the life of an entrepreneur on the road entails down days as well as up.

the life of an aussie returning home after a year on the road has its down days as well as up.

we spent my second week in australia deep in reality. ryan fixing up his truck to ensure that it would make it the 5,000 km we were about to drive across the country. and me making sure that black friday, small business saturday, cyber monday, and giving tuesday promotions got out smoothly.

it is good to get a dose of reality. soak in time with ryan’s friends and family. catch up on work and stay balanced.

thanksgiving and christmas have always been big holidays within my immediate family. my siblings and i rarely spend them anywhere else but with each other. and what did i do this year? i flew across the world just in time to miss both.

yet, as luck would have it, ryan and i happened to have dinner plans at his aunt’s house on thanksgiving day. he had no clue that he had planned it that way, but i did. with ryan and his mom, brother, brother’s girlfriend, aunt, and uncle gathered around the dinner table, i announced that it was american thanksgiving and made everyone say what they were grateful for this year.

it was weird to not be around my family for turkey and rice-a-roni and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, but a chook with a beer can up its bum on the barbie was a nice substitute.

oh and the ice cream. there was lots of ice cream bars involved for dessert including one which i incorrectly called a “gay tom” all night long. it is apparently a “gay time.” damn aussie accents.

oh and then there was our band. no, neither one of us can actually play an instrument.

this is a bit belated, but i have a lot to be thankful for this year. thousands of miles away from home, and i still feel home. i am blessed to have family and friends that make it easy to take them with me wherever i go. their love and laughter never escapes my mind. and watching my father take a photo on his phone of my face on skype video on my brother’s flatscreen made it almost worth being away for the holidays.

now here i am in australia making new relationships that will come along with me as i journey further.

like gordo’s (ryan’s dad) amazing jokes:

him: you know i saved ryan from drowning one time.
me: oh yeah?
him: yeah, i just took my foot off his head. boom boom.

“boom boom” is what he says instead of our classic bah dum chesh (no clue how to spell out that sound effect). there were several occasions where i had to wait for the boom boom because i had no clue if he was telling a joke or teaching me a new australian fact. talk about a man who can keep you laughing.

or heather’s (ryan’s mom) genuine hugs. i have never been greeted with such a heartwarming embrace. the kind that makes your insides fill with butterflies and endorphins.

or dale and steph (ryan’s brother and his girlfriend) and all their puppy love. who knew two white puppies (and two amazing people) could steal your attention for so many hours of entertainment.

or getting to meet ryan’s granddad and seeing an old man have just as much sass as i’m sure he had in his youth.

or connecting with my fellow hippie spirit, ryan’s aunt vicki.

the memories are already too many to recount, and my time in palm beach unfortunately had to come to an end. but it’s always an epic end with ryan. a night out on the town for a friend’s birthday filled with delicious food and expensive wine and shutting down the dodgy “shark bar” at 2am with good old matty rogers.

time to pack up the ute and hit the dirt road…literally. further and farther into the middle of nowhere australia we go. hours and hours amongst just the termite mounds and meandering cows.

i step off the airplane and into the sun. i get asked to put my cell phone away by a familiar accent as i cross the tarmac and enter the sliding glass doors leading to customs, only to realize that i have completely unopened, delicious snacks from portland still carefully snuggled between books and planners and pens in my baby blue corduroy jansport backpack. damn it.

i hate giving up food at international borders. are my dried mangoes and coconut covered cashews really going to cause the end of the world on the other side of this security gate? highly unlikely. are they even going to check the blonde-haired, blue-eyed american girl’s bag? highly unlikely. but alas, i give up the snacks (except the portland chocolate bars and coffee i have brought as gifts).

of course they don’t check anything. i don’t even think they looked at my face while stamping my passport. i miss those dried mangoes already.

the good news is that i am now in a country where it’s hot enough to grow mangoes right now. and in a town with a mango tree in the neighbor’s front yard. what luck!

it has been almost a week since ryan stood embarrassingly waiting for me in the airport with a sad, but cute attempt at a sign reading “sara aka possum” being held by a stuffed platypus puppet. (possum is a common term of endearment in aussieland. their possums are a lot cuter than ours.)

we immediately loaded my bags into his brand new used ute (truck) and hit the bitumen (pavement) for the hour or so drive from brisbane back to ryan’s hometown on the gold coast.

