From 764 square feet to 70 Liters...

11:51 PM 0 Comments

Teryn:
Yikes....we leave in 4 days.

There is something really exhilarating to me about getting rid of stuff. When I was younger I collected everything, and it just made every time we moved around, which was every year or two, so much harder. After I got out of the Backstreet Boys memorabilia collecting phase, I really enjoyed having less and less stuff laying around. I really did some serious life cleansing before I moved into my tent for the summer to raft guide in West Virginia. I left some things with my dad in Ohio, some things with my mom in Arizona, and moved my life into a green duffel bag that would fit me inside of it rather easily. I've maintained a pretty nomadic lifestyle since then...moving from Boone, NC, to Denver, CO, to Aspen, and back to Denver, so I've kept my life belongings down to a minimum. This packing my life into a backpack thing hasn't been super hard for me....but Dan on the other hand, has tons of shit. It's been interesting watching him spend hours each day figuring out what should go where, who should have what, and what he should just get rid of. I've just been pawning off clothes and shoes onto all of my friends. We're moving out of a pretty nice apartment that looks like this:

Into one 70 liter Osprey backpack for Dan, one 65 liter one for me, and the same green duffel bag I used to live out of in WV to split between the both of us. I'm not sure Dan has even put anything in there yet, and its halfway full of my whitewater gear.

I have been a rollercoaster of emotions lately. I had a little too much wine a few days before our going away party and demanded that we cancel it. I guess the stress of moving, and dealing with a lot of people that were supposed to help us flaking out made me feel like fuck it, maybe all we have is each other. I decided to quit being an emotional wreck and let the party continue, and I have to say, I was extremely surprised with the turnout. We started at the bar I work at, Vinue, and made our way to Milwaukee Street Tavern, where we walked into the back room full of a ton of people we love. My mom was on her way up for Arizona and made it just in time to make an appearance at the party. I vaguely remember grabbing a fork, clanking a glass, and giving some sort of emotional 'thank you' speech. From there we ended up at Shotgun Willies and then I think Dr. Proctors? Dan and I both woke up in our clothing from the night before, in separate locations in our house, and were miserable for two days after. Hangovers get SO much worse after 25. Thank you all who made it, we seriously feel so loved.

I'm pretty close to done packing. I purged a ton of clothes yesterday onto my friend Natalie, and between compression bags and my previous backpacking skills, I think most of what I have left will be coming with us. You probably won't hear from us again until we're actually traveling, so stay tuned as we take off Monday. I have serious aviophobia, so between Xanax and wine (don't worry, I won't combine the two) I am hoping to make the journey there without having to be removed from any of the planes for losing it. No promises, though.

So here we are with four days left, and we're on our last few days to say goodbye. I've been squeezing friends with tears in my eyes, because even though some people think we won't be gone that long, I know Dan and I are looking at this as an odyssey. We don't have a return flight home for a reason. I'm so lucky to have someone that fits into my life in every single way, and I absolutely adore him. I can't think of a better person to take off around the world with me.

My phone number will be the same, plus the NZ country code, I've got Whatsapp and Skype, and my email is TerynLunacy@gmail.com.

No excuses for not keeping in touch.

<3 Teryn

9 DAYS LEFT

11:49 PM 0 Comments

With only 9 days left till I leave to New Zealand.

Only 9 days left till I leave to explore the world with the girl I love.

9 days left that my so called smart phone countdown app tells me.

9 days left and my mother is worried about all the water between Iowa and New Zealand as she is looking at New Zealand on a globe for the very first time.

Seems completely un real, but this is the realest thing I have decided to do since the day I decided to take an Oath to serve my country.

I am beyond excited for this chapter in my life.

This time around I feel that I have made a decision that is 100% for myself and damn that feels amazing.

Tonight I’m cleaning my truck out. I pretend that I’m on an episode of “GOLD RUSH” as I pan for any penny or nickel that I can dig up in the pay dirt of trash.

