The VanNess Vagabonds

Who we are-

We are Mark and Jessica VanNess, 25 and 33 years old, ready to take our life by the horns and make our childhood dream a reality. We have been planning our trip around the world since practically the day we met.

“I don’t think people are looking for the meaning of life. I think they are looking for the experience of being alive!” — Joseph Campbell.

We were married this year, January 3rd 2009 at the Pour House by Reverend Love. If you can’t tell by those details-we are not very traditional or fearful of living outside the box.

Our trip around the world is not only a huge dream of ours but will also be our ultimate honeymoon! We are an eccentric, fun-loving, easygoing couple ready for the experience of a lifetime. Follow us on our journey.

Mark’s life: I was born in Winston-Salem, NC and grew up in Chapel Hill (yep . . . Michael Jordan), moved away from home at 16 and started building houses. I always loved to draw and get tattooed, ended up getting a tattoo apprenticeship, and beginning what would ultimately be my career and my life. I met Jess, got married, and here we are preparing to travel the world, learn about tattooing from originals, get tattooed, take my skills to other countries and far away places, and experience what the world has to offer . . .

Jessica’s life: I was born and raised in Greensboro NC. My mom and I moved to NYC when I was 15- I learned a lot about the beauty in cultural diversity. I moved back to NC when I was sixteen, lived on my own and started attending community college. Starting ‘grown up life’ at 16 quickly taught me how to sustain myself and to appreciate small stuff. I love food, art, music, really anything creative. I graduated from NC State with a communication degree in hopes of working as a videographer for discovery channel, but was pushed into corporate video for monetary reasons, not my thang. Now I work as a graphic designer and make metal art on the side. I was lucky enough to grow up with 4 awesome siblings, all travel, all creative, all unique in our own way. I have been dreaming of traveling the world since I was a little girl playing “Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego”. I think my travel bug was also influenced by my big brother Gill. One memory that stands out- his homecoming after a year of study in Japan. Him strolling down our street with a walking stick, a huge backpack, and long hair. He looked happier than I had ever seen him . . .like he had found life. His glow told his story- I have seen, I have been, and I will always have the memories. Money comes and goes but memories are what make us, mold us, teach us, and make it all worthwhile. You can’t take the money with you when you die, but memories last forever.

We had the American dream. We came from education middle class families who have sewn their oats and become incredibly successful. We make good salaries, had a house, nice new cars, nice computers, stainless appliances, a pool, live in a great town . . .everything you would imagine wanting. But, one thing was always missing. The sensation of change, growth, challenge, life.

Now married, everyone asks ”What next, babies?” Oh h*ll na! Once we began being berated with this question, we woke up and realized how much we want out of our lives that we were letting pass us by. We felt like we were living nice lives, but far from anything we ever wanted. We are not ready for the American dream-we are ready to wear tattered clothes, hole covered shoes, vaguely recall what a mortgage is, and have the term “9 to 5” be a distant memory replaced with a rice & bean diet.
Yum!

In comes the question-why didn’t you guys leave before now?

The long and short of it . . .we had to cut back spending, sell our house, work, work, work, save money, muster up the guts to throw away everything we had worked for since 16, and really truly dedicate ourselves to the plan. The number one reason why we didn’t put the plans into motion before now was our dog Lobo. Mark had Lobo for 16 years- he was the best dog that has ever lived, our best friend and there was no way that we would leave him behind. This year the inevitable happened, RIP buddy. He was the last piece of the puzzle and we did not want to buckle down and plan until after he passed away. We will miss him forever and we are taking part of his ashes with us on our journey to spread in the most beautiful places we find.

Why we are leaving now?

Because all of those people asking us the same question “babies?” are right. A baby would be the next logical step in our lives. But, we have some things to take care of before we devote our lives to child rearing . . .living, seeing, feeling, learning, and growing (no offense kiddies). We want to do this trip when we still have the chance, the money, the balls. When we are not held back by anything.

Don’t get us wrong . . . don’t think that we are under the impression this trip will be smooth sailing and full of all things beautiful. There will definitely be hard times, we are counting on it and excited about it. Every hard experience, when traveling, usually ends up being one of the best and funniest stories you have to share. Those bad experiences are what make traveling exciting, the possibilities-good or bad.

Can you remember a time when you didn’t have to go to school or work? We think it is crazy that the times that you are given to live freely are when you can’t really take advantage of the freedom. When you are a child-too small to know what to do but eat glue and make mud pies. When you are retired- in this day in age that is not until 90(trust me, both of my parents are over 60 and no where close to retiring). At 90 you may want to do lots of things, but would you be able to? So, why at a time in our lives when we are most healthy and free from responsibilities do we sit in buildings in front of computers 40+ hours a week? We miss the sun! Why do we sit more than walk when we are most capable of running? Well, we want to run! Which is why we are giving up “the good life” the benefits, the insurance, the salaries, the big house, nice cars, giving it all up- to experience the memories that at 90 we can laugh and cry about. The memories that our grandchildren will tell they’re grandchildren-the essence of believing in yourself- a pipedream realized.

What brings us to blog?

We have been dreaming of this for a long time and we know there are other people out there dreaming with us. We appreciate all of the information we have found through other travel blogs and we would love to give back by sharing our story. We want to share our amazing adventures with anyone who cares to see them.

What it the purpose of your trip?

While there are some people that take a trip like this to explore food, to party all over the world, for a spiritual awakening, or to just have a blast-we are beginning this endeavor for a few reasons but the main reason is to find inspiration- for Mark it is about learning traditional tattoo techniques and different skills from all over the globe. For Jessica it is about finding inspiration for her artwork and documenting this incredible journey on video. For both of us- it is about seeing what there is out there and traveling on this journey together.

What is the plan?

We are not planning much-we are buying 2 one-way tickets to South America. We do have a rough idea of where we want to go when, but we are mostly looking forward to letting the winds take us wherever they may. We may end up spending 6 months in South America because we really love it, we just don’t know. We don’t want to force anything. The point is not for us to say we traveled the world- the point is for us to be free to live, travel, and experience as we please. We are approaching the trip with the hopes that there will be an ebb and flow- if we run out of money- then we will get jobs or come home- everything happens for a reason. We may be gone more than 12 months (that is how long we have paid for a storage unit) we might be back in 7. Only time will tell. What we do know is that we don’t know much and we are ready to learn. We are ready to be free! The purpose of this blog is to tell our story as it unfolds to anyone interested.

What are you guys going to do when you get back?

We don’t really know where we will end up coming back to or even when. Part of our plan is to use the money we made from selling our house as starter money when we return. Once we get settled in, the money will hopefully go toward opening a combination Tattoo Shop and metal workshop connected to one another. But, as with everything else in our lives, we don’t want to commit to this happening, because honestly we have not idea if it will. But, for now that is the plan.

Hope you enjoy!

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We would love to hear from our readers, so please don’t hesitate to contact us. Feel free to send us an email at jessandmark@vivavanness.com with comments about the blog, questions, suggestions of places we should visit, or just to say hello!

Thanks!!