Sophisticated? Sure. Alpaca? Absolutely!

So our blog has a goofy name, but I assure you it comes from a place of inspiration (or lack of?) If you live in the DC area (and perhaps elsewhere), you may have seen the TV commercials from the International Alpaca Association that try to lure you from the rat race to a better lifestyle, i.e. raising alpacas. Maybe it was too many late nights watching those commercials during Iron Chef, but it got us thinking about leaving DC and trying something new, and probably not involving livestock. Our other inspiration for this trip was our friends Dave and LeeAnne, who just returned from a round the world trip. You should check out their fancy blog--some really amazing photos and writing. Anyway, when it came time to set up our website, all of our brainstorms about the name devolved into discussions of alpacas, David Lee Roth, Robert Evans, and George Goober Lindsey (due to some stress—see blog post, Oh Canada!-- we’ve gone really light on the reading list). We stuck with the alpaca theme, and I hope we see some along the way.

The Short Version

USA, the southern Route:

Leaving...........Location
26-Sep ............DC
28-Sep ............Asheville, NC/Smokey Mountain National Park
30-Sep.............Hot Springs National Park
3-Oct..............Austin
6-Oct..............New Mexico
8-Oct..............Phoenix
10-Oct..............Grand Canyon
13-Oct.............Bryce
16-Oct.............Zion
17-Oct.............Beatty, NV
18-Oct.............Sequoia National Park
20-Oct.............Yosemite
23-Oct.............San Francisco
24-Oct.............Redwood National Forest
25-Oct.............Eugene, OR
28-Oct.............Portland, OR
6-Nov..............Pilot Rock
11-Nov.............Los Angeles

International:
Date........Departing City.......Arriving City
11-Nov.............LAX...............Auckland, New Zealand
6-Dec..............Auckland..........Sydney, Australia
11-Dec.............Sydney............Bangkok, Thailand
Overland...........Bangkok...........Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam
5-Feb..............Ho Chi Min City...Tokyo, Japan
15-Feb.............Tokyo.............Hong Kong, China
20-Feb.............Hong Kong.........Johanesburg, South Africa
24-Feb.............Johanesberg.......Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Overland...........Victoria Falls....Tanzania
4-Apr.............DarEsSalaam, Tanz...London, England
8-Apr..............London............Istanbul, Turkey
21-Apr.............Istanbul..........Madrid, Spain
12-May.............Madrid............Buenos Aires, Argentina
Overland...........Buenos Aires......Santiago, Chile
22-May.............Santiago..........Easter Island, Chile
2-June.............Easter Island.....Santiago, Chile
6-June.............Santiago..........Portland, OR

**This is our itinerary as of February '08. Hopefully, we won't have to change it again!