Families, Technology, and Education… Internet-based Travel : Our 20th Anniversary
We were not the first to document travel on the internet, but we were among them -- plus our story had a twist.
Twenty years ago we purchased a 34-foot motorhome (our first and only) and a dolly to haul our minivan and had arranged to rent our home for the ski season. Final plans were in place for our educational trip around the United States.
By early September, we had built a website and partnered with our local science and technology charter school, which was in its first year of existence. The school loaned us a laptop and digital camera and provided curriculum for our three children ages 11 (twins) and 14. They would receive credit for participating in our school on the road project in exchange for us chronicling and sharing our journey via the website. It was groundbreaking stuff.
On September 30, 1996, we left our home in Boyne City, Michigan. What might be the world’s largest field trip and hands-on learning experience to date began in Cleveland, Ohio, with science, rock and roll, and natural history. It progressed to marine life in Maine, the story of independence and immigration in New England, and national history and heroics in Philadelphia. It then intensified during our two-week stay in Washington, D.C., in an election cycle, and kept developing as we headed west.
To give you an idea how ambitious we were, here is a list of places we visited in just the first month and here is an article about our first 10 weeks.
We received a fair amount of press that led to the U.S. Department of Education inviting us to be keynote speakers at a conference called “Families, Technology and Education.” Our paper was called, "People Make Dreams Come True, and Technology Expands the Possibilities: An Educational Journey across the United States." Pretty cool and still relevant.
While the 90s may seem like the middle ages technologically speaking, our Power Point presentation, including a video from Big Bend National Park our children put together on animal and plant life there, was pretty sophisticated and played well for a crowd of 400-500 educators from around the country.
Note: If you visit Blondins Assignment: America and we hope you do, please keep in mind the site was built as we traveled using Microsoft's FrontPage and that we have left it vintage for sentimental reasons.
During Assignment America, high-speed Internet was rare. Google did not exist. Yahoo, Netscape and AltaVista were early players but wireless was a dream so we were out there connecting to the internet for email and uploading web pages using dial-up. That raspy connecting noise is forever with us.
We would walk into Laundromats, local businesses, libraries, 7-Elevens, and even museums carrying local access numbers (you might have to Google that one), our laptop and a 50-foot phone cord. Strangely enough, after telling our story about school via the internet, most people agreed to share their phone line. We went through that process at least once a day. Many times it led to great conversations.
Fast forward 20 years, we have accessed the internet in some of the most remote areas of the world with just the Wi-Fi code and the ability to ask for it in a couple different languages. You can read more about that here.
After returning to Boyne City, we moved to California. I started work in the data storage industry and my wife went to work in publishing. Our children went on to graduate from Berkeley and Harvard and then to advanced degrees.
Travel and technology have merged in the last 20 years and opened endless possibilities.
At Home Abroad: Today’s Expats Tell Their Stories
Word Metro Press (our company) has published At Home Abroad: Today’s Expats Tell Their Stories, a collection of insightful expat stories from 31 authors who represent people living abroad. As you know, millions worldwide are already part of the expat phenomenon and the numbers are growing.
At Home Abroad is available on Amazon/Kindle, Powells, Nook and iBooks. The book website is TodaysExpats.com, our Facebook group is At Home Abroad, we’re on Twitter @TodaysExpats.
Book description and bio:
Who are the 21st-century expats? Do you wonder what motivates millions around the world to leave their homes, family and friends to immerse themselves in unfamiliar cultures, learn foreign languages and get to know new people? Have you considered joining them?
It’s a movement; the number of expats grows as we become more global and mobile. While the ages, locations and experiences of these 31 internationals differ, their stories inform, inspire and expose the common threads connecting those who choose this lifestyle.
What do they find at home abroad? Some find love and romance, adventure, an economical lifestyle or satisfaction in a new job; others find rewarding retirement years; some discover a new way of life — and some discover themselves.
Betsy and Mark Blondin have traveled and lived in diverse places in Latin America and Europe during the last six years, meeting expats with wonderful stories that inspired this book. They have three grown children and enjoy the slow-travel lifestyle. Betsy is a freelance editor and Mark is a data storage consultant. Together they first published Migraine Expressions: A Creative Journey through Life with Migraine, and they enjoy helping others publish their books. Join them at TodaysExpats.com for more about At Home Abroad and its remarkable authors.
