Now that we’ve gotten some of the travelogue out of the way, here’s some discussion on our gear to keep you until the next installment. One of the most important things for us was deciding which shoes to bring. We read a lot about the different types, ranging from hardcore hiking boots to lightweight running shoes. Well, based on the pictures below, you can probably guess which ones we went for. I decided to get the New Balance Minimus shoes and Marisa went for the Keen Havens.

After trying on probably more than a dozen pairs of shoes, from hiking boots on down, these were the most comfortable ones for each of us. Not much ankle support, it’s true, but we decided to go with comfort over everything else. If you’re going to wear something for 8 months, you want it to feel like a second skin.

We’re also going to keep track of how well these shoes last over our trip. Here are pictures of record of the soles of our shoes. I’ll post a couple pics in a month or so to see how they’re doing. You can see that mine are already showing signs of wear. I’m a little nervous about it, but a nice man dressed as a pilot on a recent flight to Seattle said he had a pair for a year now and they were still in good shape.They’ve held up really well so far and I barely even notice that I’m wearing them.  So I’m hopeful!