Trip is More Than Just a Vacation
 Amy Whitesall - Ann Arbor News
| | Robin, 10, left, Heather, 12, second from left, and Julia and Doug Jackson, right, take a hike near their Dexter, Mich., home. Despite busy schedules, the family has been trying to prepare for an 11-month, 31-country backpacking and camping journey around the world. (AP/Lon Horwedel) |
The little truck camper sat on the lawn in front of Doug and Julia Jackson's home with a "For Sale" sign on it. With their camper and their daughters, Heather, 12, and Robin, 10, Doug and Julia visited 49 states and 10 Canadian provinces, each represented by a sticker near the camper's door.
That was just the warm-up.
The Jacksons, of Dexter, Mich., are now handing the house keys to a renter and taking off this summer on an 11-month, 31-country backpacking and camping journey around the world. Along the way, they'll finally bag Hawaii, the one state none of them has seen yet.
"When we tell just about anybody, they usually say, 'What a great experience for your children,'" Julia says. "They say they want to come along, or they're jealous."
"We tell them they're welcome to come, they just have to pay the cost of the ticket," Doug adds.Airfare for the family of four will run about $20,000, roughly the amount of a gift from Julia's grandmother that they socked away years ago. But in many ways, Doug and Julia, both 41, have been preparing for this trip since they got married in 1990.
"We've saved a lot of money because we've learned to live a simple lifestyle," Doug says. "We don't go out to eat or watch a lot of movies. We paid off our mortgage in seven years and were debt-free by the time we were 33."
Just after they got married, Julia stumbled on the Tightwad Gazette, a series of newsletters followed by three books filled with moneysaving lifestyle tips. The Jacksons decided to adopt every strategy they could, save aggressively and pay off their debts as quickly as possible.
Even at their earning peak, Julia says, their combined income never exceeded $80,000 a year. But before their kids were born, both worked full time, and they made double house payments each month.
When Heather was born, Doug, who works as a Christian Science practitioner, sold his Critter Control business and became a stay-at-home dad. There was a brief stretch when he went back to work full time and the girls went to day care, but Doug and Julia quickly discovered that the tightwad advice didn't work so well with both of them working. Saving money takes time.So now they cook all their meals from scratch and pack lunches for work and school. Doug does all the work on the house and the cars, including a recent kitchen remodel.
To stretch their income, Julia and the girls wear secondhand clothes. They get books from the library instead of buying them.
Julia, who works at the University of Michigan, saves the cost of parking by riding the bus. Whenever possible, she buys what's on sale at the grocery store. They don't have cable television or high-speed Internet, but none of Heather's or Robin's friends have seen 49 states, either.
"That Tightwad Gazette is really powerful," Julia says.
Julia does all the initial trip planning. Because of the bus schedule she gets to work early, and those early mornings, she's found, are a great time to research."The Ann Arbor Library has the most wonderful travel section," she says. "I've been hitting the 2005 versions of Lonely Planet, and they have everything in there. ..."
"When we'd hear about India or Australia, they sounded like wonderful places, but it's so long a trip, you wouldn't want to go for just a week. (Doug) had the idea to string things together. We know a couple that did this in '98, and we followed their e-mails."
The Jacksons' route will, for the most part, keep them in warmer climates or spring and fall weather; each will only carry two sets of clothes, plus rain gear. And though the trip will start with a send-off from a family timeshare in Puerto Vallarta, they'll camp and stay in hostels most of the time.
Julia is learning some Spanish; Doug speaks a little German. Heather has devoured the foreign language books her mom picks up at garage sales. For a while, she turned the entire basement into a Polish-only zone and declared her bedroom France. Robin knows a few phrases in Japanese, the language of the country where she'll turn 11.
In the next year, they'll sail around the Galapagos Islands, hike to Machu Picchu and visit the Great Wall of China. They'll see Tierra del Fuego and the mountains of Patagonia, the tulips in Holland and the fjords of Norway."I want to see all the animals - kangaroos, lizards ... spiders," says Robin, glancing meaningfully at her sister, who is afraid of spiders.
The girls will have to put some things on hold. Heather can't bring her bassoon, and Robin sure isn't packing the piano. But they'll "travel school" their way through the eighth and fifth grades, respectively, and learn things they wouldn't in any classroom.
"People wonder about being together that many hours," Julia says. "On our Alaska trip we were together all the time for a full four weeks. I think it's harder at home when we're all trying to rush different places. I kind of like the idea of not having a house to clean." |
Vallarta Weddings
Travel & Outdoors | July 2006 
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