FUNDED!

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!

Our kickstarter campaign ended this morning and, thanks to all of you, we were successfully funded! We reached double our goal, $6,000, thanks to a sneaky in-at-the-last-second contribution by someone who clearly has swift Ebay skills. We will now be able to add a lot of color photos to our already colorful stories.

A special thanks to our 86 backers: Allison Stattner, Will, Jason and Marti Paster, Paige and Jared Silverman, Matt Stern, Shari and Matt Shapiro www.backpacksandbigappetites.tumblr.com, Chris Francis, John King, Joe Francis, Matt and Lisa Gardi www.facebook.com/BoweryStation, Harvey and Leslie Stern, Emery Mikel, Karole and Jerry Rispoli, John and Melissa Mansour, Kim Sloan, Estee Maya, Yoni Shechter http://favorize.com, Dereck Wischmeyer, Lauren Prestileo, Jaclyn Krongold, Whitney and Steve Anderson, Dan Morris, Shaun Barnes, John and Mandi Fazio www.johnandmandi.com, Jason Tyrrell and Victoria Palmer (and team Neli) www.nelisbigadventure.com, Susanne and Rhett Gurian, Jim Morris, Nicole Dweck, David Walker, Paula and Randy Schwartz, Bruce and Eileen Paster, Jason Blank, Todd and Deb Barron, Erica and Sam Christiansen www.songoftheroad.com, Nancy and David Kimberly (teacher of the year!), Makram and Samia Kamel, Roberta Andrews, Lamar and Wesley Stanley, Chloe and Toby Conroy (and Tia!) www.facebook.com/carpeviam, Harmony Page, Libby and Noah Hoppe, Tawny Bridgeford, Bob Leonard, Danielle and Alex Sonsini www.facebook.com/pages/Travelling-Jalapeno-Bros/611261765616614, Traci and Zia Khan, Tim Roberts and Randall Fields http://infoflamingo.com, Huda Ajlani and Jason Macri, Amad Demetrious www.littlebuddhasdogwalking.com, Leanna and Zach Kobrin, Rhonda Flores, Josh and Julie McGrane, Jackie Sullivan, Nabil and Elizabeth Barsoum, Peter Neirouz, Marc Brown, Janet Wood, Jamie Reese, Adam and Alyson Seligman http://theaveragegirlsguide.com, Staci Greenfield, Lukas Widtfeldt www.blackravenbrewing.com, Jeff Mansfield, Neiloufar, Amy Fearn, Erean Bishara, Dori Marlin, Christie Asencio, Brendan O’Shaughnessy, Mollie and Richard Spirer, Mike and Carly Schwartz, Zachary Capps, Marcil Salem, Kevin and Loriellen Robertson, Elvira Stepinoff, Marilyn Solomon, Jana and Jon Goodstadt, Cathy and Chris Fetgatter, Kisha and Ben Rusek, Sue Peace, Teri Wear, Betsy and Chris Casebolt, Erin Corbin, Jake Metz, and Ralph and Barbara Maya.

Random thoughts/ 1.5

One year and six months. Really. Ruminations on that milestone later but on to this month. We’ve had our ups and downs, sweat and froze, beached and mountained and north we still go! This month we:

+ went back to Lake Apoyo, Nicaragua. As we headed down to the lake late and on the wrong road, I searched for Miguel, the caretaker of the property we stayed when we were there 5 months earlier. By some miracle, I spotted him on the road and arranged for us to park at the house tomorrow, as he had already left for the day. We spent 6 semi-glorious days at our old spot on the lake, which had substantially more mosquitoes now and was way hotter. But we swam, practiced the ukulele, and Olivia found her twin.

 

+ successfully avoided the Managua market by finding “new” used tires on our way out of the lake. Our tires are an odd size and it’s been difficult to find replacements south of the border. Thankfully though, as one was flat and bald (the last original tire we left Key West with), we found something! They may be retreads from 1996 but they’re rocking and rolling. We WILL made it home on these same tires!

+ flew through northern Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador to land in Antigua, Guatemala over the course of two days of nonstop driving. That’s SIX frustrating borders in two days. I was so beat.

+ have settled into life at the tourist police in Antigua. We will be parked here until the beginning of November, nestled between the remains of an old hospital. We spend our days exploring the cobblestone colonial town, it’s many coffee shops and my favorite local market.

+ tucked our swim gear away and broken out our jeans and jackets. I cannot even begin to tell describe how amazing it is not to be sweaty first thing in the morning.

