Well, I guess our first post should tell you about us! Billy and Gabby met each other during undergrad at Ithaca College in 2006, started dating in 2007, and got married in 2015. Both of us have an interest in photography, nature, and exploring new places. We both enjoy coffee, and are self-proclaimed “foodies”. We both grew up in the northeast (PA and NJ), and loved our time in upstate NY for undergrad and grad school. Since getting married in 2015, we have lived in Morgantown, WV while Billy was in a PhD program at West Virginia University.

While wrapping everything up in West Virginia, we had some major “what’s next” questions on the horizon. We starting thinking that while both of us would not be tied down with jobs, let alone a place to live, it would be the perfect time to do some traveling we might never have the chance to do until well, we’re RETIRED. Gabby has some family living in Melbourne, Australia and we have never had the time or opportunity to go to visit. This was the major traveling we had on our radar after moving from WV, kind of a “wrap-up” of this chapter of our life before we try to settle down for long-term careers, a home, and starting a family in the future. We decided that since Australia is on the other side of the equator, travelling during our Fall would make the most sense, so it would be their Spring. However, this left a few month gap in our plans: our lease was ending at the end of June, and our travels to Australia were at the end of October . . . we needed a plan (preferably that allowed us to make some money) for the 4 months in between, as well as somewhere to live!

Gabby works in health care, so starting a job and then leaving for over a month to travel to Australia seemed like a long shot. Not many places would be ok with starting work for 3 months, then leaving for over a month, so a full time permanent position was off the table. The only other option really was taking a travel position, but the next question was, WHERE? We liked the idea of going somewhere where we would love to see, that we had never been before, and where we would most likely never actually move to. Early lists of these places included: Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Maine, and Hawaii. One of Billy’s buddies from WVU lives out in the Bay Area on the outskirts of San Francisco,and he brought up the idea of us staying out there with them for awhile until we travel to Australia, and that just seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up!

So we decided to start this blog to document our travels: the road trip from East to West Coast, around the Bay Area, our adventures in Australia, and the road trip from West to East Coast. It’s crazy to think that we will be travelling for the next 5 months! We plan on stopping at a good amount of National Parks with our America the Beautiful Annual National Parks Pass!

~GW