Travel the Fernweh

Hi, I’m Carly. Thanks for being here.

Before we go any further I want to preface the fact that the last time I kept a blog, I was a Junior in College studying abroad and living in Australian’s Northern Territory. I was 20 years old and was blessed with the opportunity to see the world, (From the other side of the one I knew so well) and I wanted to capture every bit of it.

I made a promise to myself before I left that I would write in my journal every single night. Some of the Saturday night entries turned into Sunday morning edits, given that we’d “Been on the piss” too long the prior evening to even be able to form sentences, but that’s besides the point.

In my “flat” I had a tiny piece of paper stuck above my desk that read: “Fernweh.” Fernweh is a German word meaning “Wanderlust” or a “Longing for far or unseen places” The definition of the word comes from fern (meaning “far”) and weh (defined as “pain” or “woe”) Fernweh, then is farsickness, or longing for far off places, especially those not visited yet. The travel bug bit me, hard. And from that point forward I knew I wanted to see as much of the world as I possibly could.

I remember the day so clearly when Mike (My husband) and I decided we wanted to change everything. We’d been married for about a year and had been only living in our home for about nine months. We both weren’t super thrilled about our jobs and missed our hometown (Where we were both raised and still have family). We talked for hours that night after work about what it would be like to see the country together. To visit the National Parks, to hike and fish and camp together. At that time it only felt like a dream.

We knew in order to make any of it happen, we would need to start small. We first needed to find a camper or van of some sort to live and travel in. We spent a lot of time at RV dealerships and didn’t end up having luck, until we met a sweet couple through Facebook Marketplace. They ended up selling us their “Dutchmen” travel trailer and we pulled it home the very next week. In the following months, we left our jobs, moved back to our hometown and in with my parents, (and eventually sold our house). We mapped out our route, got super pumped and planned to leave New York in March.

The funny thing about making plans is that most of the time their not ours to make. Covid-19 abruptly halted everything. (I’m sure you can all say the same) Borders were shut down, restaurants closed or only offered take out. We were ordered to stay in our homes unless we were deemed “Essential workers” and were learning more and more about the virus daily. We changed our departure date to April and eventually ended up postponing the trip altogether.

A lot happened over the next seven months. My ate a lot of take-out. Mainly Sushi. We worked a lot and saved as much as we could. (And were blessed to still have jobs) My Grandpa got Covid and beat it after spending 39 days in the hospital. (Which was a miracle in itself). Despite the uncertainty, we kept planning our route, in hopes our trip would eventually happen.

Two days ago, October 9th we hit the ol’ dusty trail (As my husband says) and are currently in Maineville, Ohio where we stopped to visit with my Aunt, Uncle, Cousin Christine, her husband and three children. Berkley, our yellow lab is currently sprinting around the yard with the neighbor dog and joined in our flag football game this afternoon.

If you’re still reading this, thank you. Mike and I are looking forward to sharing our lives and travels with you over the next several months. Stay tuned and stay safe.

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