Currently...

We are traveling overland from New York to Rio de Janeiro. Along the way, we are filming grassroots environmental organizations and featuring their work through 5 minute videos on our http://www.permacyclists.com" rel="nofollow">site, hoping to show how ordinary people can (and do) change the world.

Before I escaped...

Before leaving, Anna was a criminal/immigration lawyer in Brussels, which basically meant that she worked 12 hours a day 6 days a week.  This led to severe insomnia, and for the three years she worked, she barely slept through the night!  Quitting was the best thing that had ever happened to her!

Dave worked as a education statistics researcher before leaving to travel and eventually wind up as a freelance writer and administrative assistant (gotta pay the bills somehow).  He never had insomnia, but he is glad to not have to deal with crazy editors anymore!

My moment of truth...

We've both always dreamt of traveling. We met while traveling; we've been saving up for 'a long trip' ever since we met and fell in love.

The ultimate decisive factor came one day when an exceptionally crazy criminal judge decided rather arbitrarily to take out her personal issues on Anna and her client.  Leaving the courthouse, knowing she wouldn't sleep that night, Anna checked out and our departure date was set.  With a little help from the movie 'Happy Go Lucky', Anna survived the remaining nine months until we were free!

Planning for it...

We had been saving for a long time for this trip, so finally leaving we were already financially prepared. 

For other practical issues, we just read as many other cyclist websites as we could and contacted other cyclists with questions.  We took small courses in how to repair our bikes and we went on rides around the region. Mostly though, we just spent a lot of time looking at pictures from other cyclists' websites...

The worst and best bits...

We haven't regretted a thing.  Not a second of it. 

The best has been the feedback we get from other people - people who dream of the same or are doing the same now, and who tell us that seeing us do it inspired them or gave them the final push. 

Best advice...

"Just keep pedaling, always straight; just keep going".

We heard that our first day biking in Belgium. A cyclist we passed turned out to have just come back from a huge trip through the Middle East and Africa. We were so nervous then about what lay ahead, but his advice was perfect, and it came back to us whenever we were having a hard time.

Useful resources and information...

The internet! Other cyclist websites, especially http://www.gobicycletouring.info" rel="nofollow">www.gobicycletouring.info and http://www.worldbiking.info" rel="nofollow">www.worldbiking.info - two great sites with all the info you need to get pedaling.