Can a body be one big bruise?

This past weekend we floated the Provo River with a couple of our friends. It costs $10 per person to rent a tube and life jacket, so someone I work with suggested we buy our own tubes. Great idea right? We bought some tubes from Big Lots that did not have holes in the middle, big mistake.

The first 5 minutes were nice and relaxing, even though the water was freezing we dealt with that. But when we had to manuever under a bridge and then immediately under a railroad bridge things got a bit sticky. I ended up being raked over rocks for a couple of hundred feet, my shoes and tube sent flying. The river's current was too strong for me to stand up and too shallow for me to swim so I was screaming (I thought I was screaming) "Jake." However, Jake says all he heard were gasping noises. (this was probably the second coldest I have ever been in my life, so it makes sense)

After living through that we were tipped another time by fast moving water (we determined it was our tubes that had a too high of center of gravity that were ultimately to blame) and did not recover from this one. Jake's tube was lost and so was Jake! I grasped my tube (bruising my finger tips, the very tips!!) and had to hold on for deal life and again I was dragged across rocks and sticks! Finally the other girl we were with helped me get out and Jake caught up. But we were left with only 3 tubes so the boys rode to the bottom to get the care while the two of us waited on the edge of the river. Two hours later, bruised and broken they picked us up and we all went back to their house barefoot, starving, and exhausted.

The first step is the hardest

Step one to our dream of traveling the world, stop buying stuff! Consumerism is my new enemy, I had to give about 10 pairs of shoes to DI last week just to make some room in the closet. But today I sold Jake's bike, his beloved bike. A bike that he bought 4 years ago and used a total of 3 times! Consumerism at its finest. (You would think working in adverting would keep me from falling prey to it, but nope I buy uneccesary stuff as much as the next person.)

Traveling the world obviously does not lend itself to having a lot of stuff. So pondering this fact I have realized I don't want STUFF, I want experiences and memories. Just thinking about traveling the world makes me happy so thinking about preparing to travel the world makes me happy too. And if that includes selling everything I own and living out of a back pack, cool! If it includes awesome countries I've never seen and exciting adventure sign me up.

Look ma I have a blog!

We're Jake and Ariel, two twenty-somethings that have already become bored with our corporate lifestyles, we want something more! That's why we have decided to become nomads, traveling the world to see what's out there. Our story begins about a year before our world travels is set to begin so stay tuned as we make it happen...