Wandering Where We’ll Be

For those of you who we don’t know us, but stumble across this site, we are Tim and Dan, from Minneapolis, MN, United States of America.  For some portions of our trip, we will also be joined by our dog, Jake.

Tim currently works as a Research Database Administrator at Marshall Field’s department store.  Dan works as salesperson in the flooring department at Home Depot.  The plan to do some serious travel was hatched a few years ago after Tim paid off the last of his student loans and credit card debt and began saving the money that had been going to pay off his debts.  At about the same time, Dan switched from his longtime job where he had several weeks of vacation time to a new one with no vacation accrued.  We were finally getting to the point of having some money to travel, but Dan couldn’t get away from work.  So, we continued to save in earnest and planned for the day we could travel for longer than a week or two.

Where should we go?  We have done several one- to two-week camping trips in the U.S. and Canada, including: a circle tour around Lake Superior, trips to the NW United States, SW United States and SE United States.  So, we hadn’t traveled in the New England states; that should be on the agenda.  And, since we’ll now have the time, why not check out the Atlantic provinces of Canada, as well.  So, we’ll do that this spring.

In mid-July, we will be going to Chicago for a week and a half, where I will be participating as a percussionist (through the band that I’m in – the Minnesota Freedom Band) in the Gay Games VII Sports & Cultural Festival ( http://www.gaygameschicago.org/culture/culture.php?mgroup=Band).  Musicians from bands all over the world will perform together for the opening ceremony, closing ceremony, several different sporting events, as well as in our own concert in the new Frank Gehry-designed Millennium Park Music Pavilion and Band Shell.

Then, this fall we hope to take a trip through several countries in Europe.  The details of this trip are less firm, but we would like to visit Ireland, U.K., Netherlands, Germany, Austria, northern Italy and France.  Neither Dan nor I  been overseas before, so we’re especially looking forward to this trip.

After that, we’re not sure.  Although, we’d like to visit our friends, Fritz and Robert, in Oklahoma City, so we might make a swing south and west.  And, I’d love to travel to Alaska in the summer of 2007.  We’ll play it by ear, seeing how Jake does traveling for long stretches, how money holds out, etc.

I still occasionally ask myself that question — most recently, when I wrote the letter to our landlord to end our lease.  Here I was, writing a letter that told our landlord that we were moving out, but we have no place lined up to move into!

Well, we’re both leaving our jobs, and our lease ends at the end of March.  We’ll be staying with my parents for about two weeks.  Then, after Easter, we leave on the first leg of our travels, which will be a camping trip, taking us south and east from Minnesota to the Atlantic coast in North Carolina, up the coast into the Atlantic provinces of Canada, and returning home via Quebec and Ontario in late June or early July.  Our dog, Jake, will come with us on this leg.  We are intentionally leaving our itinerary open for much of the trip.  (I don’t even like to use that word — itinerary!)  We have the general route — described above — in mind and a list of things we’d like to see.  Beyond that, we’ll be moving when and where our collective mood takes us.  There are a couple of exceptions to this general rule.

First, we will be stopping in Rock Falls, IL to visit my grandma.  We have not seen her in several years and wanted to arrange a visit on our way south.

Second, assuming I can get tickets when they go on sale, we will be seeing Ben Folds in concert in Nashville on April 22.

Third, in late May and early June, we will be staying and working at two different organic farms, through the Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) program.  The first is a farm near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and the other is on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.  We have arranged to work two weeks at each of these farms.  Through the WWOOF program, in exchange for working at these farms, we will be provided with lodging and food.  Here are brief descriptions of the farms we’ll be working at:

“Help us create a dream!!! We have 150 acres located in the rolling hills of central Prince Edward Island 20 km from Charlottetown. Our plan is to restore this neglected farm to its glory days. We need your help working a small garden (vegetables and herbs), fencing, clearing trails in the woods, light carpentry, the list goes on. We have a spare bedroom with two twin beds and a loft over the garage. A chance to make a real difference.”

“We are a middle-aged couple with a dog living on a 16-acre piece of paradise: a half-acre market garden and haven for urban refugees on South Harbour, between the entrance to Cape Breton Highlands National Park and a mile-long pristine beach. Kayaking, hiking. Work includes garden chores, composting, gathering firewood, house-painting, trail-making, landscaping. Accomodation is a small cabin with two bunks. Diet: omnivorous leaning toward vegetarian. Independent workers preferred. Own transportation required. Couples welcome.”