Two Weeks till Our Wander Begins

May 6, 2025 | General

So, I was chatting with my favorite youngest daughter Kylene a few weeks ago and she casually asked me how the plans are fleshing out for our upcoming half-year of nomad travel. And after a half-hour detailed update and our chat-with-you-soon goodbyes, it dawned on me that were she not sweet of heart she probably would have flat out asked me: “What the hell, Dad? You haven’t posted anything in, like . . . FOREVER!”

Well, let’s put an end to that nonsense, okay?

I don’t know about you, but it’s been a crazy last 4 months here in Baja Sur. The weather’s been unusually cool and the winds a bit stronger than seasons past. So, less time for us basking on the beach, but plenty of hours walking the crop-rich farmlands around our casa here, as the field workers have cycled through basil, strawberries, and muy hectares of poblano chiles (sometimes loaded into the bed of your Chevy pickup!). In fact, the annual Festival de El Chiles y La Fresas was just a week ago.

It doesn’t get much better than standing at the grill looking out to the wind-chopped Pacific at sunset with the aroma of fresh-caught seafood (or Costco top sirloin?) and newly harvested produce a la parrilla

We purchase our weekly vegetables and strawberries from Johnny and his niece Flor at the local Sunday market just up the road. He’ll often throw in a gratis bundle of basil with the rest of our basket. That’s Flor, second from the right with the sunflower, who performed with her folklore dance troupe at the market a few weeks ago.

Late April and May are the months that most of us snowbirds begin flying back to our thawed-out northern habitats, so many of our Pueblo Pescadero neighbors have already departed. Though it’s still an active time to celebrate life here. Even this weekend we had the soft opening of a new bocce ball night spot (here in Mexico we call that la petanca!) and our favorite German-themed beer bar Bajavaria soft-promoted their new downtown Todos Santos El Centro location.  Congrats, Tim and Tina.

Well . . . enough of that. (Can you tell we love it down here?!) Let’s get down to Nomad Life 180!

As I mentioned when we launched this website, the logistics of facilitating four-and-a-half months of actual on the road travel has proven to be quite daunting. Booking air travel and lodging has been interesting enough, but then there’s also the endless research determining what the heck we want to do once we get to where we’re getting. 

For example, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has now published the bulk of their schedule. That means 3,500 different shows from 50+ different countries across 250 different venues. Yeah, right? But the reality is, despite the several hours of spent poring over the online festival schedule, we’ll probably end up getting there and ad libbing the whole thing.

And between the 160 available distilleries and craft breweries in the Speyside and Highland regions of Scotland . . . . Nancy keeps reminding me that I need to narrow that down. Within a 30-mile radius around our Charlestown of Aberlour rental cottage there are 53 different distilleries! Not to mention that's the hub of my entire Gordon heritage and my brother Eric has provided me a ton of lineage history to explore.

For example, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival has now published the bulk of their schedule. That means 3,500 different shows from 50+ different countries across 250 different venues. Yeah, right? But the reality is, despite the several hours of spent poring over the online festival schedule, we’ll probably end up getting there and ad libbing the whole thing.

And between the 160 available distilleries and craft breweries in the Speyside and Highland regions of Scotland . . . . Nancy keeps reminding me that I need to narrow that down. Within a 30-mile radius around our Charlestown of Aberlour rental cottage there are 53 different distilleries! Not to mention that's the hub of my entire Gordon heritage and my brother Eric has provided me a ton of lineage history to explore.

Yet, we keep reminding ourselves that every snag or complication we run into is hardly the end of the world. These first world problems, even in a worst case scenario, will still be a privilege to enjoy.

So, here’s where we stand with 15 days till we wing our way north from Baja Sur and begin our 180 days of nomad living:

  • For our initial five weeks out of the gate we’ll enjoy an awesome AirBnB in Kirkland, WA, a few blocks north of the marina. And we’ll end our travels at a cool garage attic VRBO in Bothell, WA, for our month back in the PNW before returning to Baja.
  • Just today we finalized the AirBnB for our first 10 days in the Tuscan town of Siena, a beautiful ground level condo 4 blocks off the Piazza del Campo.  And with that booking we’re now fully locked in for lodging for our first 103 days of the journey and our final 35. So, other than the two days in Montepulciano/ Ravenna and our 5 weeks in the Puglian heel of Italy, we’re good to go on overnights.
  • For our initial five weeks out of the gate we’ll enjoy an awesome AirBnB in Kirkland, WA, a few blocks north of the marina. And we’ll end our travels at a cool garage attic VRBO in Bothell, WA, for our month back in the PNW before returning to Baja.
  • Just today we finalized the AirBnB for our first 10 days in the Tuscan town of Siena, a beautiful ground level condo 4 blocks off the Piazza del Campo.  And with that booking we’re now fully locked in for lodging for our first 103 days of the journey and our final 35. So, other than the two days in Montepulciano/ Ravenna and our 5 weeks in the Puglian heel of Italy, we’re good to go on overnights.
  • Just today we finalized the AirBnB for our first 10 days in the Tuscan town of Siena, a beautiful ground level condo 4 blocks off the Piazza del Campo.  And with that booking we’re now fully locked in for lodging for our first 103 days of the journey and our final 35. So, other than the two days in Montepulciano/ Ravenna and our 5 weeks in the Puglian heel of Italy, we’re good to go on overnights.
  • Those Sienese 10 days were originally planned for 17, but we reconfigured the final week for stays in Pienza, Montepulciano, Ravenna, Bologna, and back for another 2 nights in Florence.
  • We’ll venture out from Galway, Ireland, one day for a 2-hour car jaunt to remote Achill Island to visit the 155-year old McLoughlin’s Bar, currently for sale, but only to someone bearing that same surname. And we’ve also cut short our Galway stay in order to overnight in Cork and visit the Midleton/Jameson distillery and the House of Waterford crystal headquarters. 
  • Recently, we also added visits to the University of Oxford campus and a long day’s worth of west coastal Scottish distilleries between Glasgow and Inverness (Oban, Ben Nevis, and Dalwhinnie). And if Coila, the Scottish muse of music, blesses our timing, we’ll drive an hour from Inverness to Ullapool and the Arch Inn to enjoy RuMac, the wildest accordion player on the planet.
  • Oh, and we purchased our tickets for this year's  Washington Brewers Fest at Seattle Center. That's in June.

Keep your eyes open for more frequent posts here, as the adventure of a lifetime approaches. And if you haven't yet subscribed for email alerts whenever we post something new, you can do that below.

We'll be in touch.

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