What happens when Slow-mads turn into Go-Mads? They go mad! Our whirlwind 7 Weeks Back in the Americas!

Some of our readers may have been wondering where we've been. We've been quiet here on the Rocinantes blog. This is because we've been so busy scurrying from one corner of the globe to the other, we haven't had time to reflect, let alone write.

Paul and I have been slow traveling for 3 and a half years now. We try to stay at least a month in any given location, and prefer 2 or 3 months at a time. People who travel this way are often referred to as “Slowmads”, because their travel is slow. In the community of folks who travel full-time, there are also folks who travel faster, staying in places only  a few days to a few weeks at a time.  They are sometimes called “Gomads” because they are always on the go.

After 6 months on or near the Malaysian Peninsula) 3 months in Kuala Lumpur, 1 month in Singapore, and 2 more months in KL), we returned to the US. Circumstances led us to booking many small, short trips, zig-zagging the globe in a somewhat frenetic fashion. .  Back in 2023, we had booked 3 months in Osaka, Japan from July through September, 2025. We wanted to see the World Expo and we loved Osaka (you can read about our experiences in Osaka here). At that time, we had spent 14 months in Australasia. We had planned in late 2024 to travel to Europe. But for medical reasons, we went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in late November, 2024. It would have made sense for our lifestyle to go to Japan from there. However, we were invited to two weddings in June, 2025, necessitating our return to North America before a return to Japan.

Kuala Lumpur is on the opposite side of the world from Michigan in the U.S., our home base. There is just no easy way to get from there to there. We thought it might be better to break the trip into smaller legs, having regretted back-to-back flights of 8 hours and 7 hours from Honolulu to KL via Tokyo in November. So, we booked two nights at an airport hotel in Tokyo, then a night in Honolulu; then, we flew to Maui to visit my music teacher, staying there two nights; then, returned to Honolulu for another night before flying direct to Detroit.  We had just under a week in Michigan before heading to our nephew’s wedding at a resort in Jamaica, and after 4 nights there, we flew back to Michigan.  We wanted to attend the wedding of a dear friend’s daughter in Chicago in late June, but wanted to visit family in Louisville first, so after Jamaica we spent a week in Michigan, a week in Louisville, and then flew to Chicago for 12 nights. Wanting to break up to trip to Japan, we flew from Chicago to Vancouver where we stayed 4 nights, then flew to Osaka from there.

Each event and each visit was wonderful and special and so worth it.  But the totality of the experience was overwhelming.  We hope we don’t ever plan this type of travel again! But, we did have a great time with family and friends.  This is how we rolled.

Haneda Airport, Tokyo, Japan

This was a very short stay. We just needed to break up our two longest flights. We treated ourselves to business class on the flight from KL to Haneda. I had never flown business class before and it was really, really nice.

We stayed at a wonderful airport hotel called the Hotel Villa Fontaine Premier Haneda Airport. After clearing customs, it was a short walk from there to the hotel, which is located in a kind of shopping mall inside the airport grounds. The room was extremely comfortable and quiet, with a view of the river below. There was a lovely onsen included on site. I went twice! The biggest downside to this plan was that we had to complete medical import forms even though we were only staying in Japan for 2 nights. We had thought we'd have less than a 30-day supply of medications, given we had been away for 6 months, but failed to take into account the new medications we obtained in KL. We also had to figure out a way to re-freeze the cold packs keeping Paul's injections cold during travel. Fortunately, the hotel was very accommodating and put the packs in their kitchen freezer, giving us a claim check. During our short stay we had wonderful food - soba, yakiniku, and sushi. We were reminded how wonderful Japan is, and this short stay made us eager to visit for 3 months in the summer.

Hawaii

Hawaii was beautiful, as it always is. Blue skies, blue ocean, relaxing vibe. But, it was too much moving around. The first night we stayed at the Best Western The Plaza Hotel Honolulu Airport. It was fine, nothing special. I booked two nights so we could check in after the long flight from Haneda, which arrived in the morning. We took a quick trip to the Ala Moana Mall so I could buy a new smart swimsuit since I had stretched out the one I bought in November before losing so much weight.

The next day, we flew to Maui to spend two nights at the newly-rebuilt Airbnb owned by my music teacher, Pamela. The place is magnificent! The views outstanding, the decor lovely with local art, the hot tub delightful and the company divine. Couldn't ask for more.

From Maui, we flew back to Honolulu to stay one more night there. We saw a beautiful, Hawaii, rainbow and ate from the food trucks nearby.

