Raina : I’ve always been a bit of a nomad; moving from house to house or from one job to another quite frequently. Most of my life I believed I was flawed with the inability for stability or maintaining the status quo. I always had a great job, home, family, and material things yet I never seemed completely satisfied. Before I even reached a goal, I was already on to the next one. My continued need for “excelling” in every aspect of my life was all that I knew. That is until I got into the passenger seat of our motorhome and began our year long journey. What I have learned along the way cannot be measured in monetary value and is so much more important that I had ever imagined. Here are a few lessons learned:

• Our worth or value is not tied to what we do
• Work as hard at having fun as you do with Work
• Disconnecting from the world for a few hours a day rejuvenates your mind
• Maintain all parts of your life equally; mind, body and soul or all with suffer
• Find a life partner who says yes more than no
• Trying something and no longer doing it does not equal quitting
• Most people you encounter do not care about your job title, they care about how you make them feel when you interact
• Having a religious/spiritual relationship is the foundation of understanding your purpose in life
• The world is filled with daily distractions’, don’t succumb to the negatively

As I finalize this year long chronicling of our US Trip, I can’t help to get excited about all of the future places we will be working, living and visiting. Here we come Alaska!

Darryl: To say it was an amazing, life-changing, spiritual, emotional, physical and overall unbelievable year would be a discredit to how I honestly feel. The defining moment that made me realize this experience was so much bigger than words could ever describe is when upon our return and trying to explain to family and friends our experiences and answer their questions I became speechless in my reflections. I cannot give any explanation or even highlights that do justice to the positive impact this has had on my life. What I can do is reflect back on this journey with the person who shared this experience, my wife and best friend. Every day from the beginning has been a blessing of experiences that included the unexplainable and unbelievable. Amazing things you see and do along the way affect all your senses. This wasn't a vacation or a life of normality; it was a state of being without explanation. You know, maybe speechless is the best description or the sum of all things put together, because anything else would be an injustice.

A special thank you to our friends and family for supporting us in this endeavor. We enjoyed staying connected and sharing this experience with you all and look forward to more adventures to come!