Zalafan

Dimkick has spoken.

What will thou do?

Options:
1. "We will have excellent journeys of power in the land if you accompany"
2. "It will benefit thee financially to accompany me upon my journey"
3. "Never mind, I don't want you to come along anymore"
4. Attack Dimkick
5. Attempt to dominate Dimkick's mind with psionics
6. Offer no response
7. Flee

Zalafan chooses to attempt Domination of Dimkick's mind with psionics!

Zalafan commences psionic attack upon Dimkick

Results to come..................................

Sebach

I am 23, in university and preparing to do a cross-Canada tour in the summer, then come back and go right back to my final year. The way I figure it is that the desire to do this tour will always be with me. I don't want to be older (with all sorts of binding commitments/responsibilities I can't get away from) and wish that I had done those things I wanted to do when I was younger. To take the time off would be more difficult later (kids, house payments, career, etc) and not to mention the personal damage of having passed up on an opportunity and regretting it later on.

People ask me about the risks (how will your girlfriend take it, how will you pay for stuff, how this, how that, what about this, what about that?) and I answer, "this is the time for me to do it." Nobody seems to get it though. I feel like I'm jumping on the bargain of a century or something here and nobody else around me sees it like that. I think this lack of understanding is why, sadly, it is a solo tour for me. The question for me is not "how can I afford to" but more of "how could I afford not to."

I feel a crossroads here. I don't want to be wishing 20 years from now that I knew what was down the "other road."

kamoke

I just turned twenty so I have no commitments. Really. I am living with my mom for the winter so I don't have any bills. I'm not in school so thats not a problem. How do I afford it? well, right now I'm not. I'm getting laid off in two days (due to cutbacks) and there isn't much work here. But I think if you have a bike and some enthusiasm you could probably make anything work.
Mostly though I've just been working crappy jobs to save up money, then travel. But I'm still young so people will hire my sorry butt.
The thing here seems to be that it doesn't really matter what your doing. If your an engineer or a cashier at the Sobeys, it all comes down to what you need while on tour. I don't know. You just make your situation work.

Schumius

It is not easy, many say just go, but the problem with money is always there. Years of touring has drained me dry, but I have no regrets (why should I? for not having bought the latest whatever?) and of course it's the only way to go and a lifestyle.

I would love to just give up everything, lots of stuff I have now don't really need, as a matter of fact they only make me sink further and I'm not getting happier, would love to just go and earn money on the road when running short of them. But I'm not that bright at making money nor that handy or resourceful. Would love to do that but also know that I don't want to live like that my whole life, also want a house, wife and kids.

It's very ture what they say, priorities, what is important to you, what makes you feel good and happy and what doesn't, gives and takes, just have to figure that out first and work from there. I guess if you work hard enough you'll have it, I hope.

lighthorse@eart

Several have stated that it gets harder with age to find a way to "do the tour." That may be true for the reasons stated about family and job responsibilities when you are 20-50 years old. But then the pendulum swings again and it becomes easier once again to find the time, inclination, and resources to "do the tour." Just do it.

Squirmworm

Hi all ,

I am new to this site, but wanted to pipe in. I am 41 and have traveled the United States West coast to East Coast by "Hiking" in the 80's on several ocassions.

I then became a single father when I was 23 with a toddler daughter. So i would pack her up and we would venture out on camping trips, and travel all over the country together. I worked jobs and we had a roof over our heads, and even broke on my butt, I would still take off on adventures with her. People could not understand why I did it, but I knew why. I wanted to live and I wanted her to live too.

I went to college as an adult, and two monthes after I graduated from Cal State in Northern CA. March of 2000 We sold everything we owned, packed up our Ford Sport wagon, with all that remained, our cat and even her pet mouse, and we traveled 11500 miles of the United States over the next three monthes. I knew it could be one of the last trips her and I took together, because she was almost grown. When it was over we rolled back into Northern CA with a hundred dollar bill left in my pocket and before even unpacking my car carrier, I called the school district and drove in to sign papers for a teaching assignment, from where I had left off before I left.
( Substituting full time ) Later I would teach for a few years.

This weekend she turns 21 lives out on a island off the east bay of CA. and I am currently on the Carolina Coast clear across the country. My daughter can travel anywhere, can talk and get along with people from every walk of life and cultural background. She knows what the world has to offer and knows what is out there. She can survive in the woods, or the city, it makes no difference. And that college cannot teach her.

