“You’re so lucky!” As travelers, we hear those words on a very frequent basis. “You’re lucky to be able to travel!” “You’re lucky to be able to spend this time with your family!” “You’re lucky!” And we are. We certainly understand that we are fortunate that we’ve been able to live the life of our dreams. But in many ways, [...]

Dreams come in many different shapes and sizes. What’s important is that you live them – whatever they may be and wherever they may lead you. While my family and I were living our dream of biking to the far corners of the world, my sister and her husband were living a different kind of dream – [...]

Looking for something fun and international for you or that someone special? I’ve got just the thing! Throughout our entire journey from Alaska to Argentina, I saved coins from each country we passed through. Now I’m using those coins to make jewelry! They’re fun and funky – but speak volumes about the traveler within you . Puruvian soles I can…[Read more]

Seven months. In some ways it seems like it’s been seven years since we arrived back in the USA; in other ways seven days. Tomorrow, on our seven month anniversary of arriving in our home country, we’ll be moving into our house. The bathroom floor has been tiled and grouted – now we need to get the toilet [...]

YAY!!! It’s happening! Twenty Miles per Cookie: 9000 Miles of Kid-Powered Adventures will be available soon! This is the journey that started it all. When the boys were in third grade (2006/07) we took a “one year career break” to cycle around the USA and Mexico. It’s now five years later, and our career break hasn’t ended yet Perhaps it was…[Read more]

I’ve often said that riding a bike is something anybody can do. It’s pretty easy really, especially if you compare it to sailing across the Pacific. I just finished reading Swept: Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche and my thoughts were confirmed – riding a bike around the world is way easier than floating the [...]

What was your moment – THE MOMENT? That is the question. What was the moment when you knew you wanted more out of life? When it suddenly became clear and you knew, deep down in your heart, that you weren’t cut out for the normal drill. When you knew you wanted to live a life designed by [...]

Let me guess. You want to pursue your passion and live your dream. You want to head out to travel the world or go back to university or open your own business. You want to look back on your life someday and say, “I lived life on my own terms!” But you don’t have the cash. Cold, hard cash [...]

It was 11:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. John and I were working at our computers in an otherwise empty room. The curtains were wide open, allowing the living room lights to penetrate freely into the darkness outside. And then there was a knock on the door. John opened the door and I heard, from the vantage point [...]

Can you help? Women bike bloggers are banding together in an effort to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief. Together we can give bikes to people for whom it makes all the difference in getting to school, gaining access to health care, and being able to support a family. For girls and women in particular, this has an [...]

It seems as though every bike tourist I meet raves about their Ortlieb panniers . I’m the lone voice of dissent – I’m not a big fan of the Ortliebs. Most cyclists insist on Ortliebs for the waterproof feature, but that comes at a cost that I consider too high. Ortlieb pannier There was a discussion on Bike Forums not too long [...]

National Geographic wrote to me a while ago to ask if I would participate in the Geography Awareness Week Blog-a-thon. Seeing as how I’m pretty passionate about kids understanding the world, I figured it was a shoe-in. I put on my thinking cap to try and figure out what I would write about. It came and bit me [...]

Remember back when you were a kid? You had BIG dreams! You wanted to climb Mt. Everest and scuba dive to the depths of the ocean. You wanted to be a ballerina on Broadway or the bravest fireman on Earth. There was nothing that could stop you. You were invincible! And then you grew up. And all those dreams vanished [...]

Remember back when you were a kid? You had BIG dreams! You wanted to climb Mt. Everest and scuba dive to the depths of the ocean. You wanted to be a ballerina on Broadway or the bravest fireman on Earth. There was nothing that could stop you. You were invincible! And then you grew up. And all those dreams vanished [...]

Long term travel is gaining in popularity in the United States thanks to the many websites encouraging career breaks or gap years. It seems that rarely a day goes by when I don’t hear about yet another family, couple, or individual shunning the traditional 9 – 5 path through life to head out for a life [...]

Once upon a time I thought my adventuring days were over the moment Mr. Sperm met Ms. Egg. How wrong I was… Adventure is a funny thing. The dictionary defines the word as “a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome,” – certainly not something one would do with kids. Yes – with kids. But then, I’ve never [...]

It’s no secret that I adore my panniers from Overland Equipment . I love how they had an intuitive sense about exactly where I wanted pockets and what size they needed to be. Each pocket was truly functional and wasn’t dependent on the panniers being nearly empty like so many other pannier manufacturers seem to do. Our Overland panniers held [...]

Once upon a time I woke up and realized the American Dream was… not quite what I thought it was? An illusion? Unattainable? What is the American Dream anyway? American Family Insurance performed a survey on their site to determine if the American Dream is still alive. When I took the survey I felt it was most definitely still [...]

“Go, Davy, go!” I screamed in terror.  “He’s chasing you!  Pedal fast!” Only moments ago, the 400 pound black bear had been standing a mere four feet from my side. Now I stood, rooted in place, and watched it chase my ten-year-old son down the road. “Go, baby!” I shouted.  “Pedal!” Davy pumped with all he had, knowing full [...]

I am seriously hoping we are nearly to the end of this whole reentry process. I just want to feel settled. In many ways, we are now comfortably entrenched into a normal Boise lifestyle. The boys are doing well in their math and science classes taken through the public schools, they’re loving being a part of Boy Scouts , and they’re [...]