Have you entered yet? You could win an incredible vacation to Orlando for the entire family! Detailed info here

The 7 night stay is generously being sponsored by Global Resort Homes. Global Resort Homes provides outstanding service for vacationing families in beautifully furnished homes in resort communities with numerous amenities.

Facebook/globalresorthomes          Twitter/GlobalResorts

 The Hot Air Balloon Ride is being sponsored by Orlando Balloon Adventures. Orlando Balloon Adventures will take you up near Disney and you’ll be able to appreciate Mother Nature in a very unique manner.

Facebook/orlandoballoonadventures        Twitter/orlandoballoons

Have you entered to win a vacation to Orlando yet? #OrlandoGiveaway is a post from: Family on Bikes. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive your free e-book: Bicycle Touring with Children; A Guide to Getting Started.

You might be a traveler if…

You might be a traveler if . . . picking Buddha's nose is a common occurrence

. . . you hear someone talking about “that little restaurant in Nairobi” and you recognize which one he’s talking about.

. . . you have adventure in your life every day.

. . . daily routine is something other people have.

. . . things like fried cockroaches, roast crocodile, or barbequed guinea pig are normal dinnertime fare.

. . . it doesn’t faze you when others speak a language you don’t understand.

. . . you can walk down the most mundane road in the world and appreciate the tiny details that make it beautiful.

You might be a traveler if . . . you trust your 7-year old daughter to captain a sailboat full of other travelers. (Thanks for the pic Jen Miner)

. . . diarrhea can be dinnertime conversation.

. . . the world is your teacher.

. . . you’re wearing a shirt from Guatemala and don’t realize it’s foreign.

. . . you can mention “the time I was in Rangoon” and nobody bats an eye.

. . . you forget that an afternoon siesta isn’t the norm.

. . . you have more pictures than you’ll be able to look at if you live to be 105.

. . . the Mile High Club isn’t just for “them”

You might be a traveler if . . . you find pink bear poop along the Yukon River and can't help photographing it (Thanks to Marilyn Terrell for this one!)

. . . your frequent flier points could fill an Olympic swimming pool.

. . . slip-on shoes are a must for ease of removal at airport security.

. . . you can count your wardrobe pieces on one hand.

. . . you forget your spouse doesn’t speak Spanish and start jabbering away.

. . . you’re not quite sure when the last time you washed your clothes was.

. . . it takes a lot to frighten you. Like, maybe, an elephant charging at close range.

You might be a traveler if . . . you ninja kick the Eiffel Tower in a typical day (photo courtesy of Ninja master Cole Burmester)

. . . being the new kid on the block is the expected state of affairs.

. . . being lost is more than a state of mind.

. . . you see absolutely nothing wrong with spending the day in a hammock knowing there are a boatload of “sights” awaiting outside your hostel.

. . . your toothpaste is from Vietnam, shampoo from New Zealand, and chapstick from Argentina.

. . . you know what a stupa is.

. . . running water is considered a luxury.

. . . your entire bookshelf is full of travel guides.

. . . walking through your house is like taking a stroll through a museum.

You might be a traveler if . . . you've been covered in Dead Sea mud (thanks to Uncornered Market for this pic)

. . . you forget that not everyone uses Ethiopian birr. Or, in fact, that not everyone even knows what it is.

. . . you’re overjoyed that your hostel provides real towels so you can leave your itsy-bitsy travel towel in your backpack.

. . . you wake up and can’t remember which country you’re in.

. . . stunning sunsets in exotic countries is an expected part of your life.

. . . the amount of money you spend doesn’t matter, it’s all about how you spend it.

. . . you’ve eaten Italian gelato in Italy and Ethiopian injera in Ethiopia.

. . . you never go anywhere without a wad of toilet paper in your pocket.

You might be a traveler if . . . you play hide and seek with your children in ancient temples

You might be a traveler if . . . you've ever turned an airport luggage carrier into a bed for your kid.

You might be a traveler if… is a post from: Family on Bikes. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive your free e-book: Bicycle Touring with Children; A Guide to Getting Started.

I’ve been working hard on creating some awesome resources for people wanting to dream big dreams, but it occurred to me that I might not be on the right track providing what YOU feel you need.

Could I ask you a favor?

Would you go to this link and fill out a quick, three-question survey telling me what kind of information you feel you want and need that I might be able to provide? It won’t take much of your time, but your feedback will be invaluable to me as I move forward with this process.

The first question is: What free product to help you dream big dreams would you LOVE for me to create?

