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Pre-Trip Entries

How We Did It

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

I wanted to sit down with Tara and document how we got where we are today before it became a distant memory. As it turns out this was a great idea; it was incredibly difficult to remember accurately all of major events leading up to our departure....

Room to Breathe

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

For the past month or so, Tyler and I have taken turns having breakdowns and then supporting and encouraging each other through them. Tyler mainly worries about the massive workload he has to complete for all of his clients. I on the other hand ...

Arnis de Mano White Sash Test

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

Tyler and I just tested for the first level of Arnis de Mano, white sash. This was unlike any white-belt test Ive seen or participated in. For starters, it was hard. It really was a test of my strength and character. After an already long and ...

Final Preparation

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Tara and I spent the evening attending to some of the final details for the trip. We tore down the bikes, test fitted them in their boxes for the flight and divvied up the panniers into second hand duffel bags to check as luggage. Everything is f...

Reflection

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Before planning this journey a year seemed like a long time. It isn't. As the days and months fly by I have really come to realize what a short time we have here (on earth). There is so much that I want to do, so much I want to learn and so much...

Food for Thought (and Tummies)

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

Each time I cook something now, I think "I could make this on our trip!" During the day while I'm scanning files at my job, I dream about what I'm going to cook for dinner so that I can make the most efficient use of what few ingredients we have l...

Another List: Things to Purchase/Do Upon Arrival

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

I've had all of these ideas of things we should buy and things we should do once we arrive in Scotland. They've been floating around in my head and I didn't want to forget any, so I decided to write them all down in another list. I'll be adding m...

Overwhelmed? Make. A. List.

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

As Tara and I were driving home from visiting her parents last weekend I had a lot of time to think about all of the loose ends we need to tie up before we go. I started to get a little overwhelmed thinking about everything so Tara suggested that ...

Training

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

Tyler and I started taking Arnis de Mano lessons at Dual Dragons after it got too cold for biking so we could stay in shape until we leave. Last night we had the hardest workout I've ever experienced, and both of us got our butts kicked. Many tim...

Portable Oven Update

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

We found a fabrication company to run our portable oven prototype a few weeks ago and it was remarkably affordable! Many thanks to Orion @ KMT Waterjet for all the help. Their pricing and customer service were absolutely astounding. I cannot rec...

Arnis de Mano

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

When we started the process of moving and packing our exercising routine totally fell by the wayside. With only 75 days left before our trip, it is time to get back in shape! As my sore bum can attest, we have begun doing just that. We wanted to...

Google Maps & Spot GPS

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

We received our Spot Satellite Messenger this week. I spent some time this weekend working with their sharing interface to set up a Google Map that will show our current/past locations on the home page of our website. The XML parser I wrote fo...

Around the World in 80 Days

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

Icannot believe our trip is only 80 days away. Sometimes I think about this whole process as being similar to pushing a boulder (not sure why you'd need to push a rock, but whatever…) It felt for awhile like we were pushing the boulder very slowl...

Ultralight Camping Oven

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

Here is a screenshot from SolidWorks (a 3D CAD design program) of the assembly for our camping oven: Learning how to do 3D CAD design the last week or so has been an absolute blast, I feel like a little kid who just discovered legos all over ...

Average Cost of Living

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

Want to know the price of a bus ticket in Hanoi, Vietnam, or a bottle of beer in Beirut, Lebanon? Estimating how much money to set aside for each country in the world can be a bit tricky, but I found a wonderful website that helps out my research ...

Backpacker Oven

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

Our backpacker oven arrived today and frankly it is pretty unimpressive. It is far from sturdy, the straps that hold it together when it is packed are useless (not as advertised either) and it doesn't collapse down well at all. There are also ...

Backpacking Oven Prototype

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

Tara and I spent the morning baking bread and building a full sized prototype of our backpacking oven. We're missing vent holes on the bottom where the stove will be located and a porthole for a thermometer but otherwise it is coming together nice...

Gardening on the Road?

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Right before I moved to Minnesota, I started growing potted plants and was pretty fiercely bitten by the gardening bug. (just a little advice for anyone thinking of moving in the near future: I suggest cultivating your green thumb after you are se...

Alcohol Stove Making: Part 2

Monday, December 15th, 2008

I've really enjoyed tinkering with our penny alcohol stove over the past few weeks so I've decided to try some other designs. Up for today was the "Cat" a super low tech unpressurized stove. It has a leg up on the penny stove in that it will burn...

Making a Fire in a -3°F Snowstorm

Monday, December 15th, 2008

…is ridiculously difficult, apparently. Tyler and I bundled up for another fire-making adventure- this time, on a snowy, -3 degree ("feels like -27") evening. Despite our best efforts, we were largely unsuccessful. I got a little tinder lit usin...

Another 16 Hour Workday

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

…eye on the prize. I can't wait to get out of here! ...

Going Slowly: Biking & Baking

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

When Tyler suggested we change the name of our website from "advriding" to "goingslowly," I heartily agreed. Going Slowly fits our trip much better than Adventure Riding does. For me, this trip is not about being hardcore and adventurous, and I p...

Ooh Look! I made a fire!

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

I've never made a fire before. With frigid fingers I gathered little grassy things and made a tinder. It's kind of like a nest. And then I gathered little pieces of birch bark, small twigs, bigger twigs, and actual sticks. Much faster than I wa...

