Tell me about your vision. My vision is that
curious people make life worthwhile and entertaining.
In 2022, my wife and I were kind of depressed.
And so she found a way out. Her way out was essentially...
So rather than being quarantined from this virus
in this 2 ,000 square foot house, let's be quarantined
in 290 square feet with a bigger back porch.
So we took this long boat trip. And that's the
vision. And the idea was that we could be around
more people who are curious. Wow, that's awesome.
So you decided to do that in 2022? That's right.
After two years of lockdown, that's been like,
oh, my gosh, this is not working out for us.
And that's what we're going to do. That's exactly
that's exactly right. Yeah. Tell me more. So
what what how was that like going out on a boat
and doing things that you you did after that?
Yes. We weren't boating people at all. We we'd
had a little pontoon. I call it kind of a floating
couch. Right. And we weren't serious boaters.
But we were in a place where we both thought
that COVID was going to kill me. I'm pretty high
risk. And we weren't, we were letting life happen
to us instead of making life happen to us. And
so Maggie was depressed at the time. I was depressed.
And I came down the stairs and she was reading
this book called From What Is to What If. and
that book is all about kind of reimagining your
circumstance and to me that sounded a little
bit like hope and um and i just kind of filed
it away and probably two weeks later i came down
the stairs and she was reading another book called
the great loop experience and the great loop
is is a trip around the eastern united states
And when I got halfway down the stairs and could
see that book in her hands, I kind of knew what
it was. I knew what the trip was. And I could
immediately see what the next year of my life
was going to be like. It sounds kind of weird.
It actually doesn't. It sounds great. Yeah. So
what did you guys do after that? decided that
we were going to take this trip in four years
and that this kind of planning and this dream
would be our way out from under COVID. And then
as we started researching it, it started making
more and more sense to us. And we're not adventure
people. We've never done anything like this.
But we started reading about it and thinking
that that's the kind of thing that we'd like
to do. And so then we started talking to people.
We started doing some research. And we found
that certain locks were going to be closed during
the time frame that we wanted to go. And so it
was kind of like we didn't want to lose this
idea of a dream. And my wife went, my wife talked
to one of kind of the advisors, important people
in our lives. Her name was Pat. And she said,
Pat. Should we take this trip in a couple of
years? And Pat said, no. She said, there's no
time like the present that you're looking for
a dream right now. And if you can figure out
a way to make this dream come true now, you should
go. And and that made so much sense to us. We
did. We bought a boat. We started getting used
to it and understanding what it was like. And,
you know, that involved running into a few things
that involved like learning how to. work on diesel
motors. It involved learning how to captain a
bigger boat and basically learning how to be
somebody else, right? Somebody that we read about
rather than somebody who we actually were. And
we learned to pilot this boat. And three months
later, we just walked down the sidewalk, walked
out on the dock. jumped in the boat and we were
gone that's awesome um how long were you guys
on the boat for we were on the boat for about
nine months is so it's a the trip is kind of
it's been done often and it works best if you
if you plan it around a year and that means that
you're gonna summer in the north you're gonna
winter in the south and you're gonna spend the
other um the other getting to and from those
places. And I don't know if you knew it, but,
you know, there's a way to get all the way from
New York, all the way up the Hudson River and
across Canada, back into the Mississippi River
and on down. And that's what we did. Wow. I did
not know that. I didn't know it was that deep
that you could go all the places. That's a trip,
right? Yeah, I bet. I bet. That is awesome. So.
I think it's great insights, but that's awesome
what you did. So what would you say, what was
the preparation like before you went on that
trip? So I think the main thing was getting in
the headspace where it could happen. So I have
a job, like many people on your podcast. I own
my business. I have a job that I could do from
anywhere. I teach technology. And I also write
books. And I've written mostly technical books.
But we said, well, we could teach from the water.