palm beach (or palmy as the locals call it) is your quintessential beach town. salty air and sunshine. surf clubs and local pubs. run down streets lined mostly with one story brick homes that look like they belong back in the 1950s. anywhere you stand, you are always only a block or two away from water. even if it’s just a manmade canal that leads to a salty river and into the ocean.

straightaway, i get the hometown tour. complete with a bite at a cute main street brekky (breakfast) joint, drive through neighboring suburbs to check out local surf spots, and steak on the barbi (barbecue) with ryan’s family, the grants. a family that has an old car that has been passed from son to son to son and ended up as a memento in the backyard. yep, dad, you would love them.

jet lag? what’s that! i think my jam-packed day one might have been ryan’s attempt to make up for the fact that i lost an entire day on my trip across the world.

but then it didn’t stop.

the next day we packed up the truck with camping and surfing essentials and headed to the hippie capital of eastern australia, byron bay.

by midday, we were drinking beers at a beachside pub with ryan’s aunt and her new hubbie. by late arvo (afternoon), we were sitting out amongst the waves trying our best to hang ten. by evening, we were enjoying an amazing meal and live music at the locals only spot. by nightfall, we were curled back up in our natural habitat…a tent on the ground. what a day two.

the next morning, we found a cute restaurant a few minutes out of town since the traffic on the two lane road going back into downtown byron was at a standstill. we lounged on comfy couches drinking our coffee (after finally figuring out that my preferred drink order is a “flat white” in australian coffee-ology), eating our tasty breakfast sangas (sandwiches), and allowing ourselves to drift deep into meandering conversation. ahh the good life.

then onto the lighthouse, the most easterly point of australia. what a view.

oh, and i saw my first wallaby!

then back to the sea for a surf.

then back to the ute (what a beaut) to drive home. sunned and ready for an afternoon nap.

now you might be thinking, sara, don’t you have to do work? and yes, that is exactly what i did on day four.

ryan and i went our separate ways. i stared at my computer and caught up on everything i had been pushing aside. and ryan went to the garage to fix up his truck. it needs a bit of love before we take it on our adventure up north along the east coast and over west to port hedland (aka the middle of nowhere).

but there could be worse things than working in an office like this… (and eating carrot cake for breakfast.)

and then came friday night.

it was ryan’s friend’s birthday party so i was put on the hot seat. meeting the gang. i wanted to make a good first impression, and well, after taking a horrendous spill off my bike and onto the asphalt, i am pretty sure they will never forget the night we met. and currently, my elbow and knee are having a hard time forgetting as well.

please note that yes, i was indeed sober when i ate shit. and please note that yes, later that night i was able to ride my bike home with ease after quite a bit to drink.

day five. hmm. day five did not start until noon. you give up your day for the night sometimes, and friday night left us both a bit worked. however, we recovered just in time to wish ryan’s mom heather a happy birthday and meet steph’s (dale’s (ryan’s brother) girlfriend) mom who was in town from melbourne.

after a quick afternoon stumptown coffee on the back deck, it was time to head back into my couch and television cocoon. see you when day six comes along.

wake up and head to the suburb of burleigh for the sunday arts and craft market. a quaint little row of tents along the beach sporting the usual sorts of knickknacks, clothing, and tasty treats.

after a nice morning stroll, a couple coffees, and a sugarcane juice with ginger, we took a drive with the windows down and tunes up through the valley and took in the rock pools.

then we headed home and hopped into the “skis” for a “paddle.” i was unsure of how my paddling skills would be, but as i sat down in the super skinny, hard-to-balance, semi-kayak-ish boat with ryan’s dad gordon watching from the deck, i was fine.

actually, i was pretty good.

we paddled out of the canal behind gordon’s house and into the river. the salty river. it is still so weird to me.

there are a lot of things that are still a bit weird to me here. like jumping into the left side of the truck and then proceeding to stay in the left hand lane when turning left. like hearing every word shortened to something like brekky or skatey and not seeing a baby in sight. like being the one who has the strange accent. like questioning if i am going to die when i see a massive spider chilling near my open suitcase.

oh, and signs like this…

but i am loving it. and making friends with lots of really cute dogs. and getting a healthy glow (even with SPF 50 slathered on everywhere).

this morning, we woke up at 6am and had a surf before i set up my patio office and began to tackle my monday to-do list.

not too bad at all…

it was 3am on monday, november 11, 2013. exactly two years prior, i was arriving in portland for the first time in my life. cari the blue cavi packed full to the brim and me unprepared for the adventures and magic that would unfold over the next 24 months.