WHOA just struck GOLD! James Buchanan $1 coin Hell yeah! Damn $1.69 boys and girls is what I was able to scrap from my truck.

All my life I have collected every penny I could find. In basic training I used to pick up all of the loose change around the payphones on the base.

Apparently everyone just throws out their change around the payphones. Last year when I changed in my coin jar I got back almost $100 dollars.

Anyways. For those that don’t know me I’m sorry if I get off track a little bit.

9 Days left and I am forcing myself to forcing out more of the unnecessary things that I own. At times I feel as If I was born in the depression in the understanding that I grew up poor and now I feel that I actually have nice things and that if I gave it up then it will be lost forever. ( My card collection is insane, Jordan all star cards)

9 Days left. Till Teryn and I begin our oddessy of taking over the WORLD! I couldn't of asked for a better partner in crime than her. Lesbians want her, Girls want to be gay to be with her. Owners of restaurant and 5 star resorts can’t resist themselves to hire her. Teryn is a motherfucking Boss. Her and I are surprising enough on the same sheet of music as they say. She is my best friend and I know Jared would agree.

9 Days left. Over 90% of this place we have is my shit. My mother and grandmother are a tad bit of hoarders if you will. I just came to throw away an entire box of birthday cards that my mom has saved. I’m talking about birthday cards from 1 to 18! That’s a shit ton of birthday cards. And then there was the certificates. Damn I had certificates from when I apparently was good at show-n-tell. ( Which by the way was the best! I always had a ninja turtle to show-n-tell!

9 days left. Whisky is the drink of choice tonight. I took a truck load of my childhood and military memories to Mark and Carina’s (Two of the best human beings I have ever known! ) I took 2 truck loads of shit to Goodwill last week., but there are just some things I can’t part with. I either want to keep them for my children or I want to have them in my nursing home so I can remember how badass my life was.

9 days left. I still feel that what is most important to me will die….Alternate Decision….ugh my passion and my pain. The guy who I thought was going to help….turns out isn't. and that blows. But I guess AD is only going to exist when it is in my hands. I was naive to think it would be alright with someone else.

9 days left. Right now all I want is to travel the world. All I want to do is to be in New Zealand. All I want is for Teryn to be happy and I want to do everything I can to make her happy.

Goals that I personally have for these travels: I want to be able to let everything go. ( It’s only after you have lost everything, that you are free to do anything. JUST LET GO! ) I want to not think about ADC just for a little bit. I want to be a decent photographer. I want to be an adventure guide of anything, Rafting, mounting bikes, zipline whatever may be. I want to see the world. I want to EXPERIENCE the world.

I used to be considered weird for wanting to get out of Iowa. A lot of people don’t ever leave their hometown or their state. Out of fear or commitments to their families or whatever other reasons. One the biggest reasons I went into the military was to get out and experience life and the world. My 2.5 years in Germany gave me the taste of travel and I have been even more hungry since.

9 days left and I can’t help to think about one of my best friends in the world and a person I have always and will always consider my sister from another mister. Kassie Rose Tibbott. I’ve know her since I can remember. This girl has always been there for me and she is one that told me to take the chance on Colorado and I owe it to her of where I am at right now in my life. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be in Colorado and I wouldn't be back to my original fun loving self. Sure we've had our ins…and outs but nonetheless she is my constant that I will always have for life and I am more than grateful for that.

9 days left. Waiting on Jared’s Death Certificate so I can bring him along on these travels. For those that don’t know I still have a good amount of his ashes (mostly those of his penis…haha ) and his sister has a map of everywhere he is currently at and I hope to get him to many more places.

Okay so this has been a long first post from me. I hope you all have enjoyed it and please ask questions or comment.

At the end every post I want to leave with a question or two for our readers.

1. If you could travel anywhere in the world where would it be? And why?

2. What do you currently own that you don’t think you could ever part ways with?

3. Drink of Choice?

Love always, Dan