I want to hear exactly what YOU want. And as a ‘thank you’ I’ll send you the product I’m creating for free. It’s that simple.

I would be ever so grateful if you would click here and fill out my short survey.

For folks interested in Dreaming Big Dreams – my free resource kit is a post from: Family on Bikes. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive your free e-book: Bicycle Touring with Children; A Guide to Getting Started.

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in a fantastic giveaway with 29 other bloggers! If you’ve read my Twenty Miles per Cookie book, you’ll know that we bribed one of our sons with a trip to Disney Land. Although he had forgotten about my promise by the time we got to southern California, we had a blast with Mickey anyway.

Now I’m thrilled that another lucky family will be able to experience the magic of Disney – at Disney World in Florida. One lucky winner will receive a Dream Vacation to Orlando, Florida for a family of four. How cool is that?

What’s included:

• 7 night stay in a four-bedroom (or larger) luxury pool vacation home from Global Resort Homes
• Family pack of tickets to Walt Disney World (2 Day Park Hopper – 2 adult, 2 child)
• Hot Air Balloon Ride for Family of 4 from Orlando Balloon Adventures

The fine print:

• Open to US and Canadian residents. Valid thru 12/31/12. Blackout dates apply.
• Travel costs getting to Orlando/Kissimmee are not included.

Simply fill out the form below to enter. The contest will end on 3/6 at 12am EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A big thank you to our sponsors Global Resort Homes and Orlando Balloon Adventures. Thanks as well to Surf and Sunshine and MidgetMomma for organizing this giveaway.

No compensation was received and any opinions or thoughts are 100% original.

Making Your Dreams Comes True – Orlando Vacation Giveaway #OrlandoGiveaway is a post from: Family on Bikes. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive your free e-book: Bicycle Touring with Children; A Guide to Getting Started.

John was sorting through his various assorted DVDs the other night and stumbled upon a DVD he made at some point in the past of a narrated slide show of our bike trip through Pakistan/India/Nepal/Bangladesh that we wrote about in What Were We Thinking? Bicycling the Back Roads of Asia. We have no idea when we recorded it, but it’s definitely my voice telling stories about the pictures!

We’ve decided to make the narrated slide show available for a limited time only. For three days only, if you buy a paper copy of What Were We Thinking? we’ll include the companion DVD  with hundreds of photos for free.

This offer only applies to copies of the book ordered from our website, not through Amazon. Order your copy of What Were We Thinking? and get a free companion DVD.

This promotion will expire at midnight, Wednesday February 22

Free narrated slide show DVD with purchase of What Were We Thinking? book is a post from: Family on Bikes. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive your free e-book: Bicycle Touring with Children; A Guide to Getting Started.

Building a dream is a lot like building a robot.

My sons are involved in a FIRST Robotics team and are trying to build a robot. I say trying because, truth be told, six weeks ago they didn’t have the foggiest idea how to even begin. Six weeks ago, if you had told Davy and Daryl they needed to build a robot, they would have looked at you with that look that only teenage boys can give. Then they would have shaken their heads and walked away.

Take a look at this video – this is what they watched for the very first time on January 7 when this year’s challenge was issued.

Yet now, six weeks later, if you gave them that exact same challenge, they would be off and running. They wouldn’t know what to do, but they would know how to find out – and they know it’s all about taking it one step at a time and seeing where that leads.

It’s also about falling down and getting back up. Over and over and over again.

I had to laugh at the beginning of this process. As I drove my boys home after a build session I would ask them what they worked on that evening. “I don’t know what it’ll be,” they inevitably told me. “It’s a little case that will sit on the chasse.”

Now, a mere six weeks later, I ask them the same question and get answers like,

• “I built a prototype of the belt system we’ll use to move the ball from the gym floor to the shooter.”
• “I was building a camera mount for a camera that will look at retro-reflective tape on the basket to determine the speed and angle we’ll need to shoot.”
• “I helped design the octocanum system for our drive train.”

This robot of theirs needs to be bagged up Tuesday night and they won’t see it again until competition in Salt Lake City. They’ve got a grand total of 60 hours from now to get this thing running and learn how to drive it.

And then last night, the motor casing broke and will need to be rebuilt with stronger materials.

Unlike adults, my sons have been calm and confident through this whole process. They never reached the point where panic set in and they looked ahead at all the steps that needed to happen and realized there was no way to get there from here. They didn’t second guess themselves or doubt their (and their mentors’) capabilities. They just forged ahead and took it all one step at a time.

And each step led to the next.

A week before they received this years’ challenge, the team watched this video.

