This house has a gas stove. I’ve always had electric stoves. I’m a messy cook. Maybe a it was a bit too much oil in the fry pan. Maybe I was a little careless dropping the mushrooms in. Result – a blazing stove fire. I scream, smoke alarm starts blaring, John comes running.

I grab a lid and cover the pan, flames go out. John grabs Gus and puts him in a closet so we can open all the doors and fan them vigorously to clear the air. The smoke alarm finally stops.

Whew! Disaster averted. Burning down our first house of this 12 month adventure might have been a problem. (Note to self: check location of fire extinguisher upon arrival.)

Since I don’t expect many people to be reading this blog except our friends and family, you probably already know about our #12months12places caper. But as one friend told me, “I want details not just of where you are but why you chose that place.” Thus, this blog of our adventure.

Our plan is to stay a month in a town and then move to another for the next month, doing this for a year if all goes to plan, and assuming I don’t burn down a house before we’re done. A couple of times each month I’m going to write a little something about our travels and show some photos.

We are traveling with our cat Gus (that’s who got thrown in the closet during the fire, in case you were wondering….and yes, we let him out afterwards). He’s a pretty seasoned traveler having gone back and forth with us multiple times to Urbana, IL when we had a house there. But having him with us on this adventure does limit our housing options. We’re renting houses via Airbnb. You put in a location, the requested dates, number of bedrooms, etc and you get, say, 112 houses to choose from. Add that you’re traveling with a pet and wham, you now have 14 houses to choose from. And a couple of those options will be dog-only, no cats. So depending on your outlook, what a *$#%! pain – or – yay, less overwhelming to make a choice.

The house that didn’t burn down is in Naperville, IL, stop number 1 of 12. In the next post I’ll tell you a little about the area and yes, Pam, about why we chose it. Also about where else we’re headed since we’d love to have visitors.

The photo is Gus surveying the backyard from the deck. I promise this blog will not be all cat pictures, no matter how cute he is!

Marie, John and Gus