Our Nomadic Experience
Living simply in order to travel the world full-time
Hello from Vancouver, BC, Canada. This will be our home for at least the next three months, possibly longer.
We have paused our global lifestyle for the time being. On the evening of October 17th Susan suffered what one of the doctors described as a “catastrophic health event”. At 7:00 PM, Susan was perfectly fine. By 10:00 PM, she had lost most feeling in the lower half of her body and by the time we reached the hospital, she could no longer walk.
She spent three weeks in Vancouver General Hospital, and a week ago, was transferred to Holy Family Rehabilitation Hospital where she is expected to remain for the next four to eight weeks with weekends at home. We are unsure of how long rehabilitation will take and how long we will remain in Vancouver.
The doctors don’t have a firm diagnosis. Leading theories include a very rare spinal stroke or another rare condition, spinal inflammation. She is getting better and is slowly regaining strength and mobility.
This was certainly unexpected, but there are many things we are grateful for:
- it happened 15 minutes from one of the top hospitals in the province rather than at the bottom of Grand Canyon, top of Half-Dome in Yosemite, or one of the many remote places we have hiked in the past two months or in some of the less developed countries we have visited with limited health infrastructure
- we are surrounded by people we love: 10 minutes away from our son, my parents and siblings are a short drive away, we have a church family and other friends nearby
- we have had some amazing adventures around the world for the past nine years. Although we expect to be able to resume our global travels at some point, we are not sure how much mobility Susan will recover nor when
We value the support and connection with our family and friends around the world.
We’re praying for you.
That must have been terrifying for botrh of you😮. 🙏 Praying for a full and speedy recovery for Susan 🙏. I will likely be in Abby for Xmas, and would love to see you again if circumstances allow.
Truly sorry to hear of this unexpected health issue that your wife had 🙏Great news that she is getting better and is slowly regaining strength snd mobility ❤️🙏That’s awesome considering the depth of this sudden and unexpected health issues. Our prayers are with you all and what a testimony of How God have you all right where you were at 🙌🙌🙌❤️🙏🙏🙏🙏🌺😇😅😀
Praying and claiming sis. Susan’s complete healing and recovery in Jesus’ name ❤️ Sending lots of love and prayers from Aotearoa!
Carey. So sorry to hear about this. Barb and I will be thinking of you two. It is indeed a miracle that if this was going to happen, you were close to top notch care.
Praying for Susan’s full recovery and sending her all the love. Rehab is no joke but she’s one tough cookie 🥰 so glad you guys have family and church around during the chapter!
Aww. Praying for you both, and especially sis Susan for her to regain her strength and ability. 🙏🏽❤️
We love you both and hope Susan keeps getting stronger every day.
So very sorry to hear about Susan. Hope that she makes a full recovery and that you can resume your travels sometime in the future. In the meantime please tell Susan we are thinking about her and wish her a speedy recovery. Phyllis and Bill.
So sorry to hear such devastating news 😔 What a shock for you and so glad you are where you are to recover with good medical care. Thinking of you and sending best wishes and a big hug your way ❤️ xx
Definitely praying for you both and specially for strength and healing for Susan 💗💗
Sorry to hear this has happened but very thankful God seemed to orchestrate it out so you were in the best place. 🙏🏼 for you! ❤️
I'm happy my big brother and lovely sister in law are here but don't like the circumstances. Love you both 💕
Love Canada! (Praying for your sweet wife) Perfect place to heal <3 Blessings on you both <3
That is so scary. I'm so glad she is making progress in her recovery. Prayers continue for both of you.
Glad to hear she is improving! Will continue to keep net in prayer!!
Sorry to hear, here’s to a speedy recovery. Give her our best.
Praying for complete recovery. 🙏
Praying for Susan.
Praying for complete healing. 🙏In Jesus name!
Thinking of you and glad you are STill smiling ❤️
Will continue to pray for a complete healing in Jesus’s name.
We hope for a speedy recovery.
Praying for Susan!
Sorry to hear about Susan, give her my best and take care
Here is our updated page of where we have been. Our previous update was back in March, so there is quite a lot of ground that we have covered.
In a few weeks we will be resuming global travels heading to Panama on November 6.
We have had a great time back in North America since May 21st visiting friends and family and having some amazing hikes and experiences in national parks and other wilderness areas.
Our time in the USA and Canada is always more expensive than our typical living expenses living abroad. Accommodation expenses have been reduced this time since so many people opened up their homes to us. To those people, thank-you. We are very grateful.
Where are we? - Our Nomadic Experience
ournomadicexperience.com
Six continents, thirty-six countries, and five territories (US Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Macau, Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia) since January 2016. (Carey 51 countries total in his lifetime, Susan ...
Our final national park this trip was Arches NP near Moab, UT. A very popular park, the only way you can get in between 7:00 AM and 4:00 PM is by purchasing a timed entry pass in advance. We booked ours for 9:00 AM many months ago. However, we ended up entering at 6:30 AM to beat the heat and the crowds. We are glad that we did.
