Welcome to our Road Trip Chronicles!

If you are reading this, you've most likely received our letter in the mail - - Yippee!

First, we apologize to all of our family and friends in Louisiana. We know better than to mail a letter during hurricane season! However, we are thankful that Gustav - with his slow pace, intense rainfall and wind - did not harm you, our beloved family and friends.

Many thanks to everyone for their calls of concern.
Richie's parents stayed in Baton Rouge to weather the storm.
Michele's parents, sis and family evacuated to Baton Rouge. They are still without power.
And our wonderful friends Sandi & Rachel, flew the coup to stay with family in Texas.

We have received very positive feedback...
from the sharpness and organization of the letter (Causing a little embarrassment.),
the road trip adventure (Folks are burning entire CD's of songs!),
and most importantly - encouragement and tremendous support in our decision to volunteer with the Peace Corps (More of a relief than you might imagine!).

A quick question... Can you believe we climbed this?!?! We are still living in disbelief.

Richie has been fortunate enough to see the mountain on his ferry rides to work. I have not seen the mountain since our summit. Hopefully I'll see her soon. As fellow climbers have shared, I'm sure I'll never view her the same again...

If you haven't had the chance to read about our mountain adventures, click here!
This blog was so successful that we've decided to document and share our new adventures.

Let's start with the Peace Corps:
We've talked about joining the Peace Corps for years, however, other opportunities - graduate school, unique work experiences, and summiting mountains - have postponed our attempts. Now, we are ready.

We began the very detailed application process last month. Letters of recommendation are required along with finger prints, medical exams, and interviews.

Do we know where we are going? No - not yet. While you can give your preferences, we left this option open for a better chance of placement within our time frame.
We assume with our backgrounds in Spanish, there is a strong chance of being somewhere in South American, but we are open, and the opportunities are endless. We would love the opportunity to learn another language (or perfect our Espanol).

Erin, our Peace Corps recruiter, explained the process:

1. Submit an application. - - - DONE!
   
2. Peace Corps conducts an interview (Why do you want to join? Your expectations? Volunteer and work experience, placement preferences?) - - - DONE!
   
3. Erin nominates us to a program based on our skills and suitability. By this time, we should generally know what we'll be doing, where we'll be, and an approximate departure date. A quick note: Once a month, all couple applications are sent to Washington D.C. for review. Couple placement is more challenging due to increased cost and difficulty in placing skill sets (ours being on opposite sides of the spectrum). This is a very competitive process, but with any luck, we will know our placement within 6 months. The good news is we hope to leave in one year, so there is still time if we aren't immediately chosen. - - - STILL WAITING
   
4. We need to get medical and legal clearance - - - STILL WAITING
   
5. Hopefully receive a formal invitation and definite placement. - - - STILL WAITING
   

To help ease your minds about our safety, and to get answers to some of your questions, please check out the Peace Corps website.

There are numerous articles and answers to frequently asked questions for family and friends of Peace Corps volunteers.

Now... News on our Road Trip!

Before we head overseas to who-knows-where... we want to explore the United States. The adventure bug has taken us to many wonderful parts of our country, but we have the desire to explore more.

Most of you received a letter in the mail with a postcard requesting your top 3 road trip songs and the one favorite place you have visited or would like to visit. The response has been incredible! Please feel free to send more than 3 song suggestions. And if you are struggling with places to visit, write them on the other side of the postcard!

Once we receive replies, we will tally them up and share our findings.

Our goal is to visit, or attempt to visit, all the places suggested while listening to all of your favorite road trip songs!

We can't wait!

With love from The Travel Bugs,

Michele & Richie

P.S. Check back often for updates on our Peace Corps application.