500 Days: What have we been up to?

500 is a pretty big number.

Which made it pretty amazing when we did the math a few weeks ago and realized that it has been 500 days since we hit the road. Honestly, we did not expect to be traveling this long. But the budget has kept up better than we anticipated and hence we are here, writing this post from Laos.

Back when we were 100 days into traveling abroad, we wrote a blog post about what we have learned.  Those 100 days were actually 125+ days after we left our jobs and moved out of our San Francisco apartment (the "steady state").  Because it has now been 500 days since we left that steady state, we got to thinking about the intervening time and came up with some stats that capture a bit of what we have been up to.

Before we get to the stats, I wanted to write briefly about the process of generating these numbers. First, it feels a little grandiose, even gaudy, to trumpet our stats. But it is our blog, and our stats. And in some ways, the numbers in this blog post were written as my (mu's) justification.  Justification that we didn't do anything grand like bike across a continent, bag some big walls in Yosemite, or write a novel.  But mostly,  I wanted to put numbers behind why I was not more selfless in the past 500 days. It is not an excuse just a choice.   The  next 500 days will hopefully reflect a choice of more selflessness.   And,   I am so grateful for all the selflessness of which I have been a recipient.

Mostly, thinking about the stats was a walk down memory lane. Trying to recall what cities, museums, crags, etc we visited, the rush of memories flooded back. Almost all positive and even those rough times were also worth the recall. Travel amplifies our engagement with this bountiful world. Both the good and the bad. Putting together these stats, we were able to walk through entire months on a day by day basis. Months ago we wrote about the frequency and stregnth of our memories from this experience, and that is just as true on the 500th day as it was on on our first. We have been living in this heightened state of awareness for so long that it feels much more normal than our lives prior to leaving.

The Stats

The breakdown: 315 days abroad and 115 days in the U.S.
In the U.S., we have visited 24 states and the District of Columbia. Abroad, we have travelled to 39 countries on 5 continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, and South America.
Times passed through London: 4

Country capital cities visited: Washington, D.C., Tel Aviv, Amman, Istanbul, Athens, Lisboa, London, Nairobi, Dar Es Salaam, Lilongwe, Harare, Antananarivo, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Asuncion, Lima, La Paz, Quito, Bogota, Prague, Berlin, Bratislava, Budapest, Austria, Bangkok, and Ventiane.



Blog posts and blog visits: We have written 137 posts and gotten 15397 page views.

Photographs: North America (630); Middle East (316); Europe (552); Africa (1333); South America (798); Asia (242) = 3871
Weddings celebrated: 6

Ski days: 49 (W); 30 (Mu)
Snowboard days: 8 (Mu)

Days climbed outside: 49

• In the States: Alabama, Idaho, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. Surprisingly, we haven't climbed outside in California since leaving the steady state.
• Abroad: Canada, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Laos, Namibia, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey, and Thailand.

Indoor climbing gyms: 6

And many many miles walked, hiked, biked, and ran through and around:

• works of antiquity and/or beauty such as the Acropolis in Athens, Familia Sagrada in Barcelona, and Cappadocia in Turkey;
  
• religious and holy sites, including the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, pagodas in Bagan, and grand cathedrals throughout South America;

• art and history musems;
  
• natural conservation areas domestically and abroad;
  

• and cemetaries, night markets, caves, and the Potosi mine.

Languages spoken: (sometimes only "hello" or "cheers"): Arabic, French, German, Kiswahili, Laos, Malagasy, Portuguese, Shona, Spanish, Turkish, Thai.
For these 500 days, we have been "homeless" except for the two months that we rented a condo in Blue River, Colorado to ski. So where have we slept?

• Nights camped: 58
  
• Nights backcountry camped: 16
  
• Nights air bnb'ed: 36
  
• Nights at Blue River condo: approximately 60
  
• Nights stayed in bungalows, hostels, refugios, & hotels: approximately 245
  
• And our favorite, nights stayed with friends & family: approximately 85
  

A big thank you to them and all of you as you have made leaving the steady state less risky and our "dream" full of memories and joy.

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