The dream started in 2004, we were newly married college graduates. Patricia had just started her first “real” job and Dustin was finishing up his master’s degree. Upon recommendation from a colleague we met with a New York Life financial representative who was attempting to drum up business, presumably high fee whole life insurance amid other investment products. While meeting with this NYL representative he relayed the story of another client who was saving for retirement but also wanted to put aside a substantial amount of money in order to take a 3 year break to sail around the world.
Driving home from that meeting we looked at each other and said “why don’t we have a dream like that?” And so began many years of dreaming…sailboats, RVs, enduro motorcycles, major thru hikes (the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, etc), long-distance bicycle trips – we dreamt them all!
Over approximately two decades we had many “dream dates” where we jotted down ideas (nothing was off the table), started reading blogs, and researched like crazy – routes, equipment, timing, joys & hazards of each type of dream.
What we realized from all this dreaming was our hopes required a decent amount of time along with physical fitness. We’d have to work toward accomplishing these dreams while our bodies were young(er) and able to handle the physical stress. Additionally, our dreams would require substantial time to accomplish so we would need to be able to quit working and support ourselves.
While establishing our careers and growing professionally, we would often encounter challenges or disappointments along the way. One way to stave off burnout was to do “Keeping the Dream Alive” experiences, trips or classes. For example, we purchased a 16′ sailboat, learned to sail, and even took a class on making our own sails. We were bicycle tourists in many parts of the country, often encountering long-distance cycle tourers and fantasizing about doing a long-distance trip ourselves someday.
Not knowing what/when/how our dream would come alive, we continuously built our “Dream Resume” with skills – knot tying, cooking from scratch, long-term provisioning, sewing/repairing gear, cutting each other’s hair, managing our own savings/investments, essentially learning to “in-source” almost any task instead of “out-sourcing” – all of these skills also enabled us to live very frugally.
Enter the global pandemic of COVID-19, we were living in Alaska, far away from any family – many people were establishing their “bubbles” of contacts they would interact with…we just had each other. This experience made us realize that we could be around each other for long periods of time without tiring of one another’s company. This time of shutdown also gave us the time and space to get serious about pursuing “the dream”…still not knowing when or how the dream would transpire.
Our current location in Alaska had amazing benefits but also so significant drawbacks for finally deciding to jump and pursue the dream. Alaska, especially Fairbanks, is amazing – people do cool stuff and live/dress/think differently than anywhere else we’ve lived. There is a “can do/figure it out/I’ll try that” attitude – we were able to experience things we never thought possible – ski patrol, biking to -20F on snow, ice climbing, making our own pack rafts, etc . On the drawback side, Fairbanks is really far away – it is expensive to live here and especially pricey to move to/from here.
So as our dream transpired we were looking to incorporate leaving Fairbanks as part of the journey. We started focusing on RV/van-life as a way to eventually start living the dream and departing Fairbanks. On a plane ride in November 2022 we sat next to a woman who encouraged us to try out bicycle touring – this encounter coincided with significant low points professionally for both of us. As the idea simmered, we explored what it would look like to do a long-distance bicycle trip departing from Fairbanks, Alaska.
After extensive research and trials, in August of 2023, we decided we would JUMP and pursue one of our dreams of long-term bicycle travel beginning May of 2024 and attempt to cycle from Alaska to Argentina.