The Final Chapter

It's over. Our journey, our odyssey, our sabbatical has ended--although we now all agree that a trip such as ours can never really end.It's been over a year, and by now you've figured out we successfully completed our circumnavigation of this globe we call home. We're different. We have a new home in a new place. New jobs. New friends. And most important, a new outlook on life, history, and on us as individuals and as a species.

We proved to ourselves that the earth is round--although we may have stumbled a lot, we never fell off an edge.

And we proved to ourselves that our family is whole--although we may have grown edgy a great deal with one another, we never doubted.

All of us agree that it's been the most wonderful experience of our lives. For over ten months we traveled as a family, day in and day out with each other. Often not knowing where we'd end our day, many times not knowing where we'd sleep, what we'd eat, what dangers and blessings awaited us.

Cassidy, Salli and Samantha straddle the Prime Meridian, the place that will see the changing of the millinium first in the world.

And we not only survived, but we thrived.

We're now in our new home in our new city, Portland, Oregon. Nearly every day one of us pulls out our journals or photo albums or memories and reminds the rest of us where we were a year ago. Together we relive the many magic and intense moments that filled our life on the road. The special and not-so-special people we met, the sights and sounds, the textures and sunsets, the fear and loathing, the laughter and the awe.

And we each agree, if we could we'd do it again in an instant. The world and travel, as well as our family is far more wonderful than we ever knew. This magical orb or hurtling dirt is indeed a miracle. And the infinite permutations of life that crowds our planet is a phenomenon we must never, never take for granted.

We give special thanks to our subscribers, who gave us motivation, an audience to write for and helped defray the cost of this site during our journey. And we welcome our new readers and hope that you enjoy our adventures.

The Worldhoppers

George, Salli, Samantha and Cassidy

Happy Trails

Back in America, on July 4th, we couldn't help but go out of our way to see the birthplace of actor John Wayne.

Salli and the girls take a very cold swim in a high mountain lake of the Sierra Nevadas in California, one of the final days of our journey.

We stopped at the border between California and our new home state of Oregon, and asked a passer by to take a picture of us at the Welcome sign.