Planning for the trip

"Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us."

This quote comes from the John Steinbeck book "Travels with Charley", the inspiration for the title of this blog. We are planning our trip to Panama that will begin early this December, consuming 5 to 6 months of our life. The details are few at this point beyond the final destination, as it is hard to structure a journey of this magnitude. We will be taking our trusted Toyota Matrix through the U.S., Mexico, Guatamala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Armed with a few surfboards, a guitar, and a sense of adventure, we will try to update everyone along the way with this blog.