looking into this, just in case any of the rest of you might also like to bask in the charity of others.

Couchsurfing
This is the most well known and publicized of all of these sites. Although I've not signed up yet myself, I've heard good things about it. If you haven't heard about it, its kind of like an online dating site for couches. You make a profile up, then can browse other peoples profiles (which people can review, either as couch giver or receiver), to decide with whom you would want to stay with. I imagine its probably best for one or two night stays, not longer ones.

Staydu
Staydu allows people to post places to stay for free, for work, or for pay. It seems like this would be a better bet if you want to go for a week or longer. I think this is a pretty new website, but already has some pretty awesome sounding stuff listed. I'm feeling sheep farming in Scotland or primitive farm living in Sweden. There's also a bunch of stuff closer to home, like this possible hippy commune in New Mexico. Lots of the people just want to learn another language as well, and are just looking for people who speak that language to stay with them to help them learn.

Airbnb
This site is basically set up for people to rent out spare rooms in their house/apartment, or whole houses when they're out of town. I don't know that it is necessarily the cheapest way to travel, but if you want to go somewhere for a month or more, you would probably be hard pressed to find a livable place for cheaper.

Diverbo
This is another work for board kind of a site, but the opportunities are limited to specific organized programs to teach English. The whole idea is that native English speakers volunteer in exchange for a free week at a resort hotel to teach people English. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to get a free vacation just to talk to people.

Camino Videos

So we finally got around to uploading all (well, most) of our videos from the Camino to youtube. Here's where you see the real Camino! Its easy to smile and look cheery for the 5 seconds it takes to take a picture; a little harder for the 2 minute video. So a number of these are us complaining about our feet, or our lack of food, or the weather. These aren't in any particular order, and don't really require much explanation. If you go to the youtube page of the video, there is some info about where they were taken and when, if that's your thing. So here we go!