I’ve set a goal for myself to do at least one new thing a day the entire time I’m here. The magnitude of the new thing has no rules, so it could be something as simple as ordering a small Diet Coke instead of one the size of my head – it’s the act of something new, not the quality. That being said, I’ve done a great number of things in the week I’ve been here, and even learned a few Life Lessons along the way:

• It’s okay to be lonely. Truthfully, my first few days here were kind of rough – I was seriously doubting my ability to be on my own/away from home for 25 days. Even now, when I’m thoroughly enjoying myself and am in full-on vacation mode, I get a little lonely when I see couples or groups of friends being all togethery. Pretty sure that’s less a personal failing and more a sign of my humanity (which is good because frankly I was getting a little worried).
• Don’t take pictures of a fox in a cemetery, or an old lady ghost will yell at you
• When you’re standing at the end of a tube car to get some air, it is pretty fucking terrifying when the door that separates the two cars decides to open and swing past you mid-station
• 5am is terribly early, no matter the time zone
• Egg holders make decent ice cube trays in a pinch
• European laundry is hilarious. I get the whole “energy efficient” thing and being green is cool but it literally takes 210 minutes for one wash cycle, and another day to air-dry things.

I had more Important Life Lessons to share, but I have to catch a bus to Stonehenge so they will have to wait. I need to do laundry later, so I should be able to write a novel in the time it takes my delicates to be thoroughly cleansed of all my sins.

Slightly westward ho!

• There are SO MANY SHEEP
• The UK doesn’t use a dollar; everything is in pounds. It only makes sense, then, that all dollar stores are pound stores – which makes everything HILARIOUS. Poundland! Poundworld! Poundorama! Heeeeeheheheeh
• I need more tassels and a cigarette if I want to pass as a local
• My feet hurt
• My inability to determine my left from right is really fucking with me
• Primark is the devil (who sells excellent socks)
• I am not eating nearly enough for the amount of walking I’m doing
• Never stop to calculate the exchange. You will be much happier living in blissful ignorance.

It took a couple of days, but I think I’m finally back on track. My sleep brain wouldn’t get out of nap mode, so I couldn’t sleep for more than 3-4 hours at a time. That is not enough sleep unless it is Tuesday at 7pm, and while I have no idea what day it is anymore, I am fairly certain is not that. Last night I managed to sleep for a very very long time with only a brief period of consciousness in the middle, so I’m hoping that managed to reset things. Regardless, today is Take it Easy Day – I slept in, I’m doing some laundry, I’ve eaten some damn luxurious yogurt, and I will likely head out to wander London in the early evening.

Not having any kind of agenda is kind of liberating, as well as slightly anxiety-inducing. I keep forgetting that I have a very long time here, and I don’t need to do everything all at once – I can return to places if I wish, and I don’t need to buy all the things immediately. Still, it’s my natural inclination to feel guilt when I am not doing All the Things, which leads to overdoing (like yesterday, when I was unintentionally out until 11pm and wondering why I felt so bloody awful when I hadn’t eaten for like 7 hours of walking).

I have not yet been down to the waterfront, which is why there haven’t been approximately 1000 photos of Large Benjamin and his assorted stately pals. This could also be why it doesn’t *really* feel like I’m in London yet – I haven’t been by any of the iconic London things. Soon, though. Perhaps even tonight. This luxurious yogurt is making me want to explore.

shoreditch chaos

I’ve discovered that an important part of traveling long distances is having an adult with me so they can handle all the complicated things everything. I do not function well when I am tired and I cannot sleep if I am not comfortable, so sleeping on the plane is out of the question. This ends up in an exhausted Kimli trying to make logical brain statements to border guards, and them not really believing her because she sounds really stupid. That might work in my favour, though – clearly I am too stupid to be trying to pull wool over eyes.

