I know not everybody feels the same, but I don't really feel like I'm travelling properly until I've been away for over a month or more.

For me, the most enjoyment of a long, overseas motorcycle trip is the separation from my home life and turning into a bit of a hobo.

I love the sense of freedom and the thought of endless adventure and the mysteries the next day holds. I love that I won't have to worry about work, bills, car insurance etc for the foreseeable future.

When I only have two weeks, I kind of know where I'm going to be everyday, what miles I have to do and when I have to be on the way home. You can't REALLY get too far from your normal life with the time constraints. That's why I rarely bother doing shorter trips.

THIS is also why I shrug my shoulders when my friends/family say

"Just go on lots of short trips"

IT JUST AIN'T THE SAME , GOD DAM IT !!!

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

I think anybody who takes extended trips who have children at home being looked after by there spouse should swap places & let there spouse go on the extended trip & they look after the kids !!!!!! No matter how it is sugared up it is simply selfish & shirking your responsibilities.....I am sorry but I don't buy it, if you are man enough to have kids than be man enough & take responsibility of them. If your single go for it....but if you have a family it's a whole different ball game !!!:confused1:

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....rather Die Living.....than Live Dying !
www.globetrekkers.net.au

What if your spouse simply wants to stay home, with you and be a family or maybe go on holiday all together? You're projecting.

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Paul "Every county of England, every country of Europe and every (part of every inhabited) continent of the Earth" 94% done! What's left? Central America, East, Central and West Africa, Australia & New Zealand

No thats is how it should be !!! What I am saying it is wrong for one spouse to go off for prolong periods while the other is left at home (usually the women) I have raised 3 children & before I was married had been to over 60 countries...but once married I never ventured anywhere without my wife for longer than 3 weeks ( I have been married for 25 years) & at times we have been overseas we took our kids with us.
All the spouses that are left behind with a fake smile on there face waving there other half goodbye as they leave on another great adventure, need a medal for acting as I bet deep inside they would wish to be going off somewhere as a family.

Paul

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....rather Die Living.....than Live Dying !
www.globetrekkers.net.au

They don't need a "medal for acting", they need a kick up the slats for not saying what they really want.

Generally, I get where you're coming from though. I waited 'til my brood had grown up and flown the coup before adventuring. Now, my wife flies out to rendezvous with me wherever I'm traveling; Athens two years ago and Marrakech last year on my Morocco trip for example, and we get to spend some time together. It's going to be tough on the longer trips that I've got planned to more remote places but as long as I help her to do what she wants (she's into heritage so museums and stuff), then I get to do my thing.

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Paul "Every county of England, every country of Europe and every (part of every inhabited) continent of the Earth" 94% done! What's left? Central America, East, Central and West Africa, Australia & New Zealand

If it is of any help. I had the same problem. Got my self a bike trailer. Loaded up the car. click up the trailer on the back. Then it's off to where ever you have in mind. And you have the bike for them odd day's out where the wife can take the kid's to the beach.

Worked for me.
John933

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To buy petrol in Europe. Pull up at station. Wait. Get out a 20 Euro note, then ask someone to fill up the bike. Give person money. Ride away. Simple.

A nice family traveling with kids: Sixenroute, Un tour du monde en famille en camping-car - Accueil

Dont know what ball game you are refering to
Implisit you asume when going away me and others like me dont take care of our kids or the misses. I cannot disagree more. My wife and I give and take reciproctal. To be explicit, it involves me staying at home when she is away, and of course the other way around. You just have to man up and deal with that

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Haakon
Check out: North Africa 2007 and The Great African Run

first off, how about a lifetime of trips rather than the trip of a lifetime?
second, how about breaking a trip into stages. A mate of mine did this. Bought an old banger and set off for Vladyvostok. He takes his 2 week holiday from work and drives a little further. He then finds somewhere to leave the vehicle (with someone who fancies a few quid for doing nothing) and leaves it there til the next time. Last time I spoke to him he had reached Mongolia!

I have put my trips on hold for the time being because of the birth of widget, my daughter. I'm just waiting for her to be robust enough for travel, I reckon about 3 years old should be fine so hopefully we can start planning some gentle trips next year, maybe starting with a couple of weeks to Morrocco.

It depends a bit on your line of work but you could always rent the house out and travel as a familly for a while. while the kids are young you can do school teaching yourself, and they will learn far more out on the road than in a classroom. It takes more planning with a familly but it can be, and has been, done.