As the name implies, there are many rock arches in the park and we got to see quite a few of them. Our main hike was 13 kms (seven miles) on the Devil’s Garden trail. We also did a few short jaunts on some other trails.
You can almost hear Edith saying "Archie"!
Quite a beautiful part of the world. We enjoyed the 7 years that we had it in our backyard!
Amazing formations!!
Beautiful!!
Canyonlands is the largest National Park in Utah by area. Some of the areas are only accessible by permit and a four wheel drive. There are a couple of hikes that we want to come back and do one day.
We spent the day doing a number of small hikes in the Island in the Sky District.
Capitol Reef National Park is the least visited of Utah’s “Mighty Five” national parks. We are glad we spent a couple of days exploring and hiking here.
Outlaw Butch Cassidy hung out in this area and even has an arch named after him.
It all looks wonderful to me, you excellent photographers!!🥰✔️🎶
Today we completed the most adventurous hike we have ever done, Coyote Gulch via the sneaker route.
What made it adventurous? First of all, it was an hour and a half drive on a gravel BLM road (Bureau of Land Management). Second, you need to bring your own 200 foot (70 meter) rope to tie off and drop into the canyon. Third, a good portion of the hike you are wading through the stream.
It was worth all the effort. Take a look at the photos. About 15 km round trip (9 miles). We only saw one other couple the entire time.
Beautiful photos! 🙂
Amazing! 👏🏼👏🏼😁
Beautiful!!
You 2 are so amazing!
Ok, that is a grand adventure! WOW!
This area looks really cool. Enjoy
Spectacular!!
Oh my!! Beautiful!!
Beautiful!
Wow!! What beauty!!
Wow!! Stunning!
Amazing!!!!!!! And incredible!
Wow! Just wow!!
Hoodoo you love!!
Just spent a couple of days in Bryce Canyon National Park. The park contains the largest collection of hoodoos, spires of eroded rock, in the world.
The landscape is beautiful and unique. We enjoyed a couple of 10 - 12 km (6 - 7 mile) hikes as well as a few shorter ones and driving by a number of viewpoints.
I’ll be at Bryce this weekend!
Are you going to goblin valley?
What beautiful photos! An amazing landscape! (Hope to see it in person someday)
It looks like an amazing place to visit!
Wow!!! How wonderful to enjoy all the beautiful works of the Lord 💜
🎶Look what the Lord hath done!🎶 ❤️❤️❤️
Stunning landscape!!
Spectacular!
Very cool pictures
Amazing
Today we started our Utah National Parks tour and completed our final hike that required an advanced permit: Angels Landing, Zion NP.
The Angels Landing hike isn’t that difficult, the primary reason a permit is required is that the last couple thousand feet (kilometer) of the hike is very narrow with sheer drop offs on each side. It can only accommodate so many people at a time. We saw a few people that chickened out, and I must admit that for the first time in a while I got the heebie jeebies looking down a few times.
The views are spectacular! Some of the best we have experienced.
Oh my! Dizzying heights! Great views!
I’m in awe! 😳👀
You guys are so adventurous
Awesome!
I love those rocks
Gorgeous views!!
Ha ha nooooo thx! Cool view tho
Oh wow! Terrifying and beautiful!
Your pictures keep getting better. Maybe the place helps. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Yesterday we visited Lower Antelope Canyon near Page, AZ. We have seen photos of slot canyons before, but nothing compares to experiencing it in person.
We took dozens of photos, here are just a few.
Spectacular! I follow a guy on YouTube called the Trek Planner. He treks to places he finds on Google Earth. He finds his own stuff: slot canyons, stone made ancient Puebla …. Can’t remember the word. I used to love climbing rocks when I was young. The one that has a path would be great for me now — depends on how many stairs!
That looks amazing!
Oops I put my comment on Anna Marie’s post share. Spectacular ! Love it!
Many years ago, we did a backpacking trip through Antelope Canyon with another pair of friends. A week of nothing but sandstone! Beautiful country!
Glad you all were able to visit this site. Tina and I loved this place.
They are amazing for sure!!!!
Beautiful!
Amazing!!
Beautiful!!
So cool!
Amazing images 😮
Wow…that’s amazing. Thanks for sharing
Really cool
Wow oh wow!!!
We have wanted to visit Mesa Verde for years and finally got to spend two days there.
For about 700 years, until about 1200 CE, the Ancestral Pueblo people made their home there. The 600 or so cliff dwellings are some of the best preserved North American archeological sites and what Mesa Verde is best known for.
There were actually more people that lived on the mesa top than in the cliff dwellings. A few of those areas have been preserved and are open to the public.
Ancestral Pueblo sites. That’s the word I couldn’t remember. I follow The Trek Planner on YouTube. He hunts out places he finds on Google Earth. He finds sites that very few people have seen in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico I think. He is a loveable regular person and finds the Ancestral Puebla sites and hikes through all sorts crazy vegetation to get to there.
We loved Mesa Verde! Truly amazing! Looks like you got to see more than we did. When we were there the kids were little and running towards the cliff edge nearly did me in.
All I can say is WOW to all of this! How else will I ever see such a sight!