Post 2: It was pointed out to me the other day, while on the phone with a friend of many years, that the juicy parts of the Moving Out Of The Country have not yet been documented. It's one thing to say "We're moving to Scotland for a year or so." But it's not as easy as packing the bikes and going to the airport. So, for the fun of it, I'll try to give you some idea of the things we've been working on for the last several months in order to begin this adventure.

Step 1: Pick the departure date. How long to continue at our jobs? Maximize the time to make money, but the frantic last few weeks shouldn't be complicated by jobs. So … haggle, discuss, debate, wrangle, cogitate … and decide. The 14th of July we're leaving.

Step 2: Airfare to Scotland. And let's stop in Iceland for a couple days. Because we can. Done.

Step 3: Book our tuition at the Fiddle Frenzy in Shetland. http://www.shetlandarts.org/whats-on/festivals/fiddle-frenzy/ And since we're meeting Bozeman friends there, let's also book an Airbnb for the 1-1/2 weeks we'll be there. Done.

Step 4: Start collecting equipment. Wool clothes, rain gear, new helmets, bike shoes, panniers, head lamps, tail lamps, waterproof gloves, windproof gloves, wool beanies, neck dickies, wool socks, bike shorts, repair kits, sewing kits, patch kits, tool kits, cooking kits… It starts to look like this:

Step 5: Time ticks by. And some other things crop up. How about a credit card that doesn't have international transaction fees? Let's sign up, and let's each get one so we have a backup. Done.

Step 6: The phone. We've looked into cell service while we're overseas, and Verizon offers a very expensive and limited overseas plan; it'll have to do for a short while. We'll find WiFi where we can, and figure out a more efficient mobile phone setup once we get there.

Steps 7 - 22: More time ticks by, and we realize we need to … set up the bank accounts so that we can pay credit cards on-line. Remember the stop-over in Iceland? Better book a place to stay! Also, how do we store our still-packed bikes at the airport? Remember our trip to Shetland? We're taking the ferry, so book passage to and from Shetland.

As an aside: For all these different bookings we're picking up tickets at will-call, but in order to prove I've purchased the tickets I need to have access to the receipts and booking confirmations. So every time we book something, we download the PDF to the iPad. It all takes time.

Another aside: we play in a couple of bands here, and so we need to set up the Google Drives with our band mates.

Step 23: Insurance! In order to stay in Scotland we must have proof of insurance, and we can buy it on the Marketplace. The Affordable Health Care Act allows people like us to do things like this - chase our version of the American Dream. If we had to buy private insurance we never could afford to quit our jobs. Anyway, we have to set up all of that, too.

Step 24: Money matters... We're going to have separate credit cards and ATM cards. We have to set up that system, create the accounts, move the money around …. it all takes time!

Step 25: Power of Attorney forms. It all takes time!

Step 26: We're moving out of the apartment, remember? Need to find a home for the house plants, homes for the guitars, banjo, fiddles, key board, and ukelele. And will the rest of everything else fit into the 5 x 10 storage unit?

Step 27: We're selling our cars, and keeping our old reliable pick-up. Mine has already sold by the time I post this, and the buyer of her car is picking it up on the 3rd of July. Perfect!

Step 28: We're playing a gig for our Scottish Country Dance group. Rehearse as much as we can at the very last minute, and play for the dance (fully 1/2 of a Ball Program).

Step 29 - 35: Prepare gear. Make a removable pannier for carrying the guitar on Melinda's bike. But how to carry the fiddle? Need to make waterproof bags for the guitar and the fiddle. Sew a zipper on the sleeping bags so we can join them. Patch the hole in the air mattress (or buy a new one?). Add reflective tape to the helmets and jackets. Tune up the bikes. Begin final selection of on-bike clothing and gear.

Right. I'd better quit. We're down to 2-1/2 weeks, and I have more work to do!

Greetings, fans of the 92 String Duet! This is our first blog post, and there's probably not a whole lot to say...

We're a couple of musicians who have masqueraded as professionals for most of our lives. One a nurse, and the other an engineer. But all the while we've dreamed of making music, so now we're going to chase our dreams.

We're packing up our material possessions and storing them in beautiful Bozeman, Montana, while we cycle off to Scotland, Ireland, and greater Europe. The intention is to live on our bikes as long as the weather allows, and then find a way and a place to settle down for a bit in Scotland. Then we'll go on to Ireland for a while, and somewhere in the next year we'll make our way to Amsterdam.

Stay tuned for pics and words of our adventures, and feel free to send messages and such. We'll update from time to time, but finding WiFi in the far northwest Highlands is probably unlikely. And if I run across a haggis, that's going to take priority to updating the blog, I'll say!

For starters, here's a picture of our first go at cycle touring last year. This is in Yellowstone, before we departed for Jackson, Wyoming. We later determined this was entirely too much stuff, and shipped some stuff home from Jackson.

We have a lot to learn about cycle touring, living simply, and chasing our dreams out there in the big wide world. But if we don't get started then we'll never get there. 

And even if we never "get there," at least we're out there doing it.