Thanks for the invite to this get-together. I haven't been on the forum for about six months so it might be the right time to update my friends here...unfortunately, I will not be able to attend this get-together, as I am presently very...hmmm...busy...
At the end of last summer, my Yellowknife position was downgraded to part-time, so I took this as an opportunity to negotiate a remote-work arrangement with my employer...This was a blessing in disguise, as I was planning to quit by the end of 2016 anyway...but this newly-found freedom meant that I could basically be anywhere in the world while still earning a decent income, on the condition that I do a couple of hours of work every day and attend our quarterly board meeting in Yellowknife. With that in mind, I talked to my wife into realizing this dream of mine: to drive from Northern Canada to Patagonia via the Panamericana...so we quickly sold our Calgary place, moved a few things to a studio apartment we were renting after our renter left town, got rid of the car and almost all personal belongings and furniture, bought an older X-Terra, loaded our rooftop tent, packed a cooler, propane stove and a few other essentials, and left (cat included), with the goal of reaching Patagonia by December 2018...we are now in Mexico and our schedule was to cross from Panama to Columbia in March, but we fell in love with this culturally and geographically diverse country and decided to stick around at least for another year. Maybe more, who knows. Our plans are and have always been fluid, and the journey is more important than the destination.
We will be back to Calgary (and Yellowknife for a few weeks of work) in June to sell or rent our studio and put whatever we have left in storage. We should have done that in September but we were in a rush to leave before the snow...then we will take the road again in September. Stay tuned for updates!