There were a bazillion people at the border, and it was very very warm. I was sweaty and plane gross by the time I made it up to the booth, where I encountered a guard who was highly suspicious of me. There were a lot of questions, and I could see him trying to find holes in my story (which was less a story than the literal truth):

• He didn’t believe that I was here just to do “touristy things”, saying “Didn’t you do enough ‘touristy things’ during your last trip here?” Dude, there is a famous quote that says “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life” – which is basically my reason for being here. Yes, I am going to do “touristy things”. You live in a neat place, you see.
• There were a lot of questions about where I’m staying. One of my coworkers has family in London, and they own a row house with several units in it, two of which do not have tenants. He and his dad were generous enough to let me stay here for a ridiculous price, for which I am super grateful. The border guard thought that was weird – weird enough to ask me if we were “more than friends”, because apparently in his world people aren’t awesome. That makes me sad. :(
• Then came the questions about what I do for a living. I have these questions myself, so it was difficult to get my point across on no sleep. “I’m a tech writer. I manage things, like servers and apps. Sometimes I edit words, and JIRA is involved somehow, and I copywrite and audit things.” Basically, I’m a tech writer who doesn’t tech write very often but still has the title because it’s better than “no one is really sure but she’s pretty vital”.
• I forgot how to spell the company’s name.
• He asked to see my return ticket home. I opened the Expedia app which showed that I have a whole bunch of upcoming trips that go to and from Vancouver, which should have been a good sign that I am leaving when I say I am. He scowled at the app, so I brought up the receipt for my ticket which had my itinerary. It took a while to find, because I purchased the ticket in May. This was also cause for confusion – my god, has he never encountered anyone who plans the shit out of their trips months in advance?! I should have shown him all the lists I have of things I want to do and places I want to go. It’d have blown his mind.
• There was a conversation about how I get paid – which currency, and which bank. This may have been the final piece of information that allowed me into the country, because no one who earns Canadian dollars can afford to start a new life abroad.

Marginally satisfied that I was not planning to stay in the UK forever having illicit affairs with my coworker and/or take anyone’s job, I was allowed in.

I eventually made it to the flat, got all wi-fi’d, UK SIM’d up, and collapsed in a heap. I’m presently listening to 17 clocks and some rain, wondering if I could stomach the tomato juice I didn’t drink on the plane, and wishing that Pret delivered. Today I am going to explore the neighbourhood, get some groceries so I don’t have to have corn nuts at 4am, and settle into my temporary European life. I am a happy Kimli.

In the grand scheme of things, none of the incidents to date are all that bad. In fact, the biggest annoyance about the whole flight so far is that the media on this jet is different than the last. While they were doing pre-takeoff plane things, I watched the first quarter of Inside Out. The plan was to finish that, then re-watch Pitch Perfect 2, and when I inevitably failed to sleep, give in and watch Mad Max: Maximum Mad. Unfortunately, they discovered the plane had a leak that couldn’t be fixed, so everyone had to disembark and re-wait while they prepped a new, non-leaky plane that also happened to have an outdated media list.

I was somewhat annoyed that I couldn’t finish watching Inside Out (or access an Internet to read a spoiler), but I did get to watch Big Hero 6 and Avengers: Age of James Spader. I had missed seeing them when they were in theatres (I am almost as bad at movies as I am at TV), so I was glad to see them in mighty Seat Back Vision. Still can’t sleep, though. Maybe I’ll watch Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.

Next up: the border crossing guard who didn’t believe I’m here solely because I like London, allegations of naughty business, and glorious sleep.

I leave in 5 hours. EXCITE!

This’ll be my first trip to the UK wearing pants. After six 9+ hour flights, I finally realized that it’s good to be comfortable on the plane and that generally means not worrying about your various lady parts falling out of whatever ridiculous getup you decided to wear to fly. I’m wearing jeans on the plane, then crumpling them up in the bottom of my bag for the remainder of my trip because I did not pack any shirts. The pants won’t be worn again unless a) I want to be arrested for indecent exposure, b) hypothermia sets in and Mountain Madness takes over, or c) 1996 calls and says “you should totally wear those jeans under a dress, it’ll look great”. My money’s on c).

I tried really hard this time ’round to pack only necessities. I didn’t go overboard when packing clothing, and almost everything I brought can be worn with each other. My one space splurge (not to be confused with a splurge in space, which will likely happen Sunday) was bringing two pairs of boots, because sometimes you want black boots but many other times you want burgundy boots and it’s best to be prepared for both situations.

That being said, I am a creature of ridiculous habits. The following things are in my suitcase that, were I to be honest with myself, could *probably* be left behind:

• Several of the 9 or so iPhone charging cables I’ve brought
• Nobody really needs that much lip gloss
• The push-up bra that takes up half the space in my underpants bag
• There’s a handful of Lego minifigs in my backpack, because I am an excellent adult
• Sex wipes. Why are these in my bag? Why didn’t I take them out? I’m not going to America (where they are good at the sex) and have no plans whatsoever to hump anyone on this trip. Still, I better hang onto them. Just in case. You Never Know <tm Mom>.

