We connected online when I visited Dane’s city on my solo trip in Australia. BUT he was in Antarctica, guiding expeditions & returned home just 2 days after I left! We never thought we’d meet. Then a cyclone flooded the airport, keeping me just a few hrs away. So he invited me to a concert…I said no at first! But Dane unknowingly did the one thing I couldn’t resist. Questioned my sense of adventure. So I told him I’d flip a coin to decide! Well…that one chance changed both our lives forever.

I don’t have a favorite memory, because I don’t think our story works that way. We are an accumulation of moments. How do I choose between buying last-minute flights to re-create our first date, or eloping in Vegas, or exploring the Appalachians in fall, or watching him hold his baby niece for the first time, or hearing him talk about his mom and the strength it took to raise three boys? Big and small, I love them all, and I know there are still so many more favorites to come.

We’d use $20,000 to buy back something priceless…time and freedom. Adventure is what brought us together, but somewhere along the way we got a little lost: living to work instead of working to actually live. We like to find our way back to adventure and use it to explore new places, immerse ourselves in different cultures, and collect experiences instead of possessions. Because, more than anything, we want a life we never regretted living. A life measured in memories, not routines.