I love to travel. George loves his dog, his farm animals, the farm and the garden. We’ve taken road trips together and try to get to southwestern North Dakota once a year for about a week. The North Dakota trips are great and take 14 hours of travel time one way. We’ve taken other road trips too. George likes to drive and doesn’t think twice about driving from Wisconsin to Atlanta, Georgia straight through, staying for a night, and turning around and coming home. Unfortunately this has left me feeling like our vacations were mostly driving with only a little exploring or visiting. George seems antsy too, with his mind on the farm.

Day 1 “I wonder how the dog is.”
Day 2 Perhaps arrive at destination late in the day. “I hope the cattle and sheep are liking the hay I left for them.”
Day 3 Explore and/or visit. Start to head home. “I hope the [whatever] is working for [the super kind neighbor who is taking care of the farm].”
Day 4 [more specific concern about home/animals/farm] continued until home.

I heavily encouraged George to get a passport when one was required to enter Canada. I want to be prepared for travel when the opportunity knocks, not when the process of getting a passport is complete. George eventually decided it was in his best interest to get a passport rather than listen to my pleas.

The next step was to decide on a destination. George had an answer, “the jungle.” No further details were provided. Anywhere with a jungle would work.

We decided that we needed a vacation with some sort of project. George needs to keep busy. I’ve traveled to work with Habitat for Humanity and volunteered for Caretta Research Project and loved the experiences.

The trip had to be fairly short. At least short enough that we would still be married even if our plans flopped.

About a month before Hurricane Maria in September 2017, I tried to contact a farmer about working on his farm in exchange for housing. Hurricane Maria then decimated Puerto Rico. Wanting to be a help rather than a hindrance, we set the plans aside.

This winter I we were ready to go! With help from Rotary connections, we were able to plan to volunteer with HEART 9/11 in their Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico Response Project.

In summary, our travel plans included 1) the jungle 2) a short time span and 3) a project. Look out word!