When "Plans" Change

In 2015 Peter and I decided we wanted to take a trip. A big trip. So, we started saving and saving, and selling one of our cars, and getting roommates, or not getting Chipotle as much (that was the hardest part). We first thought about doing the world for a year or two. Hannah has watched “The Departures” on Netflix and thought it would be fun to go around the whole world for two years. That plan changed when we looked at plane tickets and realized it was not feasible. Then we narrowed it down to just do South East Asia for a year. Then we thought it might be too much of a shock for us seeing as neither if us speak any form of Asian language. We finally landed on South America for a year because we could speak the language (somewhat) and linked Hispanic food. So we left it at that. We kept saving money and in 2017 were planning a wedding and 6 week honeymoon to Australia & New Zealand. We looked at our budget and realized unless we worked while we were in South America there was no way we could go for a year, so the plans changed again and we decided on South America for 6 months.

Since we had planned out almost every detail for Australia & New Zealand we didn’t want to plan South America. We would just buy a one way ticket and see where it lead us. Well, it lead us to higher prices and a lot of head aches. It took us a couple weeks of being in Patagonia that we didn’t want what we thought we wanted. We had wanted to hike the W and Inca trails in Chile and Peru, and drink wine in Mendoza, and take epic pic in the Atacama, swim with the marine life in the Galapagos, and sit by the beach in Costa Rica. Well, plans changed again. We decided we were planners (at least for travel for Peter). We weren’t those cool people you hear about just traveling to nowhere, hitch hiking their way to the next place. That isn’t us, and we are okay with that!

So, we started planning out trip more, cutting things out that didn’t excite us anymore or that we would/needed to do a different time, buying plane and bus tickets, and booking hotels, hostels, and Airbnb’s. We cut our time short in South America, Extended out time in Central America and decided to go on a US road trip and visit National Parks and places we have always wanted to go in our own country. It took us until we were literally at the end of the world to realized that what we wanted was to see our own country, be more comfortable traveling, and spend more time with family and friends.

We feel like failures because we are changing our plans that we spent two years dreaming about and spent lots of money on vaccines that we won’t be using this trip. It is hard to realized and accept that what you thought you wanted was wrong, but it is important to come to terms with what you truly want and move on from it. Yes, we probably wasted a lot of money, but why would we stay and spend more if we aren’t happy. We talked about what we wanted to do instead of 6 months in South America, Florence came us several times (Hannah’s Italian home away from home), but the outfits wouldn’t quite be the same coming from Patagonia to Italy. So we scratched that idea. Then we wanted to do South East Asia, but thought we might have the same feeling there as we did in Patagonia. So, we landed on The United States of America. That is what we really got excited about. Going on a road trip, visiting friends and family along the way, go to all the national parks we’ve talked about for years, and still do some wine tasting in Napa in the spring :)

So, all in all, everything worked out in the end. We feel more excited about our trip now than when we left, and are excited to see what the future brings us. If anymore has any suggestions for us while we travel the Western US please email us or fill out our contact form! We would love to hear from you, and even meet up!

Cheers to the future, and ever changing plans.

Hannah & Peter