Bonus Blogpost by DB! The Inglorious Parts of Our Lifestyle

Where the %$%^$# is my charger??

OK, it’s important that I start this with a disclaimer for all of you, and especially our attorney friends (David, Richard, Eva, et al).  We feel very lucky to live the nomad life we’ve chosen.  While we know it isn’t right for everyone, it is for us, and we had the ability to choose it so we ARE NOT COMPLAINING!!!

OK, by reading the above disclaimer you can’t hold us liable for being cry-babies ;).

Monica does an AMAZING job of showing you all of the joys of being nomadic travelers from ruins and castles explored, to superb foods tried to stunning landscapes relaxed in, and we’re heartened by the wonderful messages we receive from so many of you. 

 But that is only part of the story….I’m here to tell you about the less glamorous parts of being a disciple of Moses.  Before you sell your home, cars, stuff and put little Whiskers on Craigslist (ouch….hits kinda close to home), I give you the Other Side Of Nomading and what nobody ever told us.  But now we’re telling you, as described in a typical first day of travel.

And we’re off: 

• Oh,  how we’ve tried to cut down on our luggage, but our lives exist in four suitcases and two backpacks stuffed to the max with a total weight over 200 pounds– and we lug this from place to place.  We’re so jealous of our fellow nomads that proudly tell us how they make it all fit in a 20 inch canvas bag….but if we can’t bring our two little cafeteras to make our own coffee, then why travel???

Here I am with all our travel possessions waiting for a taxi to pick us up in the Neutral Zone between Montenegro and Croatia

• Piggy-backing on the above, when we land at an airport and retrieve our lives in plastic (yet sturdy) containers, we cross our fingers when ordering the Uber.  Will it fit all of our bags or will they shake their head “No” and drive off.  And believe me, if they stay and complete the job, the looks on their faces when they first see us as their passengers makes us cringe almost as much as them.  

Whew, finally made it to the AirBNB:

• OK, let’s throw a load of wash in since we couldn’t clean it all in our last place.  Do you know how difficult it is to figure out how a washing machine–and all appliances– work in all sorts of different countries and languages?  Monica is the Queen here, but even she will sometimes have to toss in her tools and call the AirBNB host. 

Figuring out how to open the locked washing machine in Valencia…..

• OK, we’ll do the laundry later but let’s go food shopping.   Every time we come to a new place, we have to find a nearby supermarket, hope we can read the labels, and then do the “first time” shopping that we’ve all been used to when you move or buy a home.  So dishwasher gloves, matches, cooking oils, cereal, bread crumbs….you name it, we pretty much have to buy these “staples” every place we go.  Inevitably we don’t finish them and offer them to the apartment cleaning person hoping they’ll make use of it.

OK, back to the apartment now and HOPEFULLY Google maps worked and got us back.

• Hmmmm…..I’m feeling kind of “off”.  Oh, it could be because my body is adjusting to yet ANOTHER time zone change!  I’m sure my circadian system is yelling “just decide on one place, will you?”.  It often takes days to get back to normal, and you just pray your immune system has had time to recover from the last 9 hour time change you just went through.

• And if your immune system falters and you catch let’s say a bad infection….there is no “ah, let’s call Dr Prentice and go on in.  He’ll fix things”.  Nope, we have to find an urgent care center, use telehealth, or perhaps a local hospital to address these urgent needs.  So far, so good, only limited needs here, but it’s always on our minds.

• Maybe that “not so good” feeling is because I took a drink of water from the kitchen faucet.  Every country has their own minerals and chemicals they put in their water and our body is not used to them.  So every time we go to a new place, we’re rolling the dice on stomach aches lasting from a few days to much longer.  Ugghhh… we are Tums champions.

Translating the toilet controls was crucial. Or in this case, "critical".

We made it to 8 PM without falling asleep, let’s go to bed now and pray we don’t wake up at 3 AM feeling ready to go!

• We’re exhausted and now need our sleep, but the first thing we have to do is check for bedbugs before we collapse.  We do this EVERY TIME we come to a new place.  All we need to do is think back to our trip to an AirBNB in New Mexico and the next morning when I found out I was the late night snack for the little critters and they especially liked sucking on my face and scalp–ugghhh.

I was especially delicious. Monica emerged unscathed.

• OK, let’s talk about beds and sleeping in a new one every month or two????  Many cultures like to have one double bed for the two people staying there.  The Monica and Don culture likes to have a minimum of one queen bed (would love a king or two twins!) and we need a very firm mattress.  And never believe Monica if she tells you that I always end up in the middle of the bed while she has the ⅛ slice toward the end.   It’s a crapshoot every place you go and our bad backs can tell you stories.

• We finally settle in and the pure exhaustion of the day is now starting to translate itself into a deep blissful sleep.  Ahhhh……..Auurrrgghhh!!!  Who’s using their pogo stick on the floor above us?  Don’t these kids have school tomorrow, why is their music blaring outside (oh, it’s only 8 pm….).   Why didn’t we know ahead of time our apartment would be above a bus stop that runs all night??  And who tells these drivers that non-stop honking actually makes a difference in your route time?  Again, it’s a dice roll with noise at every new accommodation we come to.

Well, somehow we made it through the night.  Let’s get this first full day started!  Yahoo!

• Hmmmm…..I wonder which of my 3 pairs of pants, 5 shirts and three sweaters I should wear today?  I’m not sure I can keep telling Monica “wow, that looks amazing on you, is that a new outfit?” when I know I saw it 4 or 5 days ago.  And she knows it too!  So yes, even with 200 pounds of our life packed away, our outfits are limited and go through the ringer.

• Which brings me to shoes……and this one hurts my travel partner pretty bad.  Look in your closet, I dare you.  You probably have shoes perhaps for various types of weather, different outings and events, and maybe even an old pair that you just find super comfy.  Well, not us.  Shoes weigh about as much as lead so we really limit our supply–sadly.

• Speaking of limited supply, yes Monica and I are at the age where we both are on prescription meds.  Planning how to have enough medicine (and vitamins), and where to pack it all, when you’re out of the US for 6 months at a time is a brain-teaser worthy of some of the great mathematicians of our time.  Between us we have literally thousands of pills we need to pack when we leave the US for an extended time.  Kinda scary when I put it like that……

 I haven’t even touched on undependable Wifi, dishes and cutlery geared towards guests staying overnight while we’re staying for 3 months, carrying plug adapters to fit a non-adaptive world, the near impossibility of getting something mailed to us (Amen for Amazon Lockers in the rare times  when a country has them), the inability to get a good physical book in English, and the list goes on and on.

I think some of the above summarizes the craziness of our lives that we have adopted–and so glad we did.  Monica and I take a philosophical approach to all of this and remember what Dr Sanjay Gupta of CNN said:  “Learning new things keeps the brain challenged and helps it stay young and active”.  

Thank you Sanjay (a dedicated reader of the blog.  Hmmmm….someday perhaps).  We couldn’t agree more and wouldn’t change a thing!!!! (well, maybe just one more pair of shoes each).

Thanks for following along, hope we didn’t scare you too much.

Monica and Don

Moments before a bird pooped on my head. That's good luck!