When I first came up with this scheme to drive around the world, it was a secret from my family for a while. I knew that my mom and sister would be worried, so it seemed better to get things in motion before getting their input. Months went by and then I decided to tell Katie (my sister). Around this time I was still early in the planning phases of the journey. Katie likely just brushed this off as another one of the silly ideas I tend to come up with on a regular basis.
Time went on and things were really rolling. We had ten’s of thousands of hits on the website per month and some potential sponsors. We were certainly nearing a point that the possibility of pulling off this wild scheme was eminent. This was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 months from departure. It seemed appropriate to tell Mom about the idea now. Her first reaction was that it was the stupidest thing I had ever came up with and she was very upset. She went on and on about how dangerous it was and the likelihood of me getting hurt or killed. We left it at that…she surely hoped that the expedition would not come to fruition.
Months later I went out to have some beers with my sister. On the surface my mother gave the impression that maybe it was not the worst idea ever. The thoughts she was putting in my sisters head were very contrary to my impressions. Katie and I finished a few beers and were having some great conversations about all of the things TWBR had in store. At some point the "going through 20 some countries on the state department’s do not travel list" did not set so well with Katie. Some crying ensued and I asked what bothered her so much. I found out that good old mom told her that I was going to die while on this expedition.
Since then I have obviously not died, my Mom is probably the biggest fan of the trip, and there is a lot less crying. Katie and Mom have been two of my biggest supporters. In fact, even though my sister does not make a ton of money, she gave us a pretty sweet donation before we left. She has been doing all kinds of busy work and taking care of tons of things for us at home.
Not a day goes by that I do not think about her, she is the best sister around. TWBR would not exist without her. Even after all the times she has been concerned, even after being convinced that I might die, she is still giving money to us and wasting countless hours running around Denver keeping things in order. In fact, she is the only person so far that has taken the initiative to sign up for a subscription to the site. So thanks sister, I probably would have given up by now if it was not for you.