Cherish you family and kids mate.

I'd give anything to be where you are and have my kids back again

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That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing...

Hi,

A lot has been covered in this thread, from what I see if you get on some trips you should count yourself lucky.

What works for us, is managing to get a decent amount of time off in one block each year, we have had 3 or 4 weeks most years, in fact the last 3 years have been a month at a time. In order to do this we had to make a couple of changes in life, my wife took a job at a school sacrificing money for leave. This means we have to watch our pennies. We live in a modest flat rather than a house with garden etc, which we would love.

On our trips. my wife, daughter and I all jump in the Landy and disappear for a month. It is nice to have no fixed itinerary and travel together. I am not sure if I would ask to go on a trip of more than a weekend with out them. That said I have been mountain biking for a weekend. Our travels together have taken us all over Europe and further. We wild camp, off road, hike, swim, eat and drink together and with others. People often request to join us.

We would like to have a big trip, one day. At the moment the plan is to go later in life. When my daughter is 20 I'll be 45 years young. So plenty of time. In the meantime we enjoy and feel lucky to be able to do smaller trips. One thing I am grateful for is being young enough to be young with the daughter. I can do what ever she wants to do.

If I were you I would travel as much as you can with them. You may not always have that opportunity.

You may need to change you transport method slightly thou.

Cheers

Dan

I've been pondering this for some time, and it seems that there is a common thread.

I can only speak for myself, and my story is that I'm 42, married for 6 years to a great lass, have a 5 yr old girl and one on the way in 2.5 months time.

I've always wanted to travel, but my wife is completely disinterested in biking generally and does not understand my desire to tune and rebuild bikes in the garage. At all.

In 4 weeks I'm going off with my brother for 2.5 weeks on a UK road trip from Denmark (GPz 550 tour I wrote about on this HUBB), me on my bike, and my brother on the one I rebuilt for him.

My wife is taking it a bit personally, and cannot understand why I would want to be away from them for this time, and does not understand that it's not about getting away from them, but rather the trip itself. She has, however, accepted this and said "I think you should go". I wasn't awaiting approval, but it came nevertheless. Bonus.

I will miss them, but it will be ok! We'll stay in touch every day and I'll try to make it fun for my little girl too, but I know that if I don't go ahead, I'll regret this and I'm not prepared to do this.

There will be other compensations I will make for my wife in time, such as going to OZ for 3-6 months to baby sit the new arrival and care for our daughter whilst she continues with PhD research at a hospital in Sydney, so it's swings and roundabouts. There has to be some give and take if your partner is not interested in your business.

I say, do what you need to in this life, as it's too short to pass by with regrets, but think of ways in which you can accommodate the other at the same time as their desires are also to be met.

It's hard though to convince the other half of those inner desires that perhaps were not written on the sleeve of your jacket when you were walking down the aisle all those years ago.... my wife had no idea THEN that I was so into mechanics in general, as when I met her I was living in a bedsit in the UK and had no access to a garage, but had lived on the wild side in South Africa in the biking scene for some years, and that never dies.

Now there's no room in the garage for her car with all the bikes in the way... oops.

Every family is different. Every woman is different. It's about communication and finding the balance. (Sometimes in between my own selfishness)

In my case, 2 weeks for a trip was the pain threshhold, so I stretched it to 18 days. I cannot get more or the elastic will snap. If I took a month there would be serious problems, which would describe what some folks here have gone through, and I'd prefer to keep my family in one piece because at the end of the day, If I had to choose between my family and my biking, I'd sell the bikes and live with that lesser regret, as my family come first.

I just like pushing the boundaries I guess, but at the same time, life is for living. This balance is an interesting debate.
It's about prioritizing passions.

Hot dang that's a good post Farrawayman. Could not have put it better myself.

Do everything you can to make your family happy but don't forget yourself as well!

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That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing...

I don't think 2.5 weeks is a lot to ask from somebody you're prepared to spend the rest of your life with.

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More malformed, irrelevant opinions here.

What if your spouse simply wants to stay home, with you and be a family or maybe go on holiday all together? You're projecting.

@Wildman no thats is not what I am saying, All I say is family comes first (at all costs) also I was referring to extended trips, I think trips like Farawayman is actually very healthy & it is good to have short holidays apart as long as it is balanced.

Paul

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....rather Die Living.....than Live Dying !
www.globetrekkers.net.au