.. that’s actually about it. I packed very wisely, and have room leftover for whatever I may purchase while gone. I even have room for a cape, but I will not bring it (even though I can think of at least a dozen reasons I might need a cape in London).

This time tomorrow I will be in the future! See you from there!

Hey Ed, I love you and stuff. You are still my best friend – in fact, you get bester every year – and I think you are super rad. I can’t wait to see where the future takes us, and there’s no one I’d rather experience it with.

Not even Optimus Prime (so you KNOW I’m serious).

look how fancy we are

Happy anniversary, Ed.

return of the quake cake

My excitement and trepidation are nearing unbearable levels. I am mentally and physically ready for a vacation (I forgot my laptop at home two days in a row last week), and although I will desperately miss Ed and the cats (this will be the most time we’ve been apart – I think the longest to date has been 6 days), I’m looking forward to this time of quiet reflection all the goddamn adventure I can cram into 25 days.

I have a big list of things I want to do, but beyond the list I’m looking forward to:

• ADVENTURE!!
• Being on my own schedule. If I wanna sleep in, I can. If I wanna spend 3 hours in the V&A garden, I can. If I wanna go to a spooky-ass cemetery and walk amongst the dead, I can (and totally will).
• No helmet hair for almost a month.  I love my scooter, but goddamn I’ve had some wicked helmet hair recently.
• Eating all my meals at M&S
• M&S in general
• Pretending I’m a wealthy lady of leisure; an International Kimli of Mystery
• Angry shoulder dancing
• Asking for a large Diet Coke and getting a North American medium
• Finding out the deal with Stonehenge
• Pret.
• Sharing my adventures both here and on Instagram #shamelessplug #unitedkimdom

Just .. all of it, really. I’m even looking forward to the 9+ hour flight, which is a sure sign of ocean madness (aka “Aqua Dementia”, the deep down crazies, the wet willies, the Great Moist). I’m hoping this trip will kickstart my heart my desire to write again, but even if it doesn’t, I won’t be beating myself up over it. No agenda. Just good times.

I am grateful for this extremely lazy caturday, but I can’t help but wish Sony picked any other time to do maintenance on their servers – I have to get enough underpants video game time to last me for a whole month.

LET’S DO THIS

I miss my family.

But that’s not true. I miss the family I never had – I miss the fantasy of family; the happily dysfunctional group of people who have wacky misunderstandings and arguments, but at the end of the day are a loving unit again over a laugh track and credits. The mom slash best friend you can tell anything. The dad who would drop everything to help you, cracking dad jokes the whole time. Siblings who torment each other, but are supportive when no one is looking. The big silly dog, because there’s always a dog. Extended family members who make guest appearances and resolve problems within a 22-minute window (24 minutes, if it’s sweeps week).

On September 18th, it’ll be 10 years since my dad died. I miss him. Today, however, I miss his side of the family even more. I have a half brother and half sister I haven’t seen or talked to in ten years – literally, because after dad died, my mother and I were dropped like uninvited potatoes. They resented my mother for stuff they didn’t understand, I never really fit in with my family when dad was still alive, and we’re all the way over here on the west coast. It’s just easier this way. I know that, because 99% of the time I feel the same way: family is complicated and annoying and I am selfish with my time. No one asks me to babysit or go to boring dinners or buy presents for kids I don’t know. My life is super sweet, really. I wouldn’t change it for anything.

.. but every once in a while, the enormity of what I’m missing and the realization of how broken I really am comes crashing in on me like a wave, and I am devastated at my lack. Today is that day, apparently. I know what triggered it, I know exactly why I feel like I do, I know my exclusion in their lives is as much my fault for not trying as it is theirs for shutting the door. What I don’t know is how – if at all possible, if I’ll even want to when this passes – to fix it.

All this being said, I slept two nights in a row without getting up to vomit. So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.

BRING ON THE FALL!

I’ve never pumpkin spiced anything, but man oh man do I love fall.

As of this writing, I am officially 12 days away from my trip, which is both forever and not nearly enough time. I finally caved to the siren song of packing, and I’ve been 98% ready to go since Monday. All that remains to be packed are things I am currently using: medication, moisturizer, makeup, money, macbook, mariachi band, marsupials, mayonnaise, Monk. Every other letter of the alphabet is all packed up neatly in my suitcase, and I am ready to go.

