We TRAVEL not to escape life,
but so LIFE doesn’t escape us!
In October 2023 we shipped a compact VW T6.1 campervan to Colombia for the purpose of multiple 4-6 month adventures over the next few years. This first leg is a 6-month journey south to Buenos Aires. We'll park the van in April, fly home, and return in November to explore Patagonia. Plenty of photos on Facebook albums:
Mr Cool has accumulated over 100,000km travelling overland, and is posting photos at instagram.com/MrCoolsAdventures
HISTORY: It was May of 1999 - we sold everything we owned, left New York City, and began what was to be a quick 1-year trip around the world on 2 motorcycles. Some 4.5 years and 50 countries later we finished in August 2003, and managed to break a Guinness Record along the way. We moved to Boulder, Colorado soon after, to begin a new life, which included beginning a career in real estate.
15-years later, in Oct of 2018 we began the cycle again... we sold our home, sold our RE/MAX ownership, sold our business, (kept our rental properties), left our friends and the life we built in Colorado, and headed overseas to see what's next for us. It seems we have a lust for new experiences...
We then spent the next 18-months traveling through West Africa, the EU, the Baltics to the Adriatic in eastern Europe, and flew to Georgia for a motorcycle "vacation".
In the fall of 2019 we bought an apartment in the center of Budapest's historic old city, which required a significant renovation and lots of oversight. We've made Budapest our base during spring and autumn, winter we rent AirBnBs in warm climates, and continue our adventure travels during the summers.
After spending a winter in Lisbon, Portugal, we moved into our flat on the first day of Covid lock-down, March 15, 2020. Two months later we started fostering dogs, then in May we met and later adopted Mr Cool.
In 2020 Chris formalized his consulting business which focuses on "Short-term solutions for long-term results". It's a monthly service geared towards small business owners, team managers, and real estate agents looking to build and grow market share. He's also started consulting other Adventurers on long-term travel.
In April 2021 we purchased a campervan, a Possl Roadcruiser B built on a Citroen Jumper chassis. It's pretty much stock, though we did ad a lift kit and All Terrain tires - it's only 2wd, but gets us just about anywhere we want in Europe. Our first big trip was 66 days through Scandinavia, with 62 nights in the van and only 7 nights in campgrounds. In October we swapped the scooter for a motorcycle, then later a trailer to take it with us on our 3-month trips. It can be a hassle, but it's definitely worth having with us.
Summer 2022 our plans for Central Asia were once again deflected, so we headed down to the Balkans with the van and moto, and Mr Cool visited his 30th country when we took the moto to Corfu, Greece. This winter we're thinking Malta, Sicily, back to Spain, and maybe Morocco. One of these days we'll get to Iran.
Sept 2023 we'll ship our new T6.1 VW California Ocean to South America, spend 5-6 months exploring, then we'll park it, fly back to Budapest for 6 months, then back to SA for another 5-6 months. We'll see how it goes...