Michigan, take 1:

We took an overnight long-haul flight from Honolulu to Detroit. When we arrived early the next morning, the time differences and already constant travel left us exhausted. The highlight of the morning was seeing our daughter and son-in-law's bright, smiling faces when they picked us up at the airport, way too early for them on a Saturday morning, especially on their first wedding anniversary. What was that feeling on my skin? Ah - a cool breeze, almost cold. Hadn't felt "cold" in a while. But Kate & Ben brought us jackets, which we appreciated. We had a good, Michigan breakfast before heading to Lansing. On the road to Lansing, we once again saw the big, green trees and grassy fields of the great lakes states. We got to celebrate their first anniversary that evening with a new cake, and the traditional bites (by them) of their saved wedding cake. They had even bought us a welcome home cake! The focus of our first week back in Michigan was spending time with our daughter and son-in-law, and having routine medical checks. We also visited with a few friends.

No sooner did we get there than if felt like time to fly to Jamaica for the wedding.

Jamaica:

The Jamaica trip was all about our nephew’s wedding. We traveled there with Kate and Ben.

We stayed at a Sandals Resort (the location of the wedding), which is not our typical way of experiencing another country. It was lovely and terrific spending quality time with family there. Our son, James, and his wife, Maggie were there too!

One highlight was a boat trip to Dunn's Falls across the water, which included snorkeling.

The wedding was beautiful.

On the way back to Michigan, we ran into our son and daughter-in-law at the airport. They were supposed to fly out the day before, but weather in Miami resulted in a cancelled flight for them. We enjoyed this unexpected visit, and ate at the Bobsled Cafe before flying back to Michigan.

Michigan, take 2:

The second week in Michigan was spent visiting family, more routine medical checks, and staying with our daughter and son-in-law.  Visiting was fantastic, but there were so many people to see! It went by really fast! We did have beautiful weather. You'll notice I don't have many photos of the friends we caught up with in Michigan. I guess we were too busy catching up to take pictures!

Louisville:

 After a week, it was time to fly to Louisville to see my extended family. The travel day was super-long. What was supposed to be a 5-hour layover at Detroit turned into an 8-hour layover due to mechanical issues with the plane. We had to cancel dinner plans and eat at the airport. But, always glad when they pay attention to safety. We stayed at a very nice Airbnb in the Nulu district of Louisville. Great location, nice space. We rescheduled our dinner date at The Parlor (pizza) and had another nice meal a block from our unit, a Spanish tapas restaurant called Cured.

We traveled by car to Cincinnati with my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Frank. We have attended many operas with them in Cincinnati over the years, and it was wonderful to do so again. This time, we enjoyed a lovely view of the city, ate at an Italian restaurant, and saw Rigoletto, featuring world-class voices.

We visited with family. Wonderful to see (almost - we missed you, Amber!) everyone and catch up.

I went to Cave Hill Cemetery with my Aunt Cathy to put flowers on the graves of our loved ones. The magnolias were in full bloom. Over the years, I tended to go in April (when I was on a work break) and saw many beautiful tulips, dogwoods, and redbud trees. You can see photos of those trees in Louisville from our tme there in 2024. However, I had not seen magnolias, which bloom later, there before. Reminded me of the giant magnolia that used to grow in my grandparents' back yard (replaced years ago, by necessity, with a beautiful dogwood).

And just like that, it was time to fly to Chicago!

Chicago:

We had 12 nights in Chicago. We stayed at a wonderful 1-bedroom apartment on South Michigan Avenue in the loop, a building called Sentral on Michigan. It had a terrific view of the lake, and it was a great location for walking - across the street from Grant Park, and an easy walk to the lakeshore. There was an abundance of restaurants and groceries nearby. We enjoyed our stay, except for the heat. It was very, very hot.

We caught up with a former colleague of Kim's Mary and her husband, Iggy. Kim & Mary worked together in Indianapolis in the 1980's and 1990's, and hadn't seen each other in several years. Mary & Iggy now live in Chicago, walking distance from our apartment, in a spacious, beautiful place with stunning views of the lake and the city. They treated us to a tasty, home-cooked meal. After dinner, we sat on the balcony and watched the sunset, followed by fireworks over Navy Pier in the distance.

We did some really touristy things in Chicago. We walked to and admired Buckingham Fountain and the Rose Garden.

We visited the Chicago Art Institute, which has an outstanding collection of impressionist paintings, among other collections.

