Who We Are And Why We Want To Take This Trip

We are the Shoemakers.  At the moment, we number four: Caleb and Emily (the parents), Anastasia and Zoe (the kids).  Caleb and Emily have been married for three years.  When we got married we made $40k a year and were $84k in debt.  In the summer of 2009 we attended Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and realized that it was time to grow up, take responsibility for ourselves and our finances, and get out of debt as fast as possible.  We started off well, but suffered a major set back when Caleb lost his job in March of 2010.  In the fall of 2010 Caleb found a new job and with two little girls in tow we moved to the little town of Cambridge, NY so that Caleb could begin his new job teaching at Augustine Classical Academy.  We were very excited to take the position even though ACA was still in its beginnings and unable to pay its teachers a full salary.  We have continued to chip away at our debt and as of today we owe approximately $64k.
As one might expect, it has been difficult to continue paying off debt over the past year.  Emotionally, we've felt extremely justified in stopping for ice cream, ordering Chinese, buying something nice for the house and otherwise busting our carefully constructed budgets.  While we continue to strive towards our goal, we need something to help spur us along, to give us the "Gazelle Intensity" that Dave Ramsey talks about.
We are dreamers and we have always loved to paint beautiful pictures in the air about what our lives will be like once we are debt free; what we could do when we're debt free; the amazing things we might be able to accomplish when we are debt free.
Well, we're tired of dreaming, so we're going to make it happen.  We're making a plan and we're going to stick to it.
We want to be debt free by the end of 2013 (when Caleb turns 31).  And, in the Summer of 2014, we will take Our Great American Debt Free Road Trip.
AND, as if that alone wasn't enough, we want to invite you to come with us.  If you're debt free, or will work to become debt free by the summer of 2014, we want you to join us for some (or all) of Our Great American Debt Free Road Trip.