If the whole world was populated with kindergartners, think of what we could accomplish!

Lessons about building a dream learned by building a robot

1. Know what your big goal is, but…
2. You don’t have to know how to get there when you start
3. Forge ahead and build many prototypes until you find one that works
4. Know that each step will lead you to the next
5. Find a mentor. It’s easier if you aren’t standing all alone
6. There will be roadblocks and obstacles. Know you’re capable of finding a way around when they happen
7. Panic doesn’t help

What other advice can you give to someone wanting to build a dream?

Building a dream is a lot like building a robot is a post from: Family on Bikes. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive your free e-book: Bicycle Touring with Children; A Guide to Getting Started.

It’s coming! It’s coming! I’ve got a new free e-book coming out soon!

If you are wanting to pursue your passion, but fear is holding you back, this booklet is for you. I’ve identified the top twelve fears holding people back and gathered them together in this book.

Next week I’ll be releasing my book, as well as a few other goodies to help you plan your approach to living your dream. If you are interested, please enter your email here. If you’re on this list, you’ll get the whole packet next week.

Conquer Your Fears So You Can Conquer the World is a post from: Family on Bikes. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive your free e-book: Bicycle Touring with Children; A Guide to Getting Started.

Families travel for so many reasons. Many of us simply want the thrill and excitement that comes from being in new places. Others are searching for something else.

One family, who calls themselves The Three Dreamers, are heading to Peru seeking healing, a creative outlet, and a healthier lifestyle. Here’s Molly to explain all about it.

My name is Molly, I’m 19 years old, and this coming March my mom, Natalia, and my 7-year old brother, Nicholas are taking a giant leap towards a new life. We are leaving our current home in Brooklyn, NY and heading for new frontiers in Peru.

We are packing up and getting rid of our garbage to start a new life in Cusco, Peru (not too far away from Machu Picchu).

Why are we going to Peru?

This month Nicholas is finishing up his Leukemia treatment and for a while, we knew that we needed to do something big and start over. Nicholas is seven years old now and is a bright, energetic boy.

We’ve wanted a different surrounding for a while now in order to heal ourselves as a family, mentally and physically. We decided on Peru because of the art, the skills, the culture, the history, and the food of this mystical land and country. The pushing drive to go to Peru was because of our backgrounds in art and design.

Natalia, my mom, is an extraordinary fashion designer and me (Molly), I’m a fine artist. In Peru, we’ll have access to amazing, handcrafted fabric and the needed tools to make art will be affordable.

The other top reason we decided on Peru (this is a major reason) was for health! We are going to restore ourselves and Nicholas back to perfect health! Peru holds a massive quantity of fresh, un-processed fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Amongst the fresh foods that are readily available in the Peruvian markets are superfoods.

Superfoods are truly nature’s gift to the world and humans. Some superfoods that you can find in Peru are cacao (unprocessed chocolate), maca, yacon, Incan berries, and much more. With these tools available at an affordable price, we have our minds set on living a totally healthy lifestyle. Who knows? We’re even thinking of meeting up with some Shamans!

We plan to live in Peru for a year. During our time there, we plan to experience a new culture, have fun, learn Spanish, work on our art and design, travel around the surrounding areas and give Nicholas a fantastic education abroad, where he will most likely go to a local Peruvian school.

After the one year is finished, we don’t think we’ll be returning to America. We might stay in Peru or we might travel and live in another country.

You can follow their journey at www.threedreamers.com

A family heads to Peru to heal mentally and physically is a post from: Family on Bikes. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive your free e-book: Bicycle Touring with Children; A Guide to Getting Started.

Do not attempt to travel to a place where there isn’t kid-friendly food. This seemingly small detail is essential for a successful holiday with young children. French fries, nuggets, pizza and the like will save your holiday.

Children learn to appreciate foreign foods by eating them

If you’re like me, your jaw is hanging down around the floor right about now. Surely, this outrageously bad family travel advice isn’t for real. I mean – nobody would seriously suggest that Micky D’s is an essential detail for successful travel for kids. Right?

Wrong.

Not only did somebody suggest it, but CNN did. I’m typical fairly impressed with CNN’s travel advice, but they blew it big time here.

I’m not even sure how to respond to this absurdity. To suggest that kids aren’t capable of finding food in all parts of the world is sheer craziness. I mean – there are kids living wherever you’ll travel to, right? What will those kids eat? Surely your children won’t starve to death because there is no McDonald’s around.

I would even go so far as to suggest you should travel to a place specifically because there is no McDonald’s.

