Old 05-14-19, 06:05 PM
  #46  
mev
bicycle tourist
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Austin, Texas, USA
Posts: 2,279

Bikes: Trek 520, Lightfoot Ranger, Trek 4500

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Single, no kids.

I live below my means, not too different than I did as a college student, except in college I owned a car. I sold the car in 2001, went touring for a year and haven't quite bought one again. I use my bike for commuting to work and most errands. I'll rent a car if I need it, but that isn't very often. I work in tech and can't complain about pay.

At age 23, I graduated from college and started working. Six years later, I asked for and got enough time to what was then "a trip of a lifetime", a bicycle ride across the US. It was an intense ride, completed in six weeks. I spent long hours in the saddle but that was the sort of thing I enjoyed doing at age 29. Overall, an intense but great trip.

Four months after I returned, our group of ~40 engineers was called together and told after a re-organization our work was going to move elsewhere. We could apply for jobs elsewhere in the company and there were other groups hiring. After six years working, it was a big shock. I had put in lots of hours and wrapped a lot of my identity in what I did. One thing I reflected on was that I sure was glad I had been able to do my bike ride the summer before - since it would now be tougher to do that after I found a new a job.

I was fortunate to find a new job without too much difficulty. I decided that if the company could interrupt/reorganize - that I could do that too - and vowed to myself, that I would find another way to do another trip "in about five years" and work to that as a goal. Long story - short. In five years I took off for 3 months this time and bicycled across Canada (Fairbanks to St Johns). This set up a pattern and (a) four years later - a one year trip (around Australia, second cross-USA, New Zealand, India) (b) five years later a 10 month trip (across Russia) (c) five years later a 6 month trip (across Africa) and (d) three and a half years later an 18 month trip (Alaska to Argentina).

All except for my last trip were done by working with my bosses and the leave policies available at companies I worked. I made some trade-offs along the way, e.g. turned down a promotion or two and ended up moving a few times. However, I was fortunate to establish good relations with my bosses and be valuable enough they were willing to take me back after a LOA but never so indispensable that I couldn't work myself out of a job, train replacements and jump to a new role on return. In those 33 years I've worked for only two companies but in five different states. I've worked to keep my skills and contacts up and many roles are technical with either people or project management.

It has been a little tougher to find new roles as I've gotten older. Prior to my last 18-month trip was the first time I formally quit my job for a bike trip. I left things as best I could and figured it would take a month or two to be back working at that company. I did end up rehired but it took six months instead of two. This meant living off savings for two years, but this was something I was prepared to do.

The overall summary would be a combination of being lucky along with a willingness to prioritize life choices in a way that enables me to take some longer tours every five years or so and reach a goal of cycling across six continents. I stumbled into this pattern with the first intra-company layoff but in hindsight am glad I did.

Last edited by mev; 05-14-19 at 07:26 PM.
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