The Blog in 2010 & Beyond

We’ve thought a lot about what to do with the blog. We thought maybe it was only a blog about this road trip and so we just needed to retire it, but that thought alone made us both sad and unsettled. So we started thinking about maybe re-defining the blog. Start posting about everything and anything: food, love, culture, dreams, adventures, projects, musing, etc. We realized we’d be slamming the breaks on the momentum that this blog had built up over the trip. We didn’t want to turn a great hamburger joint into an amalgamation of American, Chinese, and Caribbean Cuisine all under one roof. So we’re leaving the title, which ‘thank you’ again Darren is a great one, and we’re going to stick to the same theme; except instead of writing about the massive granite walls of Yosemite, we’ll be exploring the vast openness, prairies, fields, lakes, and sunflowers of Kansas and Missouri. We’ll continue to play outside, to search for peaks and valleys, we’ll trade climbing for swimming, biking, and hiking. We’re inspired by Heather who is doing what she calls the ’12 for 12′, starting in the new year she’ll be entering one race each month of next year. I might adopt the baby sister of 12 for 12 and maybe pick the 2 for 12. If I do, I’ll write about that too.

This post marks a definite transition in the blog from road trip to life. It’s maybe a good time to reflect a bit, and thank our friends and family for the support that we’ve received throughout our road trip. Kristine and I didn’t have any idea that the blog would result in such a strong connection between our experiences and our friends and family. A connection that was stronger in the last three months than in the last three years for both Kristine and I. It’s something we have cherished and want to maintain. On our visits to town, to maybe post again, we’d get a chance to see the amount of traffic to our blog. That was the familiar nudge that escalated our commitment to the blog as well as our responsibility to it and its viewers. So, THANK YOU so much to all of our family and friends for the interest and ongoing support throughout our resignation at our very good jobs, the breezy and risky endeavor of the road trip, and CHEERS to the next chapter. We’ve loved sharing it all and will faithfully continue to do just that.

We’ll be continuing all the aspects of the blog that we’ve already developed: we’ll continue to post our portraits each week, we’ll keep the map of the road trip but make another map of Kansas and label it as we explore surrounding areas, the ‘General Delivery’ has changed to ‘Direct Address’. We still encourage paper, pencil, and stamp and want to continue to receive letters, postcards, pictures, etc. We’ll continue to make our own postcards and send them out throughout the year.

We don’t want to be too ambitious, although we often are, but we’re considering a seperate blog for documenting our projects and anything flavored with creativity. When and if this happens you’ll be the first to know. As always, hit us with any comments, suggestions, raving reviews, or anything in between.

GENERAL DELIVERY

We’re taking things back to pre-1980′s. This was around the time that people began receiving mail at their homes. Before that they would have to pick up their mail at the local post office via general delivery. In 1789 there were around 75 post offices in the US, today there are over 40,000!

The left column has a GENERAL DELIVERY section which will be constantly updated with the windows of time that we plan on spending at different places. The second date will always be the earliest that we would leave that area and we may always stay longer than we anticipate. So plan accordingly. To eliminate any confusion at the post office pick one name to address it to and then GENERAL DELIVERY, CITY, STATE, ZIP+4digits. We’ll swing by the post office on our way out of each town to see if we’ve received anything.

We don’t expect anything, but thought we’d make a case for the ancient art of snail mail. We promise at least a postcard in return to anyone who plays along. That said, it is general delivery and being what it is, your rolling the dice when you send us something and there’s the chance we never receive it. SO, keep any valuables safely within your possession and send us something like a hershey kiss, a polaroid of your face, an empty postcard, an illegible handwritten letter, etc. etc.