A New Book, a Closet Audio Experiment

The short-winded story: We’ve released our second book! 927 Days of Summer is now available as a paperback and e-book! Wahoo!

But behind every short-winded story, there is a long-winded story…

It recently occurred to me that if I were not myself, but a reader of this blog, I might be wondering what Brad and Sheena did with themselves upon their return from their 927 days of wonder. Give in to Sheena’s discovered love for miniature barking deer and start a deer farm? Capitalize on Brad’s affinity for replacing wheel bearings and start a VW repair shop? No, and no. Please. It was nothing like that. There was a short period of jubilation, followed by a brief period of soul-searching and uncertainty, and then I locked myself in my mother’s closet. For thirty hours. I don’t have any idea what Sheena was doing during that time because we had separated. Temporarily! We had separated temporarily because she thought that my idea of locking myself in a closet was asinine, and she had better things to do.
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Help Us Help Nepal

We made it! Our 3-day donation drive brought in ,120 for Nepal!

(For the back-story, read here >>)

And before I get nine thousand emails on the topic, I realize there’s a typo (write-o?) on the check. This is the first paper check I’ve written in 10 years, so it was bound to happen. Rest assured, there aren’t twenty dollars floating around in financial deep space.

The funds have been transferred, and Baroon departs today (Friday). To all 77 of the donors: THANK YOU! I know the concept of changing a life gets thrown about all too often these days, and it has sort of lost its significance.

“My trip down the Grand Canyon was life-changing.”

“With our new long-distance dialing plan we’re changing lives, people!”

“The White Stripes changed. My. Life.”
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Help Us Help Nepal!

Of the thirty four countries we explored on our around-the-world drive, Nepal left us with the most long-lasting and positive impressions. We found the Nepali people unwaveringly kind and generous. In the wake of the earthquake that has occurred there, we want to do what we can to get them what they need and ensure that they are safe, comfortable, fed, and able to rebuild quickly.
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Keeping Nacho Alive

Lately we’ve been almost altogether absent from all forms of online activity; Facebook left unattended, blog without update. I imagine the world has pretty much forgotten that we exist. So what’s the deal? Retraction from society? Playing the hermit? Having so much fun that there’s no time to stop and post a selfie to Instagram? Impossible! We don’t even have Instagram! Truth is the tell-worthy tales are piling up but I’m systematically suppressing them in order to stay focused; we hope to release our next book at the Overland Expo, and so every spare moment that I’m not working or eating or sleeping or giving Sheena a back rub, I’ve been writing new content for our book. Eye on the prize!
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The Cost of Driving Around the World

It seems like whenever it comes up in conversation that we’ve just driven our van around the world, and that to do so took nearly three years, the first thing people say is something along the lines of “That sounds expensive!” I can see why people might think that. I mean, we used to take ten day vacations to Europe, and when we would return our bank account would sometimes be $5,000 less than when we left. There were the plane tickets, the buses and trains, hotels, restaurants, and entertainment. That’s not to mention the fact that the cost ticker on rent and bills never stopped ticking while we were away. So yeah, Jesus H. Christ, if it costs $5,000 for a ten day international vacation, it must cost, like, a cool half million to do it for three straight years!
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The End of the Road

After 927 days, 45,822 miles, 34 countries, five continents, and countless hours spent watching our very own real life documentary unfold through the big screen of Nacho’s windshield, we arrived right back where we started. When it comes to good decisions that we make in life, this will certainly go down as one of the better ones. But all good things must come to an end. We set out to drive around the world, and when we pulled up in the same driveway that we left almost three years ago, we had thereby accomplished our goal.
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The Immigrant

The fact that Barna lives in Baltimore is a pretty big deal.

The first door we tried was the wrong door, and a Pakistani woman wearing a bright green sari answered. She didn’t speak English, but invited us in for tea so that we could wait for her husband to come home, as he would certainly be able to help us. This is the kind of hospitality that we came to know in South Asia, and being in Baltimore made it stand out even more. In America we’re skeptical of door knockers, a deep seeded reflex that is a result of generations of door knocking Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Girl Scouts, and Avon ladies.
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