Us & Stuff

hey there,

(our leap of faith. try it, it's fun.)

helmet heads: scooter ride through ban saladan,
koh lanta, thailand.
we're michelle and russ. we've been together for more than nineteen twenty years and from day one, we talked about travel. neither of us had any money on day one, of course, but there was an immediate awareness in the back of our minds that went something like this: "if this works out... we're going places. we're going many places."

welcome to our site. we're on our way to travel to as many of the places in the world as we can afford, or for which we have energy. we want to eat everything we see and drink beer in every country. we want to walk, listen, meet, see, learn.

we've spent many vacations where that two week window closes more quickly than we want it to, so we've taken a leap of faith and we're heading out without a schedule and without a come home date. kinda scary, but scary in a very fun way.

thanks for joining us.

sincerely,
michelle and russ

drop us a line: michrusstravel@gmail.com
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How it all came together and some of the books and websites that really drove home the reality of our idea. 

We started working on this idea over two years ago. The product of night time hot tub sessions sitting in the dark and dreaming. And gin. Every time we took a trip it left us hungry for more and then a while back we stumbled on this book (360 Degrees Latitude). Then I read this book (Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World) which added fuel to the fire. 

At this point, Michelle was just getting used to her new job (she's an attorney for a high-tech company in Silicon Valley) and we knew we needed to invest a little time in packing away some cash, getting investments squared away and in the hands of someone we trusted. Things like that. But the mental itineraries didn't stop. They got longer and longer. And then we started stumbling on sites like these...

Married With Luggage (a couple traveling the world and getting better and better at writing about it)

Hole in the Donut (A solo woman leaving job and income at middle age and going for it)

Meet, Plan, Go (AKA Briefcase to Backpack. They actually make a living convincing people to quit their jobs)

... and tons and tons of others. It turns out, a LOT of people do this sort of thing but we didn't ever really think we could be those people. Well, I gotta say, you read one thing and you're gonna read a ton more. Careful out there... it's a slippery slope.