After about seven months of saving for our Epic Adventure we were actually on target, and we had more than enough airline points for our first set of tickets. Now for the moment of truth, do we pull the trigger on our first one way ticket? The only other money we had spent was a $500 deposit in for the Marine Conservation program in Madagascar, but that wasn’t going to start until April 2015. We had lots of wiggle room with our trip- are we sure we want to do this? Our budget was looking good; reasonably we should buy the plane tickets. The tension and anticipation for about two weeks was mind numbing for me; we had a big decision to make and it was way harder than I could have ever imagined. You think it would be easy to say ‘Yes, vacation time, book ’em!’ but this was a little bit more than that. We were about to willingly leave United States soil for a long time. We’re quitting our jobs to do so. Everything safe and stable was about to cease to exist. We had put together an extensive budget and trip outline and it was going to come to life when we booked the tickets. After the two weeks of cyclonic decision making (not if, but when?), we made the call and did it! Two one-way tickets from Miami to Johannesburg South Africa by way of Frankfurt Germany (Bonus! 13 Hour layover) on Lufthansa Airlines.

It looks like I will be able to test out my German skills from several years in middle school, high school and even a year in college. I’m most excited for a trip to a bier hall or a look at the Rhine River before we head back to the airport for leg two of our three day travel plan. The third leg is going to be a twenty six hour train ride from Johannesburg to Capetown through the interior of the country.

It actually became much easier to get on with daily life after we purchased the tickets. I don’t know why, but it seemed to bring closure  and a clear path was set, we had to carry on.