I’ve got the pre-travel willies, though – the kind where I envision all sorts of terrible things happening and/or get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff I want to do. When this happens, I start to have second thoughts about traveling: sure, I COULD go to Europe and have Adventures and whisper secrets into foreign winds and the like, but I could also sit at home on my couch and watch reruns of Bob’s Burgers. While the latter is always tempting, I know the former is going to be amazing. At least, I hope. It’s my first solo trip, after all. I can’t even imagine the sort of ridiculous trouble I could find myself in because Kimli.

Excited. And sure hoping my cough-barf-at-3am goes away before I leave.

“Yes, just give her my email address exactly as I’ve told you. You have to spell it exactly like that, or it won’t work.”

“Okay, what is it?”

“kimli at deeay dot com” (note: this is the shortest “email number” I’ve got)

“k .. i .. m .. ad?”

“No, it’s Kimli – k-i-m-l-i AT, a-t”

“Okay, k-i-m-l-i at ..”

“deeay dot com. That’s d-e-e-a-y ..”

“d .. e .. a ..”

“No, two Es – d-e-e-a-y”

“d .. e .. e .. a .. y ..”

“Dot com”

“d .. o .. t ..”

“No, just a dot. Like a period.”

“dot .. con. c-o-n?”

“No, mom. dot c-o-m.”

“Okay, it’s kim dot d com?”

“No, mom. Let’s start again.”

Eventually she was able to repeat it back to me somewhat properly. I am not expecting her cousin to ever actually email me.

Also, at this point, I think my mother might be a Master Troll and has been playing me all along.

You can also access the full reportage here

Culture @ the Olympics editor, Dr Beatriz Garcia is in Brazil during the first week in August 2015 to meet with key figures behind Rio’s 2016 Olympic Games preparations, as part of my assessment of the event’s cultural legacy.

With one year to go until the opening ceremony, she is meeting with Carla Camurati, Director of the Rio 2016 Cultural Olympiad; the Secretary of State for Culture, as well as representatives from the Olympic and Paralympic Organising Committee and cultural organisations from the country’s two major cities; Rio and Sao Paolo.

Cultural Olympiad

Dr Garcia said: “Rio is the first summer Olympics host since Barcelona in 1992 that is not presenting a four year cultural programme in the lead up to its Games. Instead, Rio will focus its cultural activity during the Olympic year in 2016. This has some important implications regarding the scale and potential legacy derived from its Cultural Olympiad.

“During the first week of August, the city is celebrating its ‘one-year-to-go’ to the Games Opening Ceremony and launching its official cultural narrative. I will be attending key city events, including a high profile Olympic Games plan press launch attended by the Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, the President of the Rio 2016 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, and the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach

“This trip will allow me to understand where Rio is at with its Games cultural programming and narrative development so that I can reflect on their likely impact and legacy. It will also be key to focus my priority observations and interviews during Games time next year.”

This work builds on the research conducted at nine previous Olympic host cities, as reported via Culture @ the Olympics. Beatriz has secured journalistic accreditation for Rio 2016, giving her access to all official Olympic venues, events and key spokespeople.

Dr Garcia said: “From a cultural perspective, the key is to strike the right balance between the need to reach out to a worldwide audience during Games time and the need to respond to the expectations of diverse local communities, particularly those based throughout the city’s favelas.

“If the Games are to provide a platform for sustainable cultural legacies, these communities cannot be treated in a tokenistic way. They need to be central to the story and be given the chance to have a voice, share their cultural narrative and communicate the ways in which they also contribute to Rio’s identity.”

In about ten days I’ll be jumping in the vehicle with my girlfriend and driving across North America, yet again. We moved out to Ontario last year from the British Columbia-area to spend a year in Hamilton, and were forced to do the drive in four days due to commitments that were waiting for us. Thankfully we are going to do the drive back in about nine days, which should be a lot more enjoyable.

This is actually my fourth time moving across the country, and I’ve done this song and dance enough times that I thought I would give some advice on the subject.

First, moving across the country doesn’t really have to be much more stressful than moving across town, but that really depends on how much money you are willing to spend on the move. If you hire professional movers, they will typically charge you based on the weight you are moving. If you have a truck or some kind of vehicle you can tow with, you might be able to save some money by renting a trailing and moving that way. But if you’re like me and are forced to call movers, it’s best to call a few companies and get some different quotes.

Moving Company Gotchas

The first time I moved to Ottawa, the company I was working for picked up the tab. As a result, they hired a really professional company that made everything really painless, and my items arrived exactly on time.

