Earlier this week our family celebrated an important milestone: We realized that March 24th marked the beginning of our fourth year of living full-time on the road.

As other traveling friends have realized major milestones by beginning and ending significant journeys this month we’ve spent a lot of time discussing our life together, why we choose to live it this way, the highs and lows, the inspiring and the demoralizing, and reflecting on the journey so far.

No one would accuse us of traveling fast, there are folks who cover more miles, check off more countries, “see more stuff” than we do in their three month walk about than we have in the three years we’ve been wandering, but we prefer to go deeper, instead of just wide, and it’s not a contest anyway. We prefer slow travel.

In the coming weeks I plan to share a few more things about the journey “so far,” where we’ve been, where it’s taking us, and what we’re learning; but for this morning, I’d like to share the highlights with you in the form of a photo essay. A country by country snapshot of the best of our nomadic life… thanks for coming with us!

3-2-1- Launch!

We made the choice to leave it all behind in the winter of 2006, when the kids were 3, 5, 7 & 9.

It took us two solid years of work and planning to make it happen.  We took our house from this…to this…and then sold it.

Cake… Camper… Packing to fly…

England…

April 2008… a wet month spent cycling from London, north to Hexham and then across Hadrian’s Wall to Newcastle Upon Tyne… highlight for the boys: Nottingham & reading Robin Hood aloud! We also cycled through a scale model of the solar system one afternoon.

The Netherlands…

We crossed the North Sea by ship, spent a week in Amsterdam and then cycled the North Sea Route toward Belgium…

Belgium…

We didn’t spend long enough in Belgium… but Brugge was our favourite!

Germany…

We entered Germany at Aachen, traveled down the Rhine to Mainz, then down to the Schwabiche Alb, then up through Bad Windshiem, visited Buchenwald, worked our way up to Berlin and eventually cycled out of Germany along the Elba, through Dresden and Meissen… what an amazing month and a half…

The Czech Republic…

Our first experience with complete illiteracy! The Slovak languages are TOUGH!  We fell in love with so much beyond Prague in the CZ and will always long for svickova!

Austria…

I sang “The Lonely Goatherd” in my head for an entire month! We rolled in along the Danube to Vienna and discovered that the city really does waltz and what we thought would be a three day “quick tour” turned into an amazing three weeks…

Italy…

Amazing. No other words do it justice. The food, the people, the culture, the history, all of it. Hannah wants to go to university there. Tony wants to eat himself into oblivion there. It’s high on our list of “favourites!”

Tunisia…

The best thing we ever did for our kids, in terms of a “culturally broadening experience,” was to winter in Muslim North Africa and go deep instead of wide for a while. Getting the memo that muslims are people, not propaganda posters, was absolutely priceless. The culture, history and adding a sprinkling of Arabic to our consciousness were life changing for us all.

France…

Pork and Red Wine. After three months in a muslim country without either they were our first purchases. A month and a half or so being blown by the Mistral in Provence and wandering the halls of the museums of Paris was an education in and of itself. There really is nothing like “April in Paris!”

The U.S.A….

We’ll always love it here and we’ve a renewed appreciation for the cleanliness, convenience, variety and ease of existence in our home country. The real draw is the parade of family and friends who love us in spite of our craziness and it’s our favourite place to rest and renew and laugh with the people who’ve mattered most in our lives. It’s also the place we go for the BEST pizza in the world (yes, better than Italy!)

Canada…

The other half of “home” for us. Wolfe Island will be our next permanent home (not soon!) and it’s the kids’ favourite place in the world, hands down. It’s the place they have the best adventures and the most freedom and ice cream every night after dinner with Grammy.

Mexico…

We’ve been here many times. Part of Jenn’s childhood was spent here. It never gets old. About a third of our 10,000 mile road trip time was spent exploring old favourites and discovering new joys as we moved slowly south.

Guatemala…

A few weeks of the road trip in 2009 became “the next big thing” for 2010 as we fell in love and decided to return for half a year. San Marcos del Lago is a tiny pueblo on the shores of Lago de Atitlan and is where we call home for a little while more. It’s our very favourite spot in the world… so far.

Belize…

We keep going back. It’s the perfect place to explore a variety of eco-systems, from rain forests, to marine life and has become one of our favourite vacation spots. We love the people, the food and the culture… AND… they speak English, which means Mama gets a break! 🙂

Honduras…

This is as far south as we’ve gotten, we have just been having too much fun to push further. For us, it’s not about checking stuff, or places, off of the list, but rather living fully in each day that we have and taking the time to really learn about where we are at before we move on… and move on, we certainly will.