Kids learn to love what they grow up with

Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with McDonald’s. I’m not one of those people who feel American fast food needs to stay in America. If I enjoy Mexican and Japanese fast food in America, I see no reason why Mexicans and Japanese can’t enjoy American fast food in their own countries.

But to suggest that my child will be miserable unless he can eat French fries and chicken McNuggets is ludicrous.

According to the article, “Unless your kid has an abnormally educated palate, [you should] hold off on that culinary tour of India.”

Wrong. Plain ol’ flat out wrong.

Take your child on that culinary tour in order to develop an abnormally educated palate. How else will he cultivate it?

As I see it, the last thing I want is a child who will only eat “some fried, fast food or at the very least, a bowl of mac and cheese.”

*******
Please chime in with your thoughts in the comments. Feel free to respond to the entire article; don’t confine yourself to just the food issue as I did. I am seriously blown away by this ghastly advice.

I’m not the only family travel blogger who was appalled by this bad advice. In fact, a whole bunch of us decided to write about our concerns. Here are their posts:

A King’s Life: The Surprisingly Easy Truth of Traveling with Kids by Sabina from A King’s Life

The “Secret” to Traveling with Children by Susan W from Family Travel Bucket List

Worst Family Travel Advice I’ve Ever Read  by Gabi Klaf from The Nomadic Family

Debunking CNN’s rules for traveling with kids by Mary from Bohemian Travelers

How Do you Travel with Chilldren? by Alisa from Living Outside of the Box

5 Rules of Travel With Kids: A Traveling Child Responds by Jennifer Miller from Edventure Project

CNN’s Ridiculous Rules About Travel With Kids by Corinne from Have Baby Will Travel

Shocking Tips on Traveling with Kids That Went Unnoticed…It is Time to Demystify The Five Rules of Traveling with Kids by Claudia Looi from Travel Writing Pro

5 Amazing Reasons To Travel With Your Kids! by Marina Villatorio from Expat Mom

More Than French Fries by Lisa Shusterman from Around the World in Easy Ways

Rules are What You Make Them: Paving Your Own Way Through Family Travel by Jessica from Suitcases and Sippy Cups

Why “Easy” Travel Options Aren’t Always the Best for Kids- a Rebuttal to CNNGo “5 Rules of Traveling With Kids” by Jody Halsted from Family Rambling

CNNGo Five Rules of Travelling With Kids Are You For Real by Lisa Wood from New Life on the Road

Myths, NOT rules, of traveling with kids by Kate Rehkopf from Experiential Family

My Reality (Not Rules) When Traveling with Kids by Keryn Means from Walkingon Travels

Yes ! It is possible to travel with children of all ages by Susan from Grow in Grace Life

Forget the Rules of Travel – Try Backpacking with Kids in Yellowstone National Park by Sandra Foyt from Albany Kid

5 Rules of Traveling with kids NOT to Follow by Monique from Mo Travels

French fries and chicken nuggets are travel essentials: The world’s worst family travel advice ever is a post from: Family on Bikes. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive your free e-book: Bicycle Touring with Children; A Guide to Getting Started.

[Note #1] I’m thinking about giving away a free product for you – if you’re potentially interested in some type of support/coaching/help toward living the life of YOUR dreams. Before I invest the time and energy into creating it, I want to make sure there are enough people interested. More details near the bottom of this article.]

[Note #2] This post is a FOLLOW UP TO THIS POST which received an enormous number of comments from people all over the world.]

I’ve read and reread your comments on this post and have been blown away by the wisdom you all have. This comment from my friend Alice Richard sums up what I’ve taken away from it all:

Nancy, what would you say to your boys? If you have a desire or dream don’t hold back; take it. You will never know if you don’t try. The same applies to you. You will never know unless you try. Why hold back?

I’m thinking I’ll forge ahead and see where this goes. As Alice pointed out, there is no doubt that’s exactly what I would expect my sons to do.

The story of how I came to be straddled on my bike looking south at the longest road in the world

As romantic as it sounds to fly to the northern edge of the world with children and plans to cycle as far south as is possible, it didn’t happen quite that easily.

There were a whole lot of years where I learned hard lessons about how to do that and, more importantly, how NOT to do that.

I was at the tender age of sixteen when I faced my first potentially life-threatening situation in the wilderness and had to dig deep to find the courage and wherewithal to get not only me, but three of my siblings out of the mountains safely. As my older sister and I carefully talked through all possibilities and options and our younger brother and sister blindly trusted in our capabilities, I fended off panic and cautiously put one foot in front of the other until somehow, miraculously, we arrived back home.

