Comerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
- from "Song of the Open Road" by Walt Whitman
Tom and Julia met in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 2007.
Their story is pretty standard: Boy meets girl. Boy gets into graduate school. Girl follows, under the caveat that they take a round-the-world trip at some point after he graduates.
Tom is a graduate of Colby College in Maine. He grew up in up-upstate NY, affording him the opportunity to spend his formative years exploring the wilds of the Adirondacks. He is an avid outdoorsman who has spent years leading adventure travel trips, teaching downhill and telemark skiing in Jackson Hole and river guiding on the Snake and Hudson rivers. He spent a season as a video boater on the Gauley River in West Virginia, a survival feat that he still recalls with amazement.
Tom is also an ecologist with field experience in Wyoming, Montana, Maine, Kenya and Ecuador. He worked on a raptor research project in Jackson with Craighead Berginia South before attending graduate school at the University of Montana. He successfully completed his Masters in May, 2010 and now insists you address him as Master Rogers.
Julia is a graduate of Hamilton College in upstate New York. She also enjoys spending her time outdoors, especially when it involves snowboarding, backpacking and picnicking (admittedly the least-extreme outdoor pursuit) . In addition to Jackson and Missoula, she has lived in New Jersey, New York, Maine, Nashville, London, and Tanzania. Despite her feminist leanings and love of all-things-outdoors, Julia unabashedly enjoys the Martha-esque pursuits of cooking, baking, crafting and event planning.
Julia met Tom just after returning to the US from Tanzania, where she spent nine months teaching health education in a rural village. Upon their move to Missoula, Julia founded EnRoute Consulting, a consultancy that helps young people organize international trips and choose worthwhile volunteer opportunities. Julia and Tom will spend time on their trip visiting international contacts to help develop the worldwide network of EnRoute opportunities. Please e-mail us if you have an organization or opportunity you would like us to visit on the ground.
