Hi – I’m Meredith, a Florida girl with big dreams on a quest to see the world.
Not that long ago, my husband and I turned our lives upside down in pursuit of an adventure and a life of long-term travel.
A sabbatical? Yes. A mid-life crisis? Possibly. The pursuit of a dream? One hundred percent.
The Pyramids at Giza, Egypt
How did we get here? Let’s back up…
When my husband, Travis, and I first started dating, like all girls in the early stages of a relationship, I asked him where he saw himself in 15 years. His answer – he wanted to be retired.
I laughed, but as the conversation continued he explained that the “retirement” he was referring to didn’t involve a shuffleboard court or a standing tee-time at the country club.
Positano, Italy
The goal was freedom of time.
We didn’t know exactly what that looked like, but we knew that we wanted options for the future and began actively working towards that.
One night over a bottle of wine, we came up with the big idea – to take an extended sabbatical and to travel full-time for a few years.
While Tampa will always be our home, we were invigorated by the possibility of the big life change.
Hiking in Petra, Jordan, catching sunset in Budapest, Hungary
We had jobs that we loved– Travis working for his family’s roofing company and I as a medical device rep. We have an amazing group of friends, and we live in a city that many people just vacation to.
But we’d caught the travel bug, and the itch to travel long-term increased with each passing week.
Some rental properties, some index funds and a bread route later, we reached the point where we could step away from our day jobs and decided to take the plunge to make the commitment to our travel dream.
Empty backyard? Build rental apartments!
So we set a date — June 1, 2018
We booked a non-refundable Airbnb and a one-way ticket to Europe. This was our insurance policy — something to hold us accountable and prevent us from talking ourselves out of the idea.
We rented out our house, hit pause on our careers and packed up our lives into a carry-on suitcase. What else would we need?
We put our wedding gifts in storage, and donated the rest of our stuff to Salvation Army. We paired down our lives to four storage bins, our road bikes and a few family heirlooms.
The day we left Florida with just a carry-on and a backpack, and embarking on the Camino de Santiago in France
Life is short — buy the plane ticket
Travel has always been both a passion and priority for me, and my perspective was shaped at a young age when I lost my mom to cancer the year after I graduated from college.
Growing up, my fondest memories are of traveling with my family. Whether it was to check out the next great golf destination for my dad’s job or to see the library at Ephesus in Turkey, my greatest takeaway was that memories are more valuable than possessions.
Machu Picchu, Peru
In college, I returned from a summer abroad and announced that I was moving to Italy to be a tour guide at the museums. But life happens, and I put the dream of living abroad on hold while I focused all of my energy on building my career.
The Great Escape
While there is never a good time to quit your job and move out of the country, there certainly are better times than others. We’d found ourselves in a golden window of opportunity at 30 and 32 – happily married, healthy and no kids. What was holding us back?
So for now, the stars seem to have aligned in our favor, and all roads led to Travis and I taking off at this particular time in our lives.
Stiniva Beach on the island of Vis, Croatia
My friend Cassidy once told me, “If you have the time, find the money. If you have the money, find the time.”
We’ve somehow, through a series of fortunate events, stumbled upon just enough of both at the same time to make the dream a reality.
So, here we go. The Longest Weekend begins now. Wanna come?
Cheers,
Meredith
