When travel is delayed – America Unplugged update

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It’s all you can think about from the minute you wake until your head hits the pillow after another exhausting day.

Not long now and I’ll be on my way. I’ll be living the travel dream and it will all be worth it.

It takes all of your deep breaths and mantras to get through those stressful times of the day, the ones where bills and piles of stuff take precedence over sitting on your porch with a cold drink and a setting sun. You just want to tell the boss to stick it, the landlord to find someone else, and the dust collecting on your pile of junk to go clean itself.

“Only one more month and I won’t have to tolerate this anymore.”

Only things happen and one more month starts to stretch into two, maybe three or four.

It feels like hell.

I know the feeling well. I’m currently living it.

I like that we’re starting our own new journey on this blog. It means I have a lot of new and relevant content to share with you. It’s very different to when we’re settled and just buzzing off every other weekend or so. There’s a lot more that goes into the planning and preparation for something longer than a getaway. We’re now planning an epic adventure – an escape to a different, and we hope better, life.

One we’ve dreamed about for years.

It’s a huge leap. It’s a big risk. It’s a massive undertaking.

So we can share with you the reality, the ups and downs, how we’re coping and how we’re managing the creation of it.

Obviously not very well lately.

We want to be honest with you. We told you not too long ago that we’d set the departure for America Unplugged at August. It made sense, especially for the itinerary – where we wanted to go first and the different seasons we wanted to hit.

I believe in the power of announcing your intentions. It helps you commit to it a little deeper. The only problem with that is when it doesn’t work out like you planned and you’re left to battle with your own inadequacies.

We’re not going to make the US in August for America Unplugged. Just like we didn’t make it in June, which was our original plan (although Universe was helping as we did go to the States in June, albeit briefly).

There’s just to much everyday life stuff we’re dealing with holding us back.

I share more of the personal stories through my Notes From the Road VIP community (it’s free). But for now, here have been some of our challenges:

Time flying

Where did March – June go?

Last week, I was reassessing some projects and posts and my thought for each one was, “I wrote/did that last month”. But, when I checked up on it, every single one was done in February.

What??? Where the hell did the other months ago?

They zoomed by with a lot of travel and work. I love being a travel blogger, but the travel part of it makes getting anything done difficult (a family travel blogger makes things a hundred times harder).

We’ve been so consumed with the work stuff (a vital thing) that we’ve not been able to concentrate on the dream stuff. I’m sure you understand that.

How can we balance it?

Sometimes you have to say no to the things that are getting in the way of your dreams. We have a fairly quiet travel schedule for the next few months so we can put our heads down and make the dream happen.

Health challenges

Craig’s been dealing with some health challenges for the past few months which means things are moving really slowly.

My Dad is going through radiation at the moment for the next six weeks. We’ve been going through testing for him for the last few months. Thankfully, the cancer is so minute they can’t pick it up, which means his chances are extremely good. I don’t want to start our road trip until he’s finished his treatment, much to his protests!

Visas and new passports

The US visa we’re going for takes a month to process – that’s once we’ve got all the paperwork done. And it’s a lot of paperwork, much of which we’ve not been able to get done. So it’s really holding us back. We’ll write about the epic process once it’s done. We’re going for a longer term non-immigrant visa so it is a lot more challenging. Our intention is to stay in the US for as long as we can.

We all also need new passports. That’s another three-week process. And so expensive! I recently  heard a Minister speak (the government official type, not the church type) who said Aussie passport prices are rising, pretty much because the government want you to stay and travel in the country. At least he was honest, but what limiting thinking. Global experience and education can only help enhance the country.

The Leap Safely plan not finalised

I spoke about this in an interview I did yesterday about leaping into an entrepreneurial life and managing fear. It’s vital not to take gigantic leaps until you feel ready. That involves having a backup plan for your worst case scenario that you’re okay with. It includes having a solid plan for the success of the gigantic leap.

I’m not happy at the moment with either.

I don’t feel secure enough to take the leap yet. There’s a lot of back end work (the slush) I wanted to have cleared away before we started America Unplugged, part of that involves having consistent passive income. I’ve made great progress, but not enough yet to jump confidently. I want to have strong partnerships in place and I don’t want the fear of not having enough money to take over the travel experience. That has happened too many times over my years of backpacking and I’m not allowing it for my ultimate dream trip.

I do not want to start our America Unplugged deep in the mire of work like we did on our Australia road trip. It was too difficult trying to manage all that growth.

My systems aren’t in place yet to have it ready before we go. I don’t believe in waiting until everything is perfect before you leap either, but the systems are vital for us to be able to enjoy this dream trip of ours while at the same time providing the creative content we want to help inspire you to unplug from the chaos, travel more and create better memories AND show you the hidden unplugged secrets of the US.

Our new intended departure date

Our new date is October. I hate telling you that we didn’t make the intended date, mostly because I’m disappointed and I’m finding the waiting game excruciatingly painful.

I love our home in Burleigh on the Gold Coast so much, but I am ready to leave. I look at the cost of living in Australia and know that it doesn’t give me the memorable moments that a life on the road would so I’m at the fed up with spending my money on things that don’t matter stage and I’m ready to make the switch.

I’m putting the boot up my own butt to make it happen as I can’t handle waiting anymore. But, I’m trusting in the Universe’s delays. It just wasn’t able to get things ready for us in time, so it’s forced us into an incubation period to make sure it will come out right.

When your travel is delayed and you feel so much pain over it, it’s time to take a big deep breath and trust that now is just not the right time, but if you keep walking in the direction of our dreams, you will make it happen.

How do you cope when travel is delayed?