they tell you to make a wish when the clock strikes 11:11, and believe in superstitions or not, arriving on 11/11/11 must have shifted the universe in my favor because all my wishes keep coming true. wishes i didn’t even know i had.

two years later, on that same fateful day, i sat staring at my computer. flipping between delta and expedia and southwest and the australian government department of immigration and border protection tourist visa information page.

after a conversation with colby and then one with ryan, there was a new adventure brewing. the butterflies in my stomach were starting to emerge from their cocoons. my current vagabonding was not even over. i was in vegas prepping to head to portland for a quick check-in and then off to bishop for thanksgiving and then onto san francisco for a week with three of my favorite women (aunt viv, ruthie, and aunt pupsi) and then home for a cold, hopefully white, chicago birthday, christmas, and new year’s eve.

but then, in my sleepy stupor, i found myself clicking “apply now.” ten minutes and A$20 later, i had a 12 month tourist visa to australia.

shit.

those damn butterflies were having a wwf smackdown inside my belly. was i just tired? was i sick? what the hell was my stomach doing? it is just a visa. it was just $20. i could easily change my mind.

and then, in some sort of out-of-body experience, i was clicking purchase on a delta flight: LAX > SYD > BNE.

fuck.

now don’t get me wrong, i am very excited for this chance to get to know a new, wonderfully enchanting country, so a few of you are probably wondering why the dramatic build up. sara, you always do this. fly by the seat of your pants. but do you fly 7,286 miles to the other side of the world? where it is actually already tuesday?

what most people don’t perhaps know about me is that i am surprisingly anal when it comes to planning. despite my current trend of leaving flights until the very last minute and not alerting my family that i’ll be back in chicago until i need a ride home from the airport, i am a organization freak. i write down things in my planner and create endless lists and will organize your emails or photos into perfectly segregated and color coated folders if you let me.

while average americans spend months researching and planning before they book their once-in-a-lifetime trip to australia, i was giving myself seven days. in exactly one week, i would boarding a plane to the land down under.

bloody hell.

i usually consult at least seven friends and family members before making a big decision like spending up to three months in a foreign country. i talk it out in a million and one ways. weigh the pros and cons. let them play devil’s advocate.

but this time, i didn’t.

now, if you have been keeping up with my blog, you already know why. if you have no idea why i would spontaneously spend an absurd amount on a plane ticket to a foreign country, give up my southwest a-list status, and miss the holidays with my friends and family, i’ll give you one guess. (and then you should probably read my last few blog posts.)

although i get a lot of slack for my inexplicable nature to end up in new cities due to romance, it has served me well and given me a life that will make screenplay writer jonathan west rich one day.

chase a boy to ann arbor and have an amazing educational experience worth every penny of my student loans. chase a boy to grand rapids and build a resume full of respectable real life experience. chase a boy to portland and take the leap into location independent self-employment. yet all these instances were the same: date boy for a year or two, decide to move somewhere new, end relationship almost immediately after arriving in the new setting.

never before have i chased a boy that i have only known for a month to a country on the other side of the globe on a whim (and a hunch). i think my odds are way better with this method.

yesterday i got my hair cut in portland. figured i would clean up a bit after living in the woods for two months and before meeting a bunch of aussie strangers. the stylist was indulging in my silver-screen-worthy tale and adding her own chapter about “her aussie.” (it seems everyone has their own what i am now calling aussie-ism.) she reflected that there is just something about them. this “rugged manliness with a soulful interior” that just captivated her from the moment she met him.

i guess…

we are crazy.

or maybe just i am crazy.

either way, at 6am this morning my buddy luca picked me up.

we loaded my suitcase into his trunk taking bets on if i would have to relocate a thing or two into my carry-on to meet the 50 lb. weight limit. he guessed 45, 47 tops. i said 52. turns out it was 52.5 lb., but she let me check it anyways. with all my traveling, my right arm has become a pretty accurate luggage scale.

awhile ago someone gave me a little booklet about the size of an index card that was titled travel. it is full of quotations about exactly that. it has been in my backpack ever since, but i rarely open it and read it. the other day i did.

“journeys, like artists, are born and not made. a thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will…” – lawrence durrell

one plain bagel with cream cheese and tall blonde roast with cream later, and i am sitting on a flight to los angeles due to “a thousand differing circumstances” not one of which i would change. charly bliss belting out blondie in my ears while my tummy butterflies flutter a dance only my gypsy heart can understand.

see you in the outback.