+ celebrated Hani’s 36th birthday on October 12. Now we have all celebrated 2 birthdays on the road. We wandered around Antigua with the dogs, had a scrumptious dinner and then cake with all the other travelers in the tourist police lot.

 

+ experienced our first earthquake! It was 10:00 at night and Hani was outside walking the dogs. From inside the truck, I felt Skyhorse move from side to side. Not just a sway but full on rocking back and forth. I thought Hani was pushing the truck so I yelled at him to stop messing around. He laughed that he wasn’t doing anything so I assumed he actually was. After a few more back and forths, we realized the dogs were a little freaked out. The thought that we just had an earthquake didn’t really dawn on me despite the fact that we are parked between ruins from a previous quake. It took asking two other travelers and a google search to convince me that it really was an earthquake. 7.4 all the way from El Salvador felt here!

+ launched a kickstarter campaign. We are writing a book about our travels and raising money through kickstarter to self publish it. We’ve made amazing progress but there is still time for YOU to contribute! By contributing to our kickstarter campaign, you can get a copy of our book, choose a topic for us to write about or be included in our book, depending on your donation. Click on the link, watch our video, read our book excerpt, check out the rewards on the right side of the page and donate! The more money we raise, the better our book will be! Thank you all for your support.  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2094800206/adventures-in-skyhorse

+ explored an amazing farm overlooking Antigua. The owner is in the process of opening a farm-to-table restaurant and invites guests to check out the property. We spent a few hours one afternoon rambling about the farm and orchid garden and watching the storm roll in.

 

+ realized we cannot stay in one place for a month and live in the truck. Being the cheapskate that I am, I thought with the cooler weather, we would be fine to stay in the truck and not rent a place. I now know that for our sanity, if we aren’t actually moving, we need more space than Skyhorse offers. How many of you have been waiting for me to say that?!?

+ were visited by the Mayas! My parents last visited us on the road when we were in San Diego, almost a year ago, right before we crossed into Mexico. This time, my parents came to Antigua for a 5 day visit. They brought us a bunch of goodies we were missing from home including our favorite: my dad’s homemade pumpkin pie (and seeds!). We had such a lovely time showing them the city, eating, walking, laughing, shopping, eating and more and more walking. I think they now need a vacation from their vacation.

+ rode the chicken bus with my parents to Pastores. It was all of our first time on these tricked out, polluting, crazy-fast beasts. I was hesitant about taking my parents on the bus but Hani insisted that it was part of the Guatemalan experience. I think he was secretly hoping my mom would have a melt down but they loved it, even danced along with the blasting music.

+ ate our way through Antigua. The food here really is unbelievable. You can find any type of meal you could possibly want. We’ve eaten Guatemalan (duh), Mexican, Middle Eastern, French, Italian gelato and pastries, real deli sandwiches, BBQ, crepes, and the best coffee. Coffee in Antigua is far superior to any other country we have been. It’s practically an art here.

+ toured the Finca Filadelfia coffee plantation with my parents. Aside from seeing the coffee process, the highlights were the drunk man stumbling toward our tour group with a big piece of wood and my mom yelling a story at us at top volume not realizing the group was right there listening. The coffee was fabulous.

  

+ bid fairwell to my parents and are continuing to venture into new parts of Antigua as Mochimo’s day, Day of the Dead and Halloween roll through town.

Kick start our book!

As you probably saw on our Facebook page, we are writing a book about our time on the road. We have started a Kickstarter campaign to self publish our book.

 

Kickstarter is a crowd-funded platform, meaning YOU help us reach our goal through donations. In return for your contribution, you will receive a gift and our sincere gratitude. For $15, you will receive a soft covered copy of our book. For $25, you will received 2 books. For $50, you can pick a relevant topic and we will write about it in our book (sloths, for example) along with 2 copies of our book. For $75, if we know you or have met you, we will write you into our book, along with sending you 2 copies. For $120, if we know you or have met you, we will write you and some person you have a relation to (friend, relative, spouse…) into our book, along with 2 copies.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/2094800206/adventures-in-skyhorse

When you click on our Kickstarter link, at the top you will see a video explaining our book. Underneath that is an excerpt of our book. The righthand column lists all potential gifts.

We truly appreciate all your support thus far and hope you will help us reach our goal of raising $3,000. The positive feedback and over pouring love we have received already is amazing. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU ALL!