The things that she has as tools cannot be bought when tying myself down to a mortgage which I never did do. I do not have credit dedts and at 41 I am still young enough to have my second run as a solo traveler should I so choose. And of course I am getting the itch BAD, or I would not have been in here.

I want to start riding two and three day tours and see how I do on a bike instead of the walking/hiking, and driving I have done.

My two remaining goals in life are to Ice Fish in Alaska, and hike on the AT, but I just have to try this Bike Tour deal and get the itch out of me!

I did not let being a single parent stop me, and I did not care if people thought I was crazy. I adapted to circumstances, but I never just did not bother, that would have been too high a price and I have not one single regret... well other than my daughter is now grown and so far away. I see others with mortages, fear of loosing this and that, and they are slaves to it. It is a matter of priority and perspectives, but for me I truly have no regrets. My daughter called me a while back and said, " Dad I have not been able to travel anywhere, can't afford to, but it is driving me crazy". She is tied to rent because she has chosen to live in a insanely high cost of living area, she will work it out for herself, when the bug hits her hard enough, I have a feeling she will call and ask to come home to be free to travel a while, a bedroom is waiting for her stuff to be stored.

Just thought I would share this with you all.

Peace,

Squirm Worm

sula

Mate,
You crack me up. Makes me giggle just reading your post.

on such a tour would disrupt money flow and career,

Matey boy, that’s the point of doing a long tour. If you don’t want to disrupt your life just keep on doing what you are doing.

Sell your car, rent your house go for a ride. Remember you are dead a long time and how may people on their death bed wish they had spent more time at work!

aroundoz

Whatever you do it always works out. I took a leave without pay for a year and biked around Australia and Fiji. I was scared to death and would wake up in a panic sometimes before the trip wondering what the he__ I am doing. It's been almost four years now and a distant memory but planning my next one which will be "only" a month. Honestly, a year was almost too much. What I noticed almost right away is that I met very few Americans. Australian's, Canadians, Europeans in general don't seemed to concerned about getting a job when they return etc... If you want to do it bad enough, it's possible. You might have to lower your standard of living after you return but you will be a better person for it.

My hats off to the above people for taking a year off college or work to do a long ride. It's the best thing you will ever do and you will never be the same. Nor will one trip be enough. It's sad that people close to you don't understand. They need to do a tour more than you do.

Machka 

That's very true! When I posed this same sort of question to another forum (not a touring forum) before I left for my Australia tour, the overwhelming majority of responders were American, and the overwhelming majority of them seemed very caught up in the idea that if a person left their current place of employment for any length of time (i.e. quit their jobs to tour for several months or years), that they would never get another job again, or that they would somehow be permanently dislodged from "the ladder", and would have to start climbing again. I had several of them tell me that a 3 month gap on my resume (my tour was 3 months) would doom me to never finding employment again, because potential employers would look at taking a trip like that as some sort of disloyalty, or lack of diligence, or something, and wouldn't want to hire me.

I argued that first of all, in the grand scheme of things, a 3 month gap is nothing (even a year isn't all that significant) in terms of a life's employment ... and secondly, perhaps employers might look at travel to another country, especially travel by bicycle, as innovative, creative, and unique ... giving me a different sort of education, as it were, in ingenuity and also a better sense of global issues (after all, most businesses are global now). All of which could be considered "transferrable skills" which employers might find attractive.

When I returned from my trip, it didn't take me long to find employment that was equal to what I had left in terms of responsibility and pay ... but I got a better office out of the deal!



My English friend, who accompanied me on the Australia tour, just went to his employer and asked for a year off . . . and got it. So he kept going after I went back home. I get the impression from what I've heard that employers in Europe are much more laid back about things like that than North American employers (I'll include both Canadian and US employers in that).

bccycleguy

If you don't do it, you'll spend the rest of your life saying "what if?"

I did a tour through the Canadian Rockeys (Golden-Radium-Lake louise-Jasper-Lake Louise-Golden) last September and had a great time. But I had to quit my job to get the time off. After working for this consulting company (I'm a geologist) for 7 years they were not prepared to give me a break during the busy summer season. I think they thought I was trying to get a raise when I gave them 3 months notice, promptly forgot about it and were absolutely astounded when I actually left.

I've since been doing contract work for other companies and the original company has offered me some stock options if I'll come back. So hay, you have to give fate some room to work.

The picture is of me 1/2 way up Sunwapta Pass after 2 days of rain turning into the season's first winter storm. Someone snapped this shot of me out their car window and emailed it to me.