“The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have.”
I thought this would be a good time to share with you how our plans are coming to leave our jobs and become vagabonds. They’re coming along great!
We are meeting with a realtor today! We’re getting ready to sell our house. Hopefully it will sell quickly and we can close in mid-May. We hope to go to our son’s graduation from The University of Oklahoma, (BOOMER!!), return to Stephenville, pack up a U-Haul and move the few items we don’t sell to store in Ohio where we have family. Going through a collection of 24 years worth of stuff is what concerns me most. I hope that via Craigslist, Tradesy, moving sales and donations that we’ll be able to get some value out of our household goods and part with our collections without too much trauma (on my part – it doesn’t hurt Greg’s heart as much to part with memories represented through “stuff”). We’ve already donated books to the Tarleton State University Honors College so we’re on our way!
We are starting to reach out to WorkAway and WWOOFing contacts as well as people we have met in Piedmont about working on a winery starting in September, in exchange for room and board. It’s harder than I thought it would be to make these arrangements but overall it is a lot of fun! Setting this up is not happening as quickly and easily as I would like but that may be because it’s still early. I hope that’s the case because once we get over there we’ll likely need to arrange our “next” position while we are working for someone else. We need to bear in mind the limitations of our visa. We’ll likely have to bounce from Italy to the UK, Ireland, Croatia or some other country outside the Schengen after our first 2 months or so. It will be interesting to manage these logistics and maintain our budget.
Other steps we’ve taken to move us toward our next chapter include:
*We paid our son’s LAST tuition bill!! WooHoo! This is huge and super exciting! While we are patting David on the back for his accomplishments, we're very happy to be passing this financial milestone. Hurray!
*We completed our Teaching English as a Foreign Language course with the International TEFL Academy and are now prepared to teach TEFL with 200 hours of training including Business English and Young Learners Certification. We really hope this will be a nice supplement to our income.
*We have worked with our first clients for EuroTravelCoach and it was so much fun!! We’ve learned a lot about websites, Search Engine Optimization, social media and more. Greg has 299 followers on Instagram (spread the love and get him up over 300!) and The Travel Coach – Europe has 543 followers on Facebook. We are really looking forward to growing this business and helping more people make their travel dreams come true. It is so rewarding. Please help us spread the word about our services. We are excited to work with more clients! We’re exploring new opportunities – putting together specific trips and working as a service provider for others, etc. We are thrilled about the opportunities that lie ahead. Help us make EuroTravelCoach a success!
We’re in our last semester as full time faculty at Tarleton. College meetings take on a whole new meaning when we know we won’t be here next year. After investing so much time, thought and energy to a place and its people, it's odd knowing that we are no longer in a position to impact the future of this university. This is the case even while we still care a great deal about our students and colleagues. I’m the chair of the search committee to find my replacement. It’s kind of surreal but I’m sure my replacement will further the internationalization of the College of Business and help our students be competitive in the global marketplace, which is the ultimate goal. I hope I’ve made a difference in my 14 years at Tarleton. I know Greg has made an enormous difference in his 27 years here. We’ll miss this community. We know this, and yet, it's time to move on.
So we’re making headway in the right direction! Please share our website and our blog with anyone who may be interested and we’ll give you updates as our plans progress further. These are exciting times!
If you would like to talk with me about planning your own European vacation, please contact me! Feel free to reach out via email — We’re always available to talk about travel!!
The road less traveled.....between Les Baux de Provence and St. Remy, France