Vaccinations Lookup Chart

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

We just finished putting together a handy Vaccination Lookup Chart that will let you look up any country in a few seconds. Hopefully this will help somebody besides us :) ...

Rain Gear (Showers Pass)

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

The rain gear we want for the trip is terribly expensive so we've been hunting for deals the last few weeks. Last night Tara discovered Team Estrogen (already the most affordable vendor for Showers Pass gear) was having a 20% off sale which wou...

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

We celebrated our one-year anniversary of being together with a trip to the cities to get vaccinated. This was not my ideal way of celebrating, but it does have its perks, like being able to rest easy in other countries, knowing we probably won't ...

On Getting Vaccinations

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

We just paid nearly $400 each for someone to make our arms very very sore. …well, mine are anyway, Tara seems to be fine! Ow. ...

Ultralight Alcohol Stove

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Tara and I spent all day Saturday working on what was supposed to be a fun learning experience making emergency backup stoves. To our surprise what we wound up with works better than our WhisperLite! It is smaller, lighter, quieter, more efficien...

Winter Camping

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

If someone were to ask me, say six months ago, if I would go camping in 20 degree weather, four days in a row, the answer would be a resounding "absolutely not." That is, though, exactly what we have been doing, and I think it was actually my idea...

Vaccinations

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

I just spent the last 3 hours on the phone with various travel clinics in Minnesota trying to put together pricing for our immunizations, what a nightmare. It boggles the mind how much bureaucratic nonsense a person has to wade through to get basic...

Updated Route Plan

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Not much has changed on our proposed route but costs continue to fall as the US dollar gains on foreign currencies and we re-evalulate what we think we can live on. Here is our plan as of today. ...

REI Extravaganza!

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

What a wonderful, wonderful day! After sleeping in, waking up to beautiful sunny weather (the first sunny day in awhile…), and puttering around in the kitchen making hash browns and biscuits for breakfast, Tyler and I set off to pick up more cardbo...

Bicycle Boxes

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

I picked up our bicycle boxes from the airport today; they are huge! Five months should be plenty of time to test tearing the bikes down/putting them back together :) Nothing much else to report, we're still slowly packing things up in prepara...

Simplifying

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Our trip around the world is fast approaching. While I feel very excited about everything now, I was pretty stressed out about it a couple of days ago. One moment I was baking in the kitchen, taking care of my plants, and cuddling with the kittie...

Selling Everything

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

We are spending the weekend boxing up what few belongings we want to keep and giving, selling or throwing away everything else. Unsurprisingly it is very cathartic. We are almost done sorting through the 200lbs of books we collectively own. I tho...

Buying Tickets

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

This week we found a renter for the house. With the final big step for leaving out of the way it was time to order the plane tickets. We pulled up a few websites to look at prices and managed to find an incredibly cheap fare for $440 apiece from Mi...

Commuting

Monday, September 29th, 2008

I've been biking to and from work lately, and I love it. It's very peaceful to have some time to myself before I have to begin the work day, and it is equally rejuvenating to have some time to relax and unwind after work before I get home. On my ...

Summer Biking

Sunday, August 31st, 2008

We had a goal of riding at least 10 miles a day every day this summer. Although we didn't get out every single day we did have a lot of great weekend / weeknight rides. Late night grocery shopping with our panniers and weekend picnics were wo...

Actually Riding

Friday, June 6th, 2008

More information on that later today! ...

Updated Route Plan

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

It has become apparent that there is no way we can save for this trip in time for a November departure. Rather than wait another year (we were hoping to ride west through the seasons in a way that would allow us to mostly ride in warm weather) we'...

Tara's Green Frame

Monday, April 7th, 2008

Updated Route Plan

Monday, April 7th, 2008

More changes here… the route is starting to shape up a bit. ...

Updated Route Plan

Friday, March 28th, 2008

More route planning updates… I wonder if we'll even follow this thing once we get out there? Even if we don't, this is fun anyway! Here is our plan as of today. ...

What's the Skinny?

Friday, March 28th, 2008

A couple weeks ago, after a little bit of bike drama, my hand-crafted wheel set arrived from Peter White Cycles. I'll let Tyler write about the Peter White drama if he wants to. I'm just excited to have two beautiful wheels! I drove to Minneso...

Route Planning

Monday, February 25th, 2008

Here is a very rough outline of the trip. ...

My Purple Bike Frame

Monday, February 11th, 2008

I just received a phone call from the powder-coaters (it is powder -coaters, right? not power-coaters? Well whatever. It should be power-coaters… I want my bike just covered in POWER) and my bike frame is ready to be picked up! I wish I could ...

"I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm..."

Friday, February 8th, 2008

…which elevates me to heaven, for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye." Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Unlike Tyler, who awakens every morning to the...

The Road Awaits

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

Every morning I look at my bike and my longing for this trip gets stronger. I can't wait to give up life as I know it in favor of the road in a strange country with no worries except where I am going to sleep. I picked up a torque wrench ton...

Southeast Asia - 2009

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

…on a bicycle. I'll building up two touring bikes for us over the first half of 2008. My frame arrived last week and I sent it off to the powdercoaters to get rid of that ugly green. I'm really excited. More to follow. ...

This Time Next Year...

Tuesday, January 1st, 2008

We will be exploring the ruins of Buddhist temples at Angkor Wat, in Cambodia. Hopefully elephant-riding and talking to ancient incense-sellers will happen as well. Smiling at Buddha's feet. Tyler, let's ride on elephants! :-) Coul...