We, and our slow travel adventures, have been featured on HuffPost, and our family were among the first to document online travel way back in 1996-97. That trip around the US led to us being invited as key note speakers at this Department of Education sponsored conference.
We hope you enjoy the book!
Retiring Soon? Let’s Talk Mexico
Bacalar, Mexico
We’ve all heard of the ongoing onslaught of baby boomer retirees in the U.S. It’s real. Think about this from the Pew Foundation: “Starting on January 1, 2011, the oldest members of the Baby Boom generation celebrated their 65th birthday and for every day after for the next 19 years, 10,000 Baby Boomers will reach age 65.”
Let that sink in. Today, 10,000 people reached the age of 65 and that will continue for the next 14 years. Yet almost one-third of all workers have no savings at all.Those who do save don’t have much. Median household retirement savings for people aged 55 to 64 in 2013 amounted to $14,500.
The sobering reality is that many retirees face an uncertain and economically challenged retirement.
There are warning voices out there, for instance in this Bloomberg article: “The U.S. retirement landscape is starting to look like a Charles Dickens novel.”
You would think this issue would be front and center in the 2016 political campaign. The debate should be about how many low-income senior housing facilities will be built and how to expand Social Security. But we know that isn’t happening.
We seem to have our collective heads in the sand. In the meantime retirees are searching the planet for places to live that will allow them a decent standard of living. The expat movement is not just about economics, because people of all ages and incomes have chosen the expat lifestyle. But hard realities cause people trying to stretch limited retirement income to look at places around the world for an affordable and rewarding retirement.
One of the most popular is Mexico. The largest contingent of U.S. retirees abroad is already there. Our State Department estimates that one million U.S. citizens live in Mexico. That number is growing fast. For retirees it makes a lot sense. There are several things about Mexico that make it a good fit including the climate, low cost of living, laid-back lifestyle, friendly and warm people, and not to be overlooked, the close proximity to the United States — basically a long car ride or short plane flight. Health care is considered affordable and good. There are reasons why a million or so U.S. citizens call Mexico home.
We have traveled extensively in Mexico, mostly by bus but also car, as we looked for the place we might call home. It was the three months we lived in San Miguel de Allende, one of the longtime expat/retiree communities, that warmed us to the possibilities of settling down in a foreign country. After that we drove through much of the Yucatan, spent a few days in Merida, then bussed to San Cristobal, Oaxaca and then to the West Coast visiting Puerto Escondido and Huatulco. That trip covered roughly 2,200 miles.
There are several expat/retiree hotspots in Mexico. While the largest contingent of North Americans can be found in the Lake Chapala region, San Miguel, Merida, Oaxaca, Pueblo, Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta and many others are home to significant retiree populations. Much depends on what you want because Mexico is a huge country roughly three times the size of Texas. From mountains to ocean, colonial towns to major cities, most will find a place they can call home.
Now let’s be specific about what a lower cost of living is. Of course it varies, you can read this article on the AARP website: “According to one recent survey, almost half of U.S. expats on the Pacific Coast report living “comfortably” on less than $1,000 a month. (In PV region, $2,000 a month is more like it).” From our experience and research, it is possible to live comfortably on between $1,000–$3,000/month depending on location and lifestyle. At the middle-upper end, the ability to employ maid and gardening services, enjoy meals out, travel and splurge on extras increases.
Sounds great, right? Yet for many, it’s no small thing to leave home to live in another country. Certainly there are adventuresome types who lead the expat lifestyle because they embrace everything involved with living in a new culture. But as mentioned above, there are millions in the process of retiring who will take a hard look based on economics alone. They will need to find the right location, research visas, examine the logistics of moving, begin to learn a new language (the sooner the better for a richer cultural experience, although many current expats don’t know Spanish and don’t need it for everyday living).
We have found many contented expats in Mexico with remarkable stories. Those stories and others prompted us to publish At Home Abroad. These modern-day adventurers have carved out new lives and feel richer for it.
