As with any great project, many things happen in the background to make a trip like ours possible, and these “things” were done by people. While we have said many “Thank Yous” to these folks along the way, we also wanted to be sure and acknowledge them on our website. We will try and be as inclusive as possible, and the list will grow as our journey continues.
Waves of gratitude to the following-
**Susan Oesting, who supports us in so many ways and who organized the Grand Canyon portion of our trip
**The late, great Dave Oesting who taught us to love adventures and be resourceful
**Teresa and Steve Mitchell who housed us for a week and help us with stateside business
**Ed and Ruth Lapsley who hosted us, and shared the AWESOME Snake River Valley with us
**Dave and Barbara Brown who hosted (for hosting) us for a week, gave Mali an awesome Basque Birthday dinner and showed us around Boise
**Fred and Marggi Seymour who housed us for a week, let us cook in their brand new beautiful kitchen, helped us sell our car, and got us to the airport
**Carloyn Seymour who is an inspiration to us and supports our dream
**Robert Ott who helped us sell our house on a very tight timeline
**Natalie Boss whose expertise helped us make our house salable
**Sarah Oesting and Brian Kamlin who helped us liquidate our house
**Aaron Wiseman who helped us finish our master bath
**Juliana and Joey Fitts who encouraged us to take this leap and provided us with many fun filled evenings of music and laughter
**The RdMs (livelearntravel.com) who encouraged us to leap at the same time they did, and who we have shared many good times
**Jay and Erica Marley who continue to give us their encouragement and support
**Caroline Huxtable who loaned us her truck to empty our house and helped us liquidate our goods
**Vanessa and Brett Ault-McCoy who also loaned us their truck, bought some of our household goods, and whose generosity made some aspects of this trip possible
**Jennifer Wheelhouse (and the staff of MCH) who helped us liquidate our goods in the final days before we departed
**The 2013-2014 Birch Class at WMS who supported us with amazing wishes, presents, and gift cards
**The Friends of the Redmond Library who gave us their well wishes and a generous gift card
**The Staffs at the Redmond and Kirkland Libraries for a great going away party and gift cards
**Brooke Welter and her family for adopting Auzi and giving him the cushy life he deserves
**Wally and Kathy Bubelis for being great friends, always supportive, and who hosted a great going away party
**Carrie and Rich Jerger who continue to give us their encouragement and support
**Shana and Ted Kelley (e-y) who took time out of their busy schedule to show us Prescott, AZ, share their beautiful family, and took us to the “Devil’s Pantry” 🙂
**Fred and Alex who stored our car while we were rafting the Grand Canyon (and guided the trip)
**The AzRA guides (Dirk, Margeaux, Owen, Alex, and Wade) who got us safely down the Canyon while having a blast of a time
**Elizabeth Rhotan, the Redmond banker who helped with long distance money transactions to pay for Charlie
**Donna Turner who helped us acquire, register and insure Charlie
**Jim and Nell who own the laundromat in Woerden, whose internet connection helped us finalize the purchase of Charlie (“Cosmic Charlie” our camper van)
**Dominick, the nice police officer who gave us a brief guided tour while taking us to downtown Trier, Germany
**Jeremy in Lyon, France who made Mali’s day by sharing his new-bought guitar and interest in the bands he and Mali mutually love
…and all the wonderful people along the way who have helped us out when we needed it with friendship, advice, and curiosity about the crazy Americans camper-vanning around the world.