That’s the question, I suppose. Everyone is asking. Everyone wants to know. So… you did your trip, they say. You rode your bikes around the world. You set a goal and accomplished it. Great.
Now what are you going to do?
Well, I guess it’s time we answered.
We don’t exactly know.
We at least have some general ideas, which we hope will do something to satiate the curiosity of our readers.
First of all, the short term details that we DO know: We just spent one week in Abbeville, Alabama, with my parents. It was a great opportunity for us to deep clean some of our gear, as well as share about our trip with family and friends in the community. Then we spent a few days in Auburn/Opelika with my sister and her husband, checking on our old house, visiting our old church, and meeting people for meals and coffee dates. From there, we have basically moved in temporarily with Dave’s parents in Nashville, Tennessee. Two reasons for this: our home in Auburn is still leased to our renters for another year (so not moving in there!), and Dave’s parents have been storing the bulk of our stuff at their house. So we “came home” to their house where we have our own room, filled with our bedroom furniture, clothes and other randomly stored items.
Home sweet room… it sure seems luxurious after two years of calling our tent home.
On that note, it’s been a bit like Christmas to come back to our old possessions, most of which, to be honest, we had forgotten we had! We had drawers full of clothes that we knew were there, but didn’t remember the specifics inside. Suddenly, we feel like we have SO MANY CLOTHES!
Might not look like much to you, but our shared closet of clothes makes us feel like we have loads of options for what to wear!
Also, for those who are wondering, we’ve picked up our old car. My sister Sarah was kind enough to take care of it for the two years we were gone. While we still prefer traveling by bicycle, we’ve appreciated having the luxury of the car to carry us longer distances, like the 450 miles between my parents’ home in south Alabama and Dave’s parents’ home in Nashville—in the short time of one day.
Our gear finds a different home… in the trunk of the car. Sad, but it gave us a sense of finality that the Tour had ended.
And bikes on the rack… all our driving around for visits felt very… fast.
Some broader strokes for the long term: Dave is still passionate about mechanical engineering, and is looking for work in his field. We do not know exactly where we will live long-term. We have some preferences, but recognize that much of that will depend on job availability. We will make the “location” decision based on his work, and after that, I will also begin to search and apply for jobs. At this point, we are not planning to return to the Auburn/Opelika area. While we are thankful for the relationships we had there before our journey, we feel ready for a new place, and feel that a new start will most help our transition back into “normal” life.
We hope that answers some of the questions you might have… we’ll be sure to update here as we figure out our next moves. In the meantime, the novelty of taking a hot shower each day and sleeping in our own predictably comfy bed each night hasn’t worn off. So for those of you who asked if life would seem boring when we got home, at least for now, the answer is NO! There’s a lot of exciting things about normal life, too!