For my previous move though, I had a storage locker out in British Columbia, and ended up getting a quotation to move the contents of the locker out to Ontario for about $1200. Since I was paying $100/month anyways, I figured spending $1200 to move everything to Ontario was a good deal, since I would have access to all my stuff and no longer need the storage locker. Financially it was a wash, but at least I could sort all my stuff, sell the items I no longer needed, and make use of the ones I still wanted to use.

I made a mistake though and only focused on the cheap companies. I know full well that you get what you pay for, but since I wasn’t really worried about any delays or needing any items urgently, I thought I would simply focus on cost. In retrospect though that was a mistake, and the company I chose ended up not being very professional. So while cost is always a concern, make sure you weight the pros and cons carefully. In any business, you can generally have only two of these three qualities: fast, cheap or good. If you want fast and good, it’s generally expensive. If you want fast and cheap, it’s likely not very good. In my case, I only got cheap, which wasn’t a good deal at all.

The second thing you have to watch is to make sure that the company will use government weigh scales, and also give you a copy of the weigh ticket. This process was a bit foreign to me, but the way it works is that most companies can only give you estimates based on what you own. Once your items arrive near your destination and you schedule a time for your belongings to be delivered, the moving company will generally unload the big truck or container into a smaller truck, and then take that to the weigh station. They are supposed to weigh it twice at this stage: once when the truck is empty, and once when it’s full, which together gives you the weight of your contents.

Unfortunately a lot of companies will simply assume the gross vehicle weight (typically written on a little metal plate inside the door) is the actual unloaded weight of the vehicle, which may or may not be true depending on any additions to the vehicle or how much gas is in the tank. But basically you won’t know how much your stuff weighs, and subsequently how much your move costs, until generally a day or two before your belongings arrive.

This causes a lot of headaches for moving companies, since many people underestimate how much their belongings weigh and are really surprised when the cost of their move nearly doubles from the estimate. That’s why it’s important to have someone from the moving company come take a look, and also confirm the nature of the weighing, before signing a contract.

Lastly, the company you are using should be able to give you a pretty clear idea of when your items will arrive. Don’t accept “well, it should be about 10 days”. Get them to state a firm date, or at least a firm window, and place it in the contract. If they can’t give you a firm window, I would walk away, since that means they likely are hiring a third party to move your items and will lose visibility on your belongings until they arrives at the destination.

In my previous move, it took about 45 days for my items to arrive, even though I was promised them in about 10 days. I didn’t really need those items for anything, so I could handle the wait, but if they were my primary furnishings it would have been a disaster. There aren’t many things as unnerving about shipping your personal belongings across the country and not knowing when or where they are, or when they will arrive.

When Not To Use A Moving Company

Using a moving company to ship across the country doesn’t really make sense unless you are shipping over 1,500 lbs or so. That’s typically the contents of a 1-2 bedroom apartment, generally without any heavy appliances. In terms of boxes, that’s probably about 30-40 small boxes, which isn’t a lot. Anything less and you’ll start seeing extra fees tacked on for having low weights, as well as excessive cost per pound (often $1/lb or more, depending on where you are shipping). In addition, there are other costs buried in the fees such as an 11% fuel surcharge that gets added on, and often “destination” and “origin” fees, whatever those are. For example, I received one quote that quoted a price of $0.92/lb for an estimate of 2,000 lbs. But once you tacked on all the fees, the total price, including taxes, was $2,354.52. If you do the math, that works out to about $1.17/lb, roughly a 28% increase over the quoted per pound price (which is what most companies quote you). So be careful when reading estimates.

In our case, we were looking at about $2,500 to ship a one bedroom apartment’s worth of items, which is pretty hefty. Our solution was to just sell the majority of our furniture, and ship the rest via Canada Post. While Canada Post may not seem like a very affordable option, by using small packing boxes and filling them with about 40 lbs in each one, I was able to get the cost per pound, including taxes, down to about 80 cents from the Toronto area to the Vancouver area, which is actually 30% cheaper than the quotes I received.