As I look back upon it now, with many years to see how the pieces have fallen into place, I realize that that experience, that near disaster, laid the groundwork for many of my future adventures.  If I had survived that one, surely I could safely navigate others.

During college, I took advantage of weekends to climb around on Mount Rainier or explore the rugged coastline of Washington state. When I transferred to a university in Colorado, my adventurous spirit took me into the Colorado Rockies and canoeing down the Platte River in a blizzard.

Each time something went right OR wrong, I added another piece to the puzzle; another tidbit of knowledge and wisdom that I could draw on at some point farther down the road.

International travel became my passion in 1984 when I left behind the life I had known and starting working in Honduras as a Peace Corps Volunteer. During the next few years I learned that Honduran people weren’t all that different from me. They all had the same basic needs I did, and had their own dreams and aspirations.

It sounds funny to me now, but back then I truly believed that “other” people were somehow different from me in many fundamental ways.

When I left the Peace Corps, they handed me a bunch of money designed to help me get my feet on the ground when I got back to the USA. I took the money and spent seven months backpacking around South America instead.

Penniless, I arrived in my home country and set about looking for a job on an Indian reservation – my experiences in South America had piqued my interest in Native Americans. A week later I headed to Arizona to start a new job teaching on the Navajo reservation.

I learned then that things work out. Many people had told me the ‘responsible’ thing to do was go back to the USA right away and not waste that money. In the end, I made the right decision for me.

From that point on, my life was filled with various adventures, each one teaching me its own lessons and taking me one step closer to Prudhoe Bay. I spent a summer biking from Norfolk, Virginia to New Orleans; another summer visiting my brother who worked in a refugee camp in Malawi. John and I took off in 1990 to spend a year cycling around Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

It was 1993 when John and I took off for Egypt to spend the next twelve years living the expat life in Egypt, Ethiopia, Taiwan, and Malaysia. During those years we figured out how to navigate foreign countries (in more ways than just the driving sense!) and gained a deep seated respect for foreign cultures.

We dealt with our share of medical emergencies, which showed us that life doesn’t end the moment we leave our own country. I injured my back and broke my hand in Egypt; John’s heart went into arrhythmia in Ethiopia and he had to be evacuated out to Israel. Daryl broke his arm AND had pneumonia in Malaysia. I came down with pneumonia in Argentina. We found medical care to be both great and affordable in most places of the world.

Our sons were born during our fifth year abroad and we turned into an expat family. Hauling our kids all around the globe became a part of our life and we adapted quickly to the changes. It wasn’t long before we discovered that traveling with kids was even more fun; more rewarding than travel on our own.

On a beautiful spring day in March 2006 my husband came home from work and suggested quitting our jobs and heading out with our children for a year-long bike tour.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

We spent the boys’ third grade year exploring the USA and Mexico from the vantage point of our bicycle seats, then went on to spend the boys 5th, 6th, and 7th grade years cycling from Alaska to Argentina.

In each step of my journey, each phase of my life, I’ve learned various lessons that helped me push on to the next chapter.

And how I would have liked to have a shoulder to lean on, a mentor to hold my hand and tell me everything would be all right! I wrote in the book I’m writing now, “We were drawing blanks as far as examples to lean on. We would have to be our own example.”

When I first set out on this journey so long ago, I never expected to be interviewed on Good Morning America or CNN, be featured in Parade Magazine or the Guardian in the UK. I never expected that people would write to me telling me I’ve inspired them to live their own dreams. I never expected to be a source of inspiration or information for others trying to walk the path I’ve walked.

The time has come for some support for those wanting to march to a different drummer than what’s expected.

I’m seriously considering making a free Dream Resource Kit for those who are walking toward the goal of living the life of your dreams.

The Dream Resource Kit will include:

• A timeline checklist of things to think about as you plan
• An ebook about conquering your fears so you can conquer the world
• Maybe something else, depending on what people feel would help them

Here’s what I need you to do

I’m making a list of everyone maybe, possibly sorta interested in some type of coaching/support program to help families launch.

If you might be interested, please enter your email address below. If there is enough interest in this, I’ll get it together and send it to everyone on the list.

It would also help if you left a comment with your ideas on this blog entry. That will help direct my efforts to make sure that what I spend my time producing is what you want and will meet your needs.

If it turns out that people aren’t interested in this kit, then that’s fine too.

Walk boldly forward!
Nancy

The making of an adventure mom: A look back at 28 years of marching to a different beat is a post from: Family on Bikes. Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive your free e-book: Bicycle Touring with Children; A Guide to Getting Started.