Earlier this month, we marked a milestone. It’s been five years since we left our home country, the United States, to begin our drive around the world.
On October 9, 2021, we crossed the border from Eagle Pass, Texas, into Mexico. We were driving the 2021 Jeep Gladiator we ordered straight from the factory, then spent 45 days building in four different states. We had turned this Jeep pickup truck into the tiniest home on wheels. The three of us have called it home ever since. Caspian, who was four years old when we moved into Dauntless, doesn’t remember anything beforehand.
It’s been a ride. We spent a lot longer in Latin America than anticipated, leaning into the hourless part of “Hourless Life.”
- October 2021-March 2022: Mexico 🇲🇽
- March-November 2022: Central America 🇧🇿🇬🇹🇸🇻🇭🇳🇳🇮🇨🇷🇵🇦
- November 2022-March 2025: South America 🇨🇴🇪🇨🇵🇪🇨🇱🇦🇷🇧🇷🇺🇾
- March-September 2025: Mexico 🇲🇽
Four years in Latin America was not the plan, but life unfolded that way. Originally, we planned to return to the United States every two years to visit family and friends. But we ended up making more visits than expected in the beginning. We lost Eric’s mom while we were in Ecuador.
For all that time in Latin America, a part of all our hearts is there and maybe always will be. I miss hearing and speaking Spanish, a language I adore but butcher. I miss the people: their smiles, traditions, history, and deep attachment to family.
In January 2026, Dauntless made his way from Uruguay to South Africa in a container on a ship. His second time on an ocean (the first was crossing the Darién Gap between Panamá and Colombia in 2022).
We flew to meet Dauntless in Cape Town and began our journey across a third continent. We’ve been in Africa since then. 🇿🇦🇳🇦🇧🇼🇿🇲🇿🇼 We’ve put down our deposit to ship to Europe in early 2027.
Caspian has visited two dozen countries in his nine years of life, most of which he drove all the way across (in the case of Argentina, the world’s 8th-largest country, he’s driven north to south, west to east, east to west, and south to north).
Combining this international journey with the seven years prior we spent traveling full-time in the United States, we’ve been on the road for nearly 13 years. This means our relationship to travel is strange, abnormal. Travel is our normal. Instability and unfamiliarity are our constant companions.
And it is not easy. I think because the not-easy is also our normal, we don’t always realize when we are off-balance (I speak for myself). Stasis is tricky to find when everything around us is changing.
But in this, we grow. Constantly and deeply. Not in a linear way. With plenty of rollercoaster action, inside and out.
We love sharing our drive around the world with you. When in doubt, we always remember our family mission statement: Love. Explore. Study. Share.
This statement abbreviates LESS, emphasizing everything we’ve given up to gain what matters to us.
And as we share our adventure, we hope to inspire and empower you to see the world in a fresh way and act on what you learn. It’s a big, beautiful world out there.
Thanks for being part of our journey.
-B
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