We’ve had so many fantastic moments traveling the world continuously for the past five years. In spite of all the “regular” living, there have been challenging moments when things have gone wrong. To be fair, things go wrong even if you live in one place for five years.
We’re just thankful that it hasn’t been one of us waking up and asking the other “Who are you?” And we won’t write about the tsunami alert in Indonesia that turned out to be a huge wave of … wait for it … 2½ inches.
This is the fourth of a series of accounts of our worst moments. In spite of these few misadventures, we are still loving the life of continuous travel!
Owners Return Early During our House Sit
Zichron Yaakov, Israel
How did it happen?
In countries where the cost of living is high, we usually look for a house sitting assignment to cut back on some of the cost of our travel. We had a sweet assignment in England with an adorable therapy dog and then another terrific house sit in Israel.
Oddly, in both instances, the owners were forced to return early from their travels due to medical reasons. In England, the overlap was only a week and we enjoyed spending time together, cooking and walking the dog with our new friend.
In Israel, they returned with one of them in a leg cast. We stayed on to mow the lawn, walk the dog and do some cooking for them. After a while though, we began to feel unneeded and a little bit like an imposition, even though they insisted otherwise.
Resolution
Since Ivan had finished his work and they didn’t really need us to be there, we rented a car and set out to explore Israel. This was going to be different from our usual style of travel.
We normally settle in one area of a country for 3 months, digging into the local culture and traditions. We often have the use of the owner’s car so we are able to take the dog to nearby hikes. Israel became a road trip adventure!
We traveled the width and length of this small country, visiting good friends we hadn’t seen in countless years; and seeing new friends we had just made. We visited an archaeological dig that I worked on in my teen years. (Yes, it changed!)
We bought an annual National Parks Pass which turned out to be a real bargain. We hiked, swam and climbed in about 20 parks throughout the country. We snorkeled in Eilat, and saw the Milky Way from the desert.
Lesson Learned
When the unplanned happens, make a new plan. Where we go is pretty random anyway so what difference does it make if we change the plan? We accept the wabi sabi of travel. As long as we are together, anywhere we travel, and anything we do, is the best plan.
The other stories in “Our Worst Travel Moments” series are: