Downsizing and Preparation

Although we’ve been enjoying our time off since leaving our jobs in preparation for this trip, we’ve also been getting a lot done. With having to downsize from two households worth of stuff to what we can fit on a bicycle, there’s quite a lot we have to work on. Here’s what we’ve accomplished so far. There’s still a lot to do, but we feel like we are on top of it now.

Social

• Flew out and visited both of our families
• Met up with a bunch of friends and planned some time to meet up with as many as possible
• Planned a going away party in February

Downsizing

• Donated a ton of clothes, kitchen items, etc. to local charities and friends
• Donated all of our Christmas decorations to friends and family
• Sold/donated all of our books to a local used bookstore
• Sold a whole bunch of stuff on eBay that we won’t be taking (my saxophone, iPad, etc.)
• Sold some of our furniture that we don’t use often using OfferUp
• Found friends who will adopt my kitties, booked a flight to fly them to Dallas

Planning

• Planned our route in detail with turn-by-turn GPS routes and notes about where to stop and what to see as well as expected temperatures and lodging options (camping, hostels, WarmShowers, CouchSurfing, hotels, etc.)
• Met up with friends and family who have traveled (or lived) in the countries we are visiting to get tips for what to see what where to ride
• Researched visa requirements for all countries we will be visiting (the only one we need to apply for ahead of time is India, and the EU’s Schengen visa is the most restrictive due to the size of the EU)
• Researched health insurance options and decided that BlueShield’s emergency international coverage should be sufficient, switched Steve to this
• Booked our flight to Lisbon, Portugal, and booked our first few nights at a hostel
• Scanned all physical documents and stored them in the cloud so I can access them from my phone if needed
• Switched to a good travel credit card with no foreign transaction fees and good travel benefits (Chase Sapphire)

Preparation

• Continuing to cycle to maintain our fitness (though we haven’t been very good at this)
• Booked a wilderness first aid class (from REI) so we can both be prepared in case we have an accident in the boonies
• Planned a fully-loaded test run next week to a local campground to test out our new gear
• Met with our doctors and got a checkup, necessary vaccinations, emergency antibiotics, and two years of refills authorized for medication we take regularly
• Wrote a short description of who we are and what we’re doing and translated it into dozens of languages for the countries we are planning to travel to (using Google Translate as well as friends who speak those languages)

Equipment

• Finalized and purchased a list of equipment and clothing that we’ll bring. Most we already had, but we picked up:
  • Warmer lightweight clothes
  • New bike shoes that look like regular tennis shoes
  • Water filter system and purification tablets
  • International power/USB adapter
  • Waterproof passport holder
• Bought new bikes that are more suitable for touring, sold Steve’s previous bike
• Switched to LG Nexus 5x phones with Google Project Fi international phone service
• Switched from Garmin to Wahoo ELEMNT bike computer, which allows better on-the-go route planning