Back Home for a Bit

An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion. The same thing can be said for travelers – if you slow down for too long, you risk losing steam. So, it’s a good thing that our time back home in the States was busy! We had a little time to rest, but not enough for us to get too comfortable and to make us lose our travel motivation!

Lauren and Drew’s wedding – we definitely don’t carry these fancy clothes in our backpacks!

While we were home, we had a great time visiting friends and family. We spent a week in Northern Virginia, celebrating the wedding of our friends, Lauren and Drew. Then we headed south to Florida for some time at the beach and the engagement party for Christina’s sister and her new fiancé. Last, we headed up to New York and Connecticut to finish up our trip.

Celebrating Travis and Abigail’s engagement

It felt bizarre – in a great way – to be back. Things were familiar, but it still took some adjusting for us to feel like we fit back into our lives at home. Being surrounded by things that we recognized is something that we have not been used to these past 10 months. It felt great not being lost all the time or constantly wondering where we were going to go for lunch or sleep at night!

Grand Central Station

We’ve had people ask us lots of questions over the past year since learning we were going on the trip. After we had been on the road for a while, we posted on the blog about updated frequently asked questions we had been receiving while traveling. When we were home in May, a lot of those questions came up again. Pretty much the first thing people would ask is “What is your favorite place?” (Three-way tie between New Zealand, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka) That question would be followed closely by “How have you not killed each other yet?” or “Do you guys ever fight?” and then “But what is there to fight about? You’re basically on a year-long vacation.”

Marble Collegiate Church in front of the Empire State Building

Normally, we are a pretty private couple. If we have disagreements, it’s not the style of either one of us to go talking about it with anyone else, opting instead to keep it to ourselves as we work through whatever is bothering us. This past year, we have chosen to be open with our friends and family reading this blog and expose our lives a little more, so it makes total sense that we are getting questions of all kinds, not just about our travels. We would be asking the same questions if the tables were turned!

Walkway over the Hudson

So, no, we haven’t killed each other. But, yes, OF COURSE we have our disagreements. What we have realized is that most of those disagreements stem from external factors (mostly travel stress related or general fatigue/crankiness) rather than issues between the two of us. Our goal has been to try and resist taking those stresses out on each other. When issues do arise, we try and deal with them quickly and move on. We’ve basically been cramming ten years’ worth of problem-solving skills and conflict resolution strategies into ten months on the road. There have definitely been growing pains, but in the best possible way.

Tailgating for the Yankee game

Ever since we both got horrible food poisoning in Myanmar, we’ve instituted the “Judgment-Free Marriage” or JFM. It helped us not feel embarrassed when we were getting sick in such close quarters, but it applies to all areas of our daily life on the road. You want to have pizza for breakfast? JFM. You want to have some alone time and read a book for an hour? JFM. You’re wearing the same, dirty pair of shorts for four days in a row? JFM. It means that we are on each other’s side, no matter what. Partners in travel and in life. It’s a work in progress, but it’s worth it.

Leg four of our trip will take us back to Europe. First stop, Romania!

-The Morts