About Us : The Infinite Road

 so here's the story-

about two months ago,  brian and i were on our lunch break discussing the possibility of driving to mexico to surf, and if we were to go as far as mexico, we may as well hit south america, and if we made it that far, we may as well go to africa, and so on...

we came up with an imaginary itinerary and how much money and time would be needed to make it happen.  as we plotted the would-be route, the more enthusiastic we became about actually doing it.  we knew it would take a little scheming and a lot of work to acquire the funds to do it, but it seemed like it could be done.  so that was it, it seemed possible, it seemed important, and that's all it generally takes to set us in motion.

since then, we've been selling all our personal belongings, which is sometimes very liberating, and sometimes very depressing.  i sold my motorcycle last week, and i thought i was mentally ready for it, but i cried when i saw it go.  it's stupid what you become attatched to, especially when it's such a small sacrifice for such a great reward.  we'll be selling our house as well...  our house has been our security, and probably the only thing worth working for, as far as material objects go, but it is also our freedom, allowing us to take whatever opportunities may one day come.  it will be sad to see it go, but it's a small sacrifice for the greater good.

here's the crew-

i have had the good fortune to do a lot of the things i have wanted to do because of the support and influence of my longtime husband, brian moody.
brian has often said that he does not rely on luck in any aspect of his life...  lucky things don't just happen to him, and i think that if you were to find brian in a fortunate situation, it would be because he had worked very hard to get there.  last year, after many years of effort and determination, he won the pike's peak hillclimb open class in a car that he built all by himself.
he's also pretty smart, he can fix or build just about anything.  when we used to have a print shop in brooklyn, we found ourselves in heavy demand at one point...  brian alleviated our work load by building an automated poster press out of scrap metal, a shop vac, and miscellaneous odds and ends.
i don't think i'd attempt a trip like this without brian, and i'm glad that i'll be able have this experience with him.

throughout the years, we've had very few friends like jeremiah hudson.  before we met jer, he had been described to us on multiple occasions as "a cool guy, a good guy", a simple, perfect and true description.
there aren't very many people that you can just call up out of the blue and leave a voice message saying, "yeah, we're gonna drive around the world in a car that we don't have yet, so sell all your stuff, quit your job, let's go".
jer returned my call about an hour later, more enthusiastic than i was.  at that moment, jer had graduated from "good guy" to "great guy".
jer is also a film maker, and much to his talent, persistense and good charachter, has done well in an industry that is known to be one of the hardest to succeed in.
we both consider jer to be one of the best friends we'll ever have, and we're honored to have him along for the ride.

and then there's me... it's hard to make a formal introduction for yourself if you've never had to before.  my name is erika lucero, and if i had to make a case of what my assets were and why i should get to go on this trip, i guess this is what i'd say-
i'm an excellent navigator, and i can even read those free maps in mexico that look like a little kid drew it with crayons.  i guess all my years as a rally car navigator will finally pay off.
i'm also pretty resourceful, i'll bet that if we needed to find a fuel pump in the middle of mongolia, i could probably find it.
i also took a couple of spanish classes, which would make me the most proficient linguist in the whole crew.
but i think that more than anything, i am the one at brian's side.  we're usually on the same page, working for the same thing.  i don't think there is anything the two of us couldn't overcome together, and we'll make no exceptions for our latest adventure.    

 
did i mention that we'll be bringing our dog?  his name is dremel, and he's got more charachter and intelligence than most people i know.  he's sometimes too smart, and will not hesitate to let you know what he thinks, polite or not.
dremel's already pretty well traveled for a dog, i think he's the only dog ever to go inside the alamo.  we couldn't possibly leave him behind, he gets pretty bad separation anxiety...  we left him for a week with a sitter while we went on vacation, and he burrowed a hole into our bed, tore apart everything in sight, and would not let the sitter near him.
we've found a dog friendly route so that there will hopefully be no problems.
he's a good ol' dog, and i can't imagine my life without him.