I'm 38 yrs old, married with kids (3 and 5 yrs), have two dogs, a mortgage, and a career. My calling is both with my family and the road, and I am torn down the middle.

I feel I can't leave them behind, neither often, nor for any lengths of time. This is not only for their sake, but also for my own sake - I kinda enjoy their company. Further, I feel as though I need to maintain my career to help provide my family with their current home, their current lifestyle, and hopefully a prosperous future. I don't have much flexibility in my career to take more time off than allocated vacation time.

At the present I am only looking into quick and fast satellite trips, over a week or four, that I can do with a few year intervals (this year I rode from Malaga to Bissau in a three week rally, and next year I plan a week long trip to Iceland). This is not the satisfaction I am looking for - I need much more. I day dream about the day when my mortgage is mostly down paid, my kids are too old to enjoy vacationing with their dad, and the dogs are dead... but then I am an old miserable fart that regret not having enjoyed my best years enough.

If you are, or have been, in a similar position - how do you, or did you, deal with this predicament?

I once seriously contemplated convincing my wife that we take two bikes and ride off for a year with our kids, maybe with a side car. Now I am not so keen, this as I see how important home is for my kids, because of the risks involved, because it would be a mammoth task to convince my wife of the idea, and because off all of the other necessary sacrifices. Anyways, I am not so sure my kids and wife would enjoy it as much - a recipe for disaster.

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