We took an architecture tour of the Chicago River by boat, which was outstanding.

The penultimate evening I attended the wedding of my dear friend, Mable's, daughter Kourtney. It was beautiful, elegant, and loving. I felt privileged to share this special day with them. Paul intended to go, but got a bad stomach illness about an hour before the wedding and sadly, had to stay in the apartment. It was also nice to catch up with a former work colleague, Mark, and his wife Laura.

On the final day, we walked around Millennium Park, enjoyed Chicago hotdogs and gelato and visited an amazing playground with our nephew, Stephen, his wife Shannon, their two wonderful children, Christopher and Charles, and Kate & Ben - all of whom were in town for the annual firework night at Paul's sister and brother-in-law's house (which we could not attend because of the wedding). We had a wonderful visit with all of them!

Needless to say, we were once again exhausted when we boarded a flight to Vancouver the next day.

Vancouver:

The last stop before Japan was Vancouver. As we flew over, we could see how beautiful the views were. And, Vancouver gave us great weather. While it was sunny and hot for Vancouver, it was a nice contrast to the unrelenting heat of Chicago.

We stayed in an Airbnb in a residential neighborhood near Fraser Street. It was a nice one-bedroom and only a couple of blocks from a bus that took us everywhere, includng a fantastic coffee shop called Feast & Fallow, which featured a wonderful concoction called a "black mocha".

The next day, we took a series of buses and a train to Grouse Mountain, where we took the gondola up to the top.

After we came down from the mountain, we took the sea ferry to Canada Place, where we had a light lunch and watched Canada Day celebrations. After that, we took a bus to a luggage store and bought me a new suitcase. My original nomad suitcase busted on the trip from Honolulu to Detroit, and I had been using an old, unbalanced cloth suitcase which I hated!

When we were en route, I remembered that our VRBO hosts from our 2-month stay in Toronto in 2024 live in Vancouver, so I sent them an email suggesting we meet for coffee. They invited us to their beautiful condo near Stanley Park, fed us a home-cooked meal (delicious) and took us on a guided tour of the city. They showed us one of the most expensive zip codes in Canada (West Vancouver) and the poorest zip code in Canada (downtown eastside). Most of the tour offered wonderful views, walkways, bike paths, restaurants, and signs of vibrant life. The downtown eastside was sad and disturbing, with open drug use by broken people. We had a very interesting conversation about efforts to remedy the problems there. While there are people doing good work there, the heart of the problem has not been solved. We appreciated the personal tour, the conversatio, and the company. Matthew & Winsome: thank you!

On our final day we went to Granville Island, a wonderful market and arts haven. We picked up fresh bread, olives, cheese and a cake for dinner.

I was especially tickled by a sticker I saw, which naturally I had to buy. Such a polite way of suggesting that the U.S. might need to get their act together. From what we can tell, Canada is, in fact, already great!

Are you exhausted yet? We were. All of this took place over the space of seven weeks - from May 17, 2025 to July 4, 2025.

Now that we’re in Osaka for the next 3 months, we’re happy to unpack and settle in here. These upcoming 3 months look luxurious. But we want to stay in one place even longer than that. When our 3 months are over here, we’ll fly to KL to consult with physicians and get additional medications, then back to Michigan to officially start our application for a residence visa in Portugal.  If all goes well, we expect to move to Lisbon after the first part of 2026, 4 years after starting our nomadic life. We’re so happy to be back in Japan, but also excited about settling down in Portugal next year.

To represent the mish-mash way we felt moving around so much during our seven weeks in the US (and Jamaica), I put together a little medley representing the different places we traveled in such a short time. Although each song is great by itself, the songs don't really go together. I found myself wishing I could spend more time with each song, to get to know it a little better. That's how we felt about the travel!

You can see the video here.  I hope you enjoy it!

If you want to listen to each song in the medley sung by a great artist, I've listed them below:

Over the Rainbow (Iz style), by Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg, sung here by Pamela Polland

Saginaw, Michigan, by Don Wayne & Bill Anderson, sung here by Johnny Cash

One Love, by Bob Marley, sung here by Bob Marley & the Wailers

Louisville, K.Y., by Sunny Skylar, sung here by Ella Fitzgerald (where has this song been all my life?)

Sweet Home Chicago, by Robert Johnson, sung here by Magic Sam (said to be the inspiration for the Blues Brothers version)

Big Yellow Taxi, by Joni Mitchell, sung here by Joni Mitchell