A year ago, Nate and Jessica Baumgart quit their jobs in Chicago, sold the vast majority of their belongings and embarked on a trip to see the world in 365 days.
It was a cockamamie idea but, well, they’re millennials and if there’s anything we’ve learned about their generation, it is this: They’re independent thinkers, global citizens who value diversity, and above all else, adventurous.
They were just days away from boarding a flight to Cartagena, Colombia, the first leg of their journey. After Colombia, they planned to travel to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. There they took an overnight train to the southern part of the country to explore the salt flats, a massive expanse of white salt desert.
“We had no idea Bolivia was so beautiful,” Nate, 34, said.
They rented a car and drove through South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia. On the Wild Coast of South Africa, Nate got hit by a surfboard and split his face open. A doctor stitched his wound and sent them on their way.
Jessica’s father Jon MacLean marveled at how adept they were at finding travel deals.
“These kids are really good,” Jon MacLean said. “It was amazing just watching them plan.”
The Baumgarts said it was all timing, to which they attributed finding a 28-day Mediterranean cruise with a $4,500 price tag for the both of them aboard Holland America’s Eurodam.
“We had zero dollars to do anything, but we would’ve never been able to visit seven European countries any other way,” Nate Baumgart said.
They experienced eight countries — including Spain, Italy, France, Croatia, Turkey and Greece — before the cruise ended Sept. 3 in Venice, where the Baumgarts took a train to Milan. From there, they flew to Bali, where they spent three days at a silent meditation retreat.
“It was the most relaxing thing we’d done all year,” Jessica, 30, said.
It was there that they, able to hear themselves think for the first time in their lives, got in touch with themselves.
Jessica Baumgart, who worked in hospital administration before quitting to travel, decided she wanted to start a business teaching private cooking classes. And Nate, a voice-over actor, realized he wanted to work in business, not the arts.
They left Bali in September and headed to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, where they volunteered at an animal shelter for all of October in exchange for “heavily discounted” accommodations and food.
In early November, Nate’s father and sister joined them in Thailand and Cambodia for about three weeks. They were in Cambodia, they said, when the presidential election was held.
Nope, they didn’t vote. By the time they figured out how to get an absentee ballot, it was too late.
“That was a tough week,” they said.
They circled back to Thailand, where a friend came to visit from Chicago. They took in a boat trip off the Ha Long Bay, trekked through caves, and braved four days on motorbikes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
It was a thrilling few weeks except Jessica got leeches all over her and food poisoning in North Vietnam.
They flew from there to Hong Kong, where they celebrated Christmas before heading to Tokyo for New Year’s.
Even before their marriage in 2015, Nate and Jessica knew they would be leaving Chicago and taking a short trip before starting over in a new city. It was Jessica’s idea to take a year off and travel the world.
With Nate on board, the couple decided they needed $75,000 to make their daydream come true — $50,000 for the trip, $25,000 to start over when they return.
It took nearly two years, but by December 2015, they hit their goal, packed their 2010 Hyundai Sonata and drove here to drop off their black Lab mix, Lily, with Jessica’s parents.
On Jan. 12, they arrived back at the MacLean resident in Peachtree Corners, where they recounted the past 12 months.
Would they do it again?
Yeah, they said, but it felt good to be back home in their comfort zone.
“Months 2 to 9 were like awesome all the time,” Nate said. “After 10 months, we started talking about coming home.”
Now they’re off again, but this time to Chicago to visit Nate’s family. After that, the couple will travel to Denver to start their life anew.
“We have no apartment, no job, just a few clothes and kitchen stuff,” Nate laughed. “If we hate it, all we have to do is pay $70,000 in student loans and move to Thailand.”
If for some reason you can’t fathom that, remember the Baumgarts are millennials. Independent thinkers. Global citizens who value diversity. And above all else, adventurous. Very adventurous.