How do you know if this will work for you? The only way to begin is to do some basic research, pick a place that sounds like it might work for you and then go, rent an apartment for two-three months, or spend the winter. Instead of Florida, go to Puerto Vallarta or San Miguel. Join the local Internet groups, find Facebook groups, and connect to retirees already living abroad.
For many this sounds scary and difficult. We guarantee you will gain confidence talking to others who have already gone through the process and by seeing Mexico firsthand. Be open, talk to everyone. Just like anywhere else you will get a variety of opinions but a consensus will emerge to guide your decision.
Hopefully you can take some side trips, hop on a bus (their bus system is wonderful) and experience as much as possible. Choose three or four places that intrigue you. Do you want to be near the ocean or in a colonial town, does a particular climate suit you? These criteria will help you narrow down your choices.
Toward the end of this experiment, you will at least come to realize why so many people have chosen Mexico for their retirement. For retirees on a tight budget, the choice between living sparingly in the U.S. or comfortably in Mexico may become clear. We all deserve a comfortable retirement free from money worries. Good luck on your journey.
Betsy and Mark Blondin have traveled and lived in diverse places in Latin America and Europe during the last six years, meeting expats with wonderful stories that inspired their latest book: At Home Abroad: Today’s Expats Tell Their Stories. They have three grown children and enjoy the slow-travel lifestyle. Betsy is a freelance editor who enjoys helping others publish their work, and Mark is a data storage consultant. Join them at TodaysExpats.com or on Facebook at At Home Abroad for more about the book and its remarkable authors.
Mass Emigration from the U.S.?
What’s going on? Are we witnessing mass emigration from the U.S.? What’s the deal with the never-ending get-away articles with tantalizing headlines like, “Best Place to Move Abroad,” “Retire Overseas at Half the Price,” “Top 10 Places to Live,” and “Most Livable Cities”? Do these articles signal a huge movement?
Judging by the weight of articles on the pages of Forbes, AARP, Money, Huffington Post, Kiplinger’s, USA Today, and others, we are led to believe that huge numbers of people are burnt out on the good old USA, don’t like where they live, tired of the rat race, adventuresome, seeking a larger understanding of the world, or can’t afford to stay put. Into the emigrant stew are those who are untethered workers, digital nomads, or just anxious to throw off the yokes of corporate life.
What these articles don’t address is: Why would they leave? What would make them take the risks? Why leave family and friends? What are they looking for? Is there a brotherhood of soon-to-be expats in the making? We’ve been close to this phenomenon and wanted to shine a light on the subject.
What we need is a bull*#*@ meter for articles titled Best, Cheapest, Most Livable, etc. Everyone is getting in on the action. One blog ranked El Paso as the third-best city to retire. Really? Miami was No. 1. Got to love those $15 mojitos.
While a great city, do retirees really want big winters and can they be convinced that Minneapolis is in the running for Top Places to Retire by an article in Huffington Post?
People who can’t find Ecuador on a map read articles such as, “Live on Social Security Like a King,” in reputable magazines and go to Kayak to book a flight and a hotel. Do they speak English there? Que no saben.
Mexico has always had an expat following, but the barrage of articles has gotten out of hand. We fell in love with San Miguel de Allende a couple of years ago, but a recent reader poll in Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2013 deemed it the best city in the world. Come on.
By the way, Charleston, South Carolina, was No. 3 in that same poll. Please. It is a nice city but their readers need to get out more.
What’s going on? We need clarity. Let’s hear from real expats, travelers, those actually living abroad. How many expats are there? Who are they? Is there a new type of expat? These questions intrigue us.
For six years we traveled and met amazing expats with a variety of perspectives and reasons to be living abroad. From retirees seeking a lower cost of living, to seasoned perpetual travelers, to everyday people with a curiosity that sends them out into the world.
The subject was so fascinating to us we decided to write a book. Not actually write it but collect stories from new and seasoned expats to get a sense of what is going on and share that first-hand information with our readers.
No catchy headlines, no stories designed to add clicks, but rather a volume of personal accounts from people who decided to leave their home countries for other places. We think it is enlightening. To get a complete picture, we included expat stories from as many countries as possible. TodaysExpats.com
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