Every-day-is-Friday five: on (really) entering the next phase.

The five phases of Slowly Global, in chronological order:

• Phase One: Canada!
• Phase Two: Central Europe! (and Turkey! and Morocco!)
• Phase Three: SE Asia!
• Phase Four: Australia!
• Phase Five: the good ol' USA...

Phase Five is in progress - we've been in Hawaii for 74 days now. But Hawaii doesn't really feel like the good ol' USA to us.

But.

This time next week we will be on the mainland.

Gulp.

Mixed feelings about this - we are excited to see friends and family, of course. We are looking forward to having the car back. We're very curious to see what path we end up taking from Maryland to Oregon, and how long this path will take (we have a general plan of Portland by July but otherwise, no timetable to speak of). We're having fun with our initial planning and research sessions.

research

(photo courtesy Maps of World)

also research

(photo courtesy Independent Beers)

But in some ways it does feel like the end. Or that the end is near. Or at least, that our travel finances are nearing their end... and therefore, that paid work is imminent.

Paid work.

Gulp.

Very clear feelings on this! Words like "fear," "anxiety," "dread," and "waaaaaah" kept coming up in the conversation last night. (OK, maybe some swear words too.)

We are pretty set on what we don't want to do for paid work, and we're pretty set on what we do want to do for paid work. We know we will have to do something for a little while, and we know this something will probably fall into the category of what we don't want to do for paid work.  That's okay, as long as we have a plan for getting to what we do want to do.

Like our road trip path, we're very curious to see how this "paid work" path unfolds.  In the interim we'll be building our network and continuing to learn and hone skills as we head across the southern states this spring and summer.

And if The Universe isn't ready when we arrive in Portland, well... Perhaps we'll just keep going.

Gulp.