#Schummer14: Frequently Asked Questions (pre-trip edition)

Here are a few of the questions we’ve heard most often when telling folks about our plan to spend 30 days in July and August away from work and on a road trip.

Why are you doing this?

We are taking 30 days off to travel because we can and because traveling is fun and energizing to us.

{social commentary: the way people react to our trip has been insightful about their personal views on life and work. We are thankful to all who have been open-minded about our opportunity rather than projecting their insecurities onto us.}

Where are you going?

We’ll be in Toronto and Montreal first, then we’ll drive through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Ohio. Many of the stops are only two days, with longer stays in Toronto, Bar Harbor (near Maine’s Acadia National Park) and Cape Cod.

How did you get off work that long?

Lee has worked for a local non-profit for 10 years and has enough vacation saved up. We chose a time that would cause as little disruption as possible and he coordinated with coworkers to cover responsibilities. Honestly, we would have gone longer if the leadership of the non-profit had understood and valued sabbaticals for long-tenured employees in good standing. We appreciate Lee’s immediate boss and his coworkers who were all understanding of our plans. (If you want to learn more about the value of taking more than a week off at a time, I recommend this book: Reboot Your Life: Energize Your Career and Life By Taking a Break.)

I am self-employed. I get paid when I work, so I tried to pack in as much freelance writing work as possible in the first six months of the year. I let my regular clients know months ago that I’d be taking time away from work and they were all willing to work with my schedule. The last month has been crazy, though, as I got some unexpected (and very welcome) travel writing opportunities that I had to fit into my already over-committed schedule.

Are you looking for new jobs out there?

Anyone who knows Lee should know his rule: he doesn’t want to live anywhere that is as cold or colder than Wichita. That means this is not a scouting trip – way too much snow in Canada and the northeast U.S.

Is MeLinda working on the trip?

This question gets asked by those who know me too well. The answer is NO! I think by writing it, that will make it happen right??

Seriously, I have all of my commitments taken care of and my next deadline on an assignment is the end of September. The toughest part for me is going to be unplugging from travel-writer mode. I truly want to just travel and have fun as a tourist, not be on researching missions for articles. Believe me, that changes your mindset when visiting a destination. However … we are making one detour at the beginning of the trip and one at the very end to visit two places I believe I could sell articles about to existing magazine connections I have. In between, though, it’s just fun and me documenting our experiences via this blog. The blog is primarily for us, to record our big adventure!

And this doesn’t mean I won’t write about a place we visited or an experience we had for a client. I’m just not going to research it while I’m there. I can always go back or do further research from home. {That last part was for Budget Travel … just in case an editor is reading this :-) }

Do you have reservations or are you just stopping wherever you feel like it?

We have reservations. While we could likely save some money by using Priceline or HotelTonight as we go, we didn’t want to have to spend time during the trip worrying about where to stay. And we are going to Cape Cod and coastal Maine during high season, so we had to make those reservations months ago.

Why are you driving?

We looked at doing this same trip by flying to somewhere like Buffalo, N.Y., and renting a car but we ended up coming back to our original road trip idea. We like the flexibility we have by not having airline tickets purchased. We like being able to load up the vehicle and go, instead of trying to live for 30 days out of what we could pack in a couple of suitcases.

We had such a great time in 2013 on three amazing road trips – south Texas to Big Bend National Park, Atlanta to watch Wichita State play in the Final Four and a fall air/road trip combo to see the Grand Canyon – that we decided to try a month on the road.

Are you going to run out of gas?

No. We learned our lesson from the scare in Texas.

Aren’t you going to want to punch each other in the face after 30 days in the car together?

Probably a lot sooner, actually.

Kidding {sorta}.

We travel very well together. Sure there can be antsy moments when we go the wrong way and nearly run out of gas {and by we, I mean Lee} but the awesome experiences far outweigh the bad. Our 10-day trip to Nevada, Utah and Arizona (Grand Canyon) went so smoothly and was so much fun last year … we are hoping to triplicate that on this trip.

What about your dog?

Sadly, we don’t have a dog right now … and plans for this trip (which began late last year) kept us from adopting a new dog. But we are planning to get one soon!!

Who is taking care of your house?

A friend of ours is having an extensive remodel done on his house so he was happy to have a place to stay for a month in exchange for looking after it, mowing the yard, watering our plants, etc.

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#Schummer14 – Lee & MeLinda Schnyder are turning their home in Wichita, Kan., over to a friend and taking a month-long road trip. They’ll travel from Kansas to Ontario and Quebec, Canada; then through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The trip home will include stops in Ohio and Missouri. Beyond the blog, you can follow #Schummer14 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.