This week, we made the tough decision to stop traveling full-time and head back to the east coast. With all the uncertainty going on in the world right now, we thought this was the best decision for us. Our plan is to head back to the Philadelphia area at the beginning of April.
Our full post from our Instagram account.
Hello everyone! It’s been awhile. We are alive and well, but just like everyone else in the world, we’ve been dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic. We took a little break from social media because it honestly became too much for us. The fear-mongering, the misinformation, the opinions from everyone on what the world should be doing. We needed some time away while we figured out our best course of action.
Now is not a great time to be a full-time traveler. We had plans to do a housesit in Portland in April, but that got canceled because our hosts had their trip canceled (more of a bummer for them, then us). More and more places are being closed every day with no clear answer on when they will reopen. Luckily, we are staying with family right now, but we can’t stay here forever. We knew we had to make a decision soon on what to do.
After a lot of thinking, we’ve decided the best thing to do is stop traveling and head back to the east coast. The first week of April, we plan to make the long drive from Nevada to the Philly area. It was always our original plan to come back to this area eventually, but due to everything going on in the world right now, that time has come a lot sooner.
We won’t lie and say that every minute of the last 5 months was great, but we feel so lucky to have experienced life in the road. We got to see so much of this beautiful country and make memories we will never forget.
Although this chapter of our lives has come to a close, we are staying positive about the next chapter. And while we will no longer be traveling full time, we have no plans of stopping our traveling altogether. Our blog will stay up and running and once things being to settle down, we will start planning trips again. Right now, our focus is on finding a home base for both ourselves and our business.
Stay safe, friends.
We did manage to do a lot before everything got crazy. In an effort to remain positive, here is our recap for March.
Where We Stayed
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We spent a week in Dallas, Texas and both agree that Dallas was our favorite city in Texas! We stayed in an Airbnb over a coworking space in the Deep Ellum neighborhood. It was in a great part of town and having access to a coworking space with real desks was a nice change of pace. We got a lot of work done during our week in Dallas but also ventured out to see the city. Some highlights were seeing the JFK memorial, going to the Dallas Farmer’s Market, and walking around the Deep Ellum neighborhood.
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We also took the time to check out Fort Worth and the Stockyards. The Stockyards are located in the historic part of Fort Worth. They really embrace the wild west here. We saw wooden corrals, a wild west show, and even a cattle drive. We went inside Billy Bob’s Texas, the world’s largest honky-tonk. Billy Bob’s has been around since 1981, hosting some of the biggest country music stars. Even though we aren’t big country music fans, it was really cool to walk around and see the memorabilia.
After our stay in Dallas, we made the nearly 10-hour drive to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We drove through strong winds, dust storms and snow, but we eventually made it safe and sound. That night, we ate dinner at a great New Mexican restaurant (no one wants to cook after driving 10 hours) and came back to our Airbnb. We were there for 20 minutes when we heard a really loud noise and saw water everywhere. A water line to the refrigerator broke and soaked almost the entire floor. Luckily we were home and able to shut the water off and clean things up, otherwise it would have been much worse. We called our host, who could not have been more apologetic. She came over straight away to fix the problem and give us fresh towels. We definitely won’t forget this stay, even if it only was for a few days!
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While we were in New Mexico, we drove to Santa Fe to go to Meow Wolf, an interactive art exhibit. This place was so much fun! We had heard about it from friends and travel bloggers and I’m so glad we checked it out. We had a blast.
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After New Mexico, we started heading towards my parent’s house in Nevada, but before arriving there, we made a stop at Grand Canyon National Park. I had visited the Grand Canyon years ago, but Mark had never been. There was no way we could drive so close to it without stopping. We spent a weekend at the park and had the best time. Nature is amazing!
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After the Grand Canyon, we made the drive to Nevada. We are staying with my parents in a small town about an hour from Las Vegas. We’ve checked out the Vegas Strip, Freemont Street, and Red Rock Canyon. We went to the Hoover Dam and Zion National Park. Nevada and Utah are both beautiful states and were glad to have the opportunity to spend some time with family and have a few good weeks before everything closed.
What We Worked On
You may have noticed some changes on our website. We’ve updated our photos (thank you, Angie Webb) and also added a new service for website maintenance. We offer 3 different website maintenance packages and hours purchased can be used for a variety of different services like design and SEO audits, content updates, malware removal, and more. You can find out more here.
We also launched a brand new website for Shay Construction. Shay came to us needing help with page speed and user experience. We redesigned their site to be less cluttered and more focused on their portfolio of amazing homes. Check out the project here.
Our latest YouTube video, titled “Is SEO Really the Problem”, talks about how you should focus on the design of your website before spending thousands of dollars on SEO or a marketing strategy.
What Was Unexpected
We are living in strange times right now. As things got worse with the Coronavirus, it was only a matter of time before our plans got canceled and places everywhere began to shut down. Although disappointing and a bit scary, it wasn’t unexpected. We’re sad to have to stop traveling, but know it is the best thing to do right now. We had a great 5 months on the road. We both love traveling so much and once things settle down, we plan to start booking trips again. While we won’t be traveling full time, we won’t stop traveling altogether.
We hope you all staying safe and sane during these uncertain times. We thank you for following along on our journey and supporting our small business.
