Narrowing Down “Anywhere in the World”

March 17, 2024|Rick Juliusson

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? For most people, that’s either a dreamy party game or a one-shot, two-week opportunity to hit that beach or volcano or mardi gras. For us, it’s an ongoing question - making one selection does little to narrow down the options for the next destination.

While it’s wildly exciting, it’s also a little intimidating or overwhelming - how to choose where to go when absolutely anywhere for any amount of time is a possibility? I feel a bit like the Fonz at a sock hop - when every single girl is lined up batting her eyelashes and ready to scream when you lift up her chin and snap your fingers, how do you choose?

Step One: Divide Eternity into Manageable Chunks

It turns out that having a few anchors has helped bring definition to the process. Instead of staring at an endless void to fill, we first just had to schedule 3 months until family Christmas in Chicago. Right now we’re in the middle of 4 months until summer in Minnesota. Next, 5 months in Europe, already defined by mom’s birthday bash in France, hiking the Camino de Santiago, and ending with our boys meeting us somewhere over there for Christmas. Then the first 4 months of 2025 are wide open until Galen’s graduation pulls us back in May. Then…?

These chunks are still the highest layer of possibility and ambiguity. For example, we knew our current 4 month chunks was starting in BC and ending in Minnesota, but that’s it. We thought about heading north to the Yukon or Alaska, but our dream has been to do that for a full year, not “just” 4 months. We’d just had a great North American tour, and Europe’s already the fall plan, so heading south made sense. Sarah had visited a psychic who “saw” her walking amongst tall trees in Central America in a place where the elders were waiting for her, after which she would know what her next steps are. This was quite obviously Monteverde, and I had not been back for 6 years, so Costa Rica naturally emerged as the defining destination.

Overall, our choice of the primary/defining locations for each chunk has been guided by a desire to explore locations/lifestyles that might define our eventual settling-down (Colorado, Nova Scotia, Cowichan, Monteverde) or places we’ve always just wanted to experience for more than a week (Cuba, Mexico, Europe, hiking the Camino de Santiago, maybe Morocco, India…) At first there was a feeling of pressure to make the “right” choices, like this is the one window when we can fulfill our dreams and if we don’t make it to India now then we never will. But our long-term vision is to have a home base somewhere but continue to do significant travel and living/working abroad, so we feel more free to follow our current callings and trust that anywhere we go is “right” for right now.

Step Two: Block in Major Sites and Friends

Within the defined geography and timeline of each chunk, we then do some fun research. What old friends live roundabouts? What historic landmark, postcard-perfect park, oddball museum or event (Judy Garland birthday celebration, Barbed Wire museum, eclipse…) can we mark down on this chunk’s map? While trying to select something interesting to do Anywhere In The World is overwhelming, searching out adventure and meaning in Nova Scotia or Central America or even Kansas is much more manageable and exciting.

Step Three: Connect the Dots and Start Colouring In

With the major landmarks and finer dots penciled in, the route and timeline magically appear. Now it’s logistics time - find those TrustedHousesitter free house gigs and AirBnB getaways, line up cheap flights or EV charging stations, get onto friends’ calendars, buy those event tickets (Winnipeg FolkFest 2024, here we come!) This is a rather energy-consuming aspect of our lifestyle, and one that I take the lead on while Sarah still actually works, but I try not to complain too much about the workload of selecting a hostel by the 7-coloured lagoon of Bacalar, Mexico…

Step Four: I Love You - Now Change!

This is a phase in our life when we can say “Yes”, so remaining flexible to opportunities and callings is more important than overplanning. Our routes have oft been altered or shaped by: friends coming to visit (3 different sets of friends just here in Monteverde), invitations (birthday cycling trip in Italy? Sure!), tips from friends (did I mention the 7-coloured lagoon?), cheap airfares ($50 from Havana to Merida, Mexico), intriguing housesits (Pugwash was somehow never before on our radar), and events (Zekiah’s ultimate frisbee tournament, Galen’s birthday).

This blog post was inspired by a flurry of planning and decision-making just yesterday including:

Decided to NOT sell our car and NOT buy Zekiah a student car, but instead let him use ours for the fall while we’re in Europe
Selected a fun high-rise condo (with rooftop bocce ball) on the Minnesota River for our summer with Zekiah
Switched plans (and booked/rebooked all flights and AirBnB’s) from 5 weeks in Cuba to 2 weeks there followed by a week in Bacalar, a few days on the oceanside near Cancun, a week in Merida then some days in Mexico City. This change was mostly motivated by precariously low food and diesel supplies in Cuba.
Settled on plans for our friends to arrive here tomorrow then travel together to La Fortuna for an overnight of hot-spring tubs at the base of Arenal volcano
Arranged to stay with dear friends in Austin for a few days en route back to Minnesota

And that, my friends, is what we consider a fun Saturday night. We’d been letting all those pieces swirl and arrange themselves for a while, and I love how they suddenly and naturally fell into a completed puzzle that makes sense in a picture I wouldn’t have foreseen even a week ago. Maybe the Fonz also trusts that the right dance partner will naturally become obvious, or maybe he knows that each person would be lovely to dance with and there’s no need to overthink the choices.

Dwight Yoakim's in the corner, try'n' to catch my eye

Lyle Lovett's right beside me with his hand upon my thigh...

Hey Dwight, hey Lyle, boys, you don't have to fight.

Hot dog, I feel lucky tonight…

Think I'll flip a coin I'm a winner either way.

Mmmmm I feel lucky today