The hardest item to ship so far has been my bicycle. Strangely enough, while I’m not normally attached to furniture or most items at home, I really like my bicycle and wanted to keep it. The only option I found to get it back to the west coast in an affordable way (other than driving it across myself, an option I wanted to avoid since we’ll be sightseeing as well during our trip and I didn’t want it to get stolen) was to ship it via FedEx. I tried Canada Post, but it’s simply too large of an item for them to ship. I managed to get a bike box from the bike store where I bought it and dismantled the bike into the box, which wasn’t exactly easy but not terribly hard either. FedEx charged me about $100 for the journey, which is a bit steep compared to everything else I’ve shipped, but still worth it for me considering I like it and it is worth $600.

I have to say, it’s a bit weird seeing the contents of your apartment travel across the country one-by-one, but also pretty cool to watch. Hopefully all our packages will be waiting for us when we arrive in British Columbia at the beginning of July. I’ll do another post shortly talking about our trip and some of the sights we want to see along the way.

The post Moving Across The Country appeared first on The Migratory Nerd.

As people may remember, Luciana and I moved out to Hamilton, Ontario last year to spend a year working in the new office. It’s been a great experience, and it will be hard to say goodbye to everyone we’ve spent time with over the last year, but the plan was always just to spend a year out here, and that’s coming to a close. I lived in Ontario for two years when I was younger, and decided then that the west coast was where I wanted to end up, at least eventually. In addition, Luciana has a job waiting for her in Vancouver, something she’s excited about.

I’ve actually been struggling a little bit with figuring out what to do when we get to BC. I’ve been passively watching real estate in Canada for 10 years, waiting for an opportunity to buy a place. Part of the appeal is just having somewhere permanent to hang a hat. But there’s also the financial part of it as well: I’ve been renting for years, and while comparing renting to buying is never an easy comparison, it’s pretty hard to ignore the fact that many of my friends’ net worth has gone up by $200,000+ in that period due to a combination of the principal in their houses and the increase in asset value. Now of course, if the real estate market crashes, that could be wiped out pretty quick. But even the naysayers don’t expect a drop of anymore than 20% of so outside of the core places like Vancouver and Toronto. And if the US is any example, prices slowly came back up over five years or so.

Even if real estate takes a hit, mostly because of a Canadian recession, will housing purchases stop? I know several Canadians who took advantage of cheap prices in the states to buy houses there after their crash. I think it stands to reason that even if the Canadian economy and the subsequent housing crash happens, that it will likely just be a good opportunity for foreign investors to snag up real estate.

The other aspect which is hard for me to factor in is all the travel I do. Even if you renting makes sense in one financial comparison, leaving an apartment empty for two, three or four months a year while we’re travelling doesn’t make any financial sense. At least with a house we could try to rent it out for that period to recoup the money, but there’s no apartment I know of where it’s ok to re-rent it out (not legally anyways). Luciana actually owns an apartment in Brazil, and since their seasons are reversed it sure would be nice eventually to have a place in Canada for the summers, and one in Brazil for the winters (their summer).

I also can’t ignore the fact that I’m starting to feel burnt out. This last year has been great for business, but I haven’t had a real vacation since mid last year and I’m feeling pretty beat. As most business owners know, it’s a lot of hard work; I’ve been doing startups and small businesses since I was 23, and I just can’t put in the long hours like I used to.

Our Route

Thankfully though, when Luciana and I head west I’ll have an opportunity to unwind a bit. We’re leaving sometime at the end of June or early July (depending on when the furniture is picked up), and driving through the US. Unlike our trip last year, which we were forced to do in four days due to time constraints, we are planning on spending two full weeks driving across. That means most of our days should involve no more than four hours driving on average, which will be a nice change. In terms of sites, we plan on stopping in Chicago for a day and a half, The Field of Dreams in Iowa, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, Portland, Cannon Beach, Seattle, and then back to BC. We’re not in any huge rush, so we may change the schedule as we drive, but we should end up back in BC sometime around July 15th or 16th.

Once Luciana starts her new job, we won’t have many opportunities to do any travel until the following year. So I’ll likely do a one or two week solo trip in September. I have yet to see the Great Wall of China, and it’s one of the 7 New Wonders of the World, so I have been debating going there for a quick escape. Luciana has already been, so it might be best for me to head on over and see it so the next trip her and I do can be something we both haven’t seen (i.e. Petra).

So while the Migratory Nerd hasn’t really done any migrating recently, in the next three or four months I should have more updates as we travel across the country, once again. I’m definitely looking forward to doing a bit of camping in Yellowstone. One thing I really miss when I’m out in Ontario are the mountains, and it’ll be nice to see them again.

The post Upcoming Travel Plans appeared first on The Migratory Nerd.