After only 3 weeks of travel, we're really starting to see how drastically our lives are changing.

Priorities are changing.

Moods are changing.

And our plans seem to change on a daily basis.

There is good, and not so good.  There are the Ins, and the Outs.

Something weird is happening here.

Today, my kids woke up at 4:50 AM.

And when I say, "Woke Up", I mean like with with bells and cartwheels and the whole routine.  4:50 AM and they were ready to go.  But this isn't what's weird.  This is fairly normal actually.

What is weird is that I was actually cool with them waking up 2 hours before the sun rose.  I actually enjoyed it.  We played, did crafts, read books, and then we busted out into the cold morning and cycled off to school.

Now normally I would be far less amicable.  Normally I'd be worried about how tired the kids would be later, or how late I would be for work, or how I was going to make up for the time I lost playing instead of writing.  Normally - in the old days - I would have been stressed, but not anymore.

I don't know what happened.  I can only assume that the reality of quitting my job and traveling forever has finally kicked in, but this morning when I woke up, I finally had it all figured out.

To help promote their "What's Your Travel Type" game, Marriott Rewards gave me 50,000 reward points to give away as I please.  I decided to ask you guys to share your most creative, inspiring ideas for making money and creating a career as you travel or move abroad, and then I would randomly pick a winner from my favorites.

We ended up with 24 ideas, from 24 pretty creative individuals.  I have to say that I truly believe each and every one of the ideas people shared is truly capable of being turned into a sustainable business or location independent career.  Just goes to show that the ideas are out there.  Now all we have to do is get to work.

What if we traveled the world forever? 

Wouldn't that be cool.  We could just go and do whatever we wanted.  Spend all our time with the kids.  Swim.  Eat noodles for breakfast and ice cream for dinner.  Climb stuff.  Soak up everything.  Explore.  Enjoy.  It would be our ultimate adventure.  It would be awesome.

With the reality of long-term travel finally settling in, it's time for us to really start thinking about work.

The bottom line is, that if we want to sustain our travel lifestyle, we have to find a way to make money while we travel.  We have to find a way to become location independent.

Heidi and I have talked a lot about location independence and if it's really worth it.  Right now, we have managed to put ourselves in a position where we could travel for 2 years or more and never work a day.  We could just go.  We could be free.  Us and the kids and the world.  Sounds nice.

But what happens when the money runs out?  What happens when the fairy tale ends and we have to come home?

If you had a choice, would you rather travel for 1 year without work, or travel for 3 years working 30 hours a week?

I asked people this question on Facebook a few weeks ago and nearly every person who responded chose the freedom of 1 year without work.

I suppose I can't blame anybody for choosing absolute freedom.  It's a nice idea.  I wanted to make that choice as well, but I couldn't do it.  I've been down that road before.  I'm done with taking the easy way out.  The easy path leads me directly back to where I've been my whole life.  I'm done with easy.  I'm done with the quick fix.  I'll get my freedom, but I'm gonna have to work for it.

This is the final post from our friends at the Mama Bus.  Today, 10 year-old Jordan Wood tells us why a trip to Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas was his favorite part of a journey across the United States.

We went to Nellis Air Force Base.  It was very cool.  We all got to sit in an F-15.  On the front of the F-15 were the names of the people who flew them.

Tonight I find myself in a hotel.  The kids are wiped.  The parents are done.  All is well.

We just spent the past weekend in the woods with friends.  We swam.  We cooked by the fire.  We ate cheap food.  And we saw snakes.  We had a wonderful time.

People ask why we want to travel.  Why we choose to give up our seemingly secure and privileged life for a taste of the unknown, unsettled world.

Well, it's pretty simple.  Every time we travel, every time we head away from home and just go, our family finds a common ground.  By the time it's time to go home, we all realize that home is just not where we want to be.

You know why most people never take that big leap of faith?

Of course you do.  It's because they're scared.  You've been scared of leaping before, and I know I have as well.  It's tough to leap.  It's hard to jump into the great unknown.  But what if you could make things a bit less scary?  What if instead of blindly jumping from the cliff you could test the waters a bit first and build up your confidence?  What if, with just some effort and creativity, you could take that passionate leap of faith and turn it into a leap of fact?

Would that make things easier? 

Would you then be more likely to go on and pursue the life you desire?

I think you would.

Slow travel is my dream.

To be able to sit, enjoy, and explore without worrying about the the time of day - this is travel.

But right now, I'm not a slow traveler.  I just don't have the time.  Right now I travel fast.  I travel with a fixed agenda.  I try to squeeze out every last second of a week's vacation before I have to settle back into my daily routine.  I don't like travel much right now, but that will change.  In the meantime, I'll have to live a little bit through the slow travels of others.

My friend Emiel van den Boomen is about to embark on a slow, 6-week trek around Southeast Asia with his family.  He is traveling without guidebooks and bucket list.  All he wants to do is show up in India and see where the day takes him.  I love it!  And I can't wait to see where travel will take him and his family.

Before Emiel ventures off into the great unknown, I wanted to ask him some questions.  Sort of do a before and after look into the experiences of a slow traveling family.  So without further rambling from me - here is Emiel.

Why travel?

I have to say that at times I've struggled with this question.  I've just never been sure of the answer.

For us, traveling just works.  It makes us happier.  It makes us feel right.

But why?  Why travel?

Well, I think I might have finally found my answer.