Keeping the Dream Alive

[Braddan]

This is a post to anyone that has dreamed of travel and been thwarted. It's at the risk of sounding flippant I repeat what I've heard with a wince a thousand times before; if you want it enough you'll find a way to make it happen. That's not to say you have to bin everything and just go. While plenty do this, there is also room for planning and safety nets. Be kind to yourself - allow time to get over life's challenges and - hopefully - get on the road when the time is right for you. Though there does inevitably arrive the 'f*ck it lets do it' moment. Mines been around 12 years in the making.

I'm also posting this as a marker to myself - a way of cementing the slippery truth that my brain - in all its excited fluttering - can't quite yet grasp, and a promise to the future me that this time, THIS TIME. We're off - no matter what!

I'm not the first to dream a big trip dream and I won't be the last.

I originally intended to depart North Carolina where I lived and worked somewhere around 2011. Then suddenly faced with quite a few complications, it looked like plans were on hold a few years... Fast forward and a 'Long Way Round-esque' Mongolia - Russia trip was scuppered by a failing relationship and related re-distribution of funds.

Along this timeline I watched my dream lived by an ever-growing band of adventurous spirits as motorcycle travel was popularised - and tried to remain positive. Travel meets were still enjoyable but there was something bittersweet about clapping folk off on their route of choice or watching their convoluted journeys on screen when my own remained out of reach.

But then here we are. After about a year of casual prep and occasional discussion, the 'f@ck it lets do it' moment turned out to be New Years Eve 2022 when we purchased matching 'his-n-hers' Royal Enfield Himalayans. Now just a few days away from delivery of the bikes, travel funds are tucked away. Air freight to Alaska is planned and time out is accounted for. The elusive 12 moths on the road begins in June 2023.

As so many before have found, that 12 months may become a truncated 3 or it may never end. But unless we try we'll never know. So heres to trying. Even if it takes a decade to get there!

To anyone dreaming. Don't give up!
And to those who helped me keep the dream alive in their own special ways - more thanks than you could imagine.

Braddan.