We’ve been home for ten days now. We had originally intended to travel to the northeastern US before returning home, but due to a commitment in Austin in early October we decided to head south early. Our amazing housesitter who took care of our home and cats for five and a half months was due to depart October 15th, so we spent the last three weeks house sitting for others in the Austin area. This was a win-win: it gave our sitter the full time we had originally agreed on, since she had another sit scheduled at the end of ours, and it gave us a few more reviews on TrustedHousesitters.com, which we hope to use to find house sits in Europe and Australia during our upcoming travels.

Speaking of which, we have already begun planning the next leg. Assuming the world continues to improve and open up over the next few months, we’ll adjust our European itinerary that we had hoped to begin this year, and move it forward, adding a few new stops we’ve gathered from people we met during this year’s travels. Our house sitter will return again for part of our travels, but we’ll begin the search for another sitter in a couple of months. All of our travel vaccinations are complete. We’re hoping AirCanada’s Fly and Ride bike-shipping program resumes in the Spring; if not, we’ll change our departure/export point.

In between, our friend Heike from Germany (whose Kawasaki has been stored here at our place for the past two years while we all sit out the pandemic) will hopefully be able to fly here over Christmas. We’re planning to ride together to Mexico, which will give her the chance to become familiar with the border crossing and some of the country before she sets off on her own at a later date.

So for now, it’s good to be home. But that wanderlust itch is always there, begging to be scratched.