And we could take this trip as inspiration for
another book. And that's what we did. So we started
getting ready and understanding what this was
going to be like. And setting up ourselves to
have internet, planning some courses that we
could teach around the Great Loop and doing all
these things to get ready to go. Wow, that's
awesome. And I bet you figured out the finances
at the same time. Like, hey, my gosh, like, is
the mortgage going to get paid and et cetera,
et cetera. And that's a great blessing that you
were able to do it on the water. were you guys
sleeping on the boat the whole time or did you
guys yeah we were so the way the trip is built
you're never very far from from a walmart or
you know from from instacart or something so
we did most of our shopping online most people
you can't rent a boat to do this right because
nobody wants you to take a disappear with a with
a luxury yacht you know kind of go for a long
time so most people buy a um buy a boat for the
trip and they sell it for the trip ours was a
little bit trickier because in 2022 um you had
the the invasion of ukraine and um what happened
when after after that invasion was diesel prices
kind of went up yeah and um and also the the
places to stay so all of our planning books said
that you could you could expect to spend you
know a few a few dollars for um I think that
our plan said that we would spend somewhere between
50 cents a foot and $1 .50 a foot every time
that we stopped at a marina. But because everybody
bought boats during COVID, all those kind of
went out the window. But I think the most important
thing is that if you make the plan and you kind
of imagine your circumstances, you imagine a
year later having done the trip, it's a lot easier
to kind of say what must have happened to make
this trip possible. And that's what we did. So
we said rather than learning how to take the
whole trip and make all the finances work, we
said what we really need to know how to do is
go from this place, maybe it's 20 miles, 40 miles,
some days 60 miles around the loop. And that's
what we did just over and over, right? And we
also wanted to save enough time to stop and enjoy
the places that we went. So we probably traveled
one day out of three. Yeah. That's awesome. Wow,
that's crazy. That's awesome. That's the first
time I've heard something like that. So for now,
for today, when you're in Tennessee, and you
do all the things that you do now, What gets
you out of the bed every now and then to keep
doing what you do? And do you have any other
trips coming on that boat maybe? Yeah, the boat
we sold. So there was a time for this trip. And
this 2022 was that time for us, right? It was
the pandemic and kind of imagining ourselves
out of this trouble that we were in. from an
emotional standpoint but um so now i would say
that this trip has transformed us in the way
that we think right so we um our book which is
called currently away i talk a lot about this
about the idea that if you surround yourself
with interesting and curious people it's a lot
easier to get out of bed It's a lot easier to
engage with community and find people who care
and dream the way that you do, even though they
might not believe the same things that you do.
Wow. Thank you for sharing that. So now with
your vision and how you live your life right
now, where do you see yourself going in the future?
Not the trip, but maybe with your vision or.
Maybe there is a trip. I don't know. Yeah. So
I think that we're kind of in a place where I'm
not going to take us in a political direction.
But there's no secret that people don't always
trust each other and people don't always like
each other. So I think that where I want to go
is I want to surround myself with people. who
are curious about the world and i want to open
my table to people who are curious about the
world so on our trip what would often happen
is that that you would you would basically have
your daily adventure and maybe it was just going
around and seeing some beautiful things like
we saw these locks which is a way from get to
get from a place that's higher to a place that's
lower or um so basically that and Some of these
locks would detach and kind of move you down.
It was sometimes we would, we would see high
waves. Like we saw waves that were six feet high,
which for us was a big deal. And, and for a lot
of casual boaters were a big deal. And some days
we just, we just, we had really quiet days, but
after your day of adventure, one of the things
that would happen was we get on our app. We kind
of see what other great people were in the area.
And we would have something that we call duck
tales, right? And with duck tales, you would
have this toast. They're good ships and wood
chips and ships that sail the sea, but the best
ships are friendships. And may they always be.
And so we would have these conversations with
people who were from all walks of life. And even
though we're not having the same adventures as
we go from place to place. we still are trying
to open our table in the same way as if we're
having those docktails and as if we're living
adventures. And it really makes a difference
to try to connect in that way to the people around
us. And that's kind of what keeps me going in
my profession and in my life and in my community.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy
that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking
forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward. This is going to get
more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show and thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.