Sure it does, I left because back home sucks and everyone has a pole up their ass then I get over here and everyone is really nice, honestly I thought nice or outgoing or eccentric people were extinct!

Also it doesn't take long to forget what you left behind. Just do it, you won't regret it but once you hit the road make sure you do all that stuff you never did back home, like talking to a random chick for no reason or getting drunk and dancing on a table, whatever you feel like because the next day you can ride the hell out of there!

No problems as such before we left but we sold up, put the money in the bank and used the monthly interest to pay for the trip. Selling up was a sign that we weren't coming back to the same life - change for the sake of change.

After a year on the road we were looking to put down some roots again, we'd not really found our destiny in Africa so we came here to France.

In our case, when we reflect on the trip we realise it was the most stress free year of our lives. The budget wasn't much but was adequate and in some countries we could live very well indeed but living without any money pressure and just enjoying ourselves every single day helped set us up for a very positive approach to our new lives.

I am planning to "hit the road" next fall. It has taken several years for me to get my life organized for this. My daughter will graduate from her nursing program next spring and move out of my house to enter the next phase of her life. I will sell my home next summer/fall. My remaining cattle will be sold in late fall 2009. After that I plan to head out on my 2007 KLR for some major touring. Probable spend a year or two on the road, See where life takes me.

Can hitting the road help solve problems...

Well yes... if they are your own problems.. it will not help with the bad debts and other problems of everyday life....
My story is thus,,, I have spent the greater proportion of my life (10+yrs post bachelors deg) to make a name for myself in the academic science world, and have not been happy the entire time. I kept saying to myself "once i get to stage X.. all will be good".. Well it turns out i was completely wrong. I am not suited for academia/science: reason why are not important here...

So I am working out the rest of my current contract (4m, 6d, 4h 32m 40s) and am hitting the road. The timming is right, I do not know what i will do for the rest of my life... and right now i dont care enough to worry about it.... I will spend the next (i dont know how many months)..riding around with my wife seeing the world.. I will be looking for only one thing.. and that is my smile. My mojo, I had it once and i know it is there.. i jsut have re connect with it...

I once upon a time woke up and looked forward to the day...Now I only wonder what BS i will have to deal with before i can go home...

When i travel I am myself, I know as soon as I am out there doing what i want to do. I will be myself. Then I can (maybe) decided what i would like to try next... So yeah for me.. who is trying to choose a new path the travel will help me solve it. (unless of course ALL it does is BIT ME HARDER with the TRAVEL BUG and I can thing of nothing else but to travel more and more)

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2000 Africa Twin
http://two-up-ona-twin.blogspot.com

Some people just have seriously regressive nomadic Genes! Consequently, they are happy while travelling and equally unhappy while tied to a job or house or any other limiting factor.

I have wanted to travel and discover the world as long as I can remember. My earliest memory of this dates from when I was 10 years old, playing with my younger brother, pretending to be a sailor on the ocean, sailing the seas of the world! When I was 21, I graduated from the Naval Academy, as BSc of Naval Engineering. Only was at sea for short while, economic crisis of mid eighties, no work. Got sucked in to a "normal life", but been travelling ever since anyway to far away places and extended periods.

So for many of us, yes it will solve the unhappy caged feeling as long you are travelling. Obviously not practical or financial problems or problems with women
One might briefly enjoy returning home after XX months on the road. But not for long and it starts itching again. Fact of life, for me.

cheers,
Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

Visit Bikeclubfrance

I have always, (since a boy) have been drawn to things compact or 'portable'. I have ALWAYS been ready to 'go'. I couldn't figure it out ... I've been a cowboy most of my life but I could NEVER settle down in one place. Although money has always been scarce, I've managed to travel almost all of my life..whether on a bike or regular transport.

I walked into a store in a very small town one day and got into a chat with the old gal that owned it. As we got acquainted, she remarked, completely out of nowhere, "Yer' a 'travelin' man !" When I asked her what she meant, she just simply replied," You don't hafta' say nuthin', I can see it in ya'. My late husband was the same way."

I guess it may just be something you're born with. I'm past 50 and still ramblin'...you can't BUY a better life.

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Rule#2 "Never go ANYWHERE that YOU are considered a source of FOOD!

I was twenty when i hit the road first time, it all happened accidentaly. Now, its 11 years from that moment, something like 7 years of that i have been on a move. Been 3 times around South America, working abroad on many different field, building traditional wooden ships in Indonesia, get lost while sailing in Papua.
Just recently I retuned back home, Finland. I thought now would be the time to educate myself and get into normal life, since I never really had that. But I found out that I can not survive here. Only way I know my way around in this life is to be on a move, have my camera and a book with empty pages to fill, fill them with stories and photos. I made my plan to return here and stay, I put myself on purpose into a bad financial situation so I had to stay here and make my life here. Its a very difficult task I think. Now I cant find my way here in this strange society. I want to buy a new bike now and do what i do best, hit the road and gather stories. But this my (very bad) financial plan put me into this trap, I dont know what to do, eh.
Anyways, I hope returning to the life I know soon. Keep it simple, verything I own, I can fit into a one bag

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow What a Ride' HST

J

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Jarkko - Traveller for a lifetime

For me riding has a way putting things in a differint light.

Some times.
Your a slide or slip away from putting the bike down killing your self. As a result you so in tune with bike the road and all that is important for the hear and now you let little things like bank accounts drop.
Other times there is so little to do your mind wanders a bit. Your miles from where you need to be road is dead boring no people lets you think about what is important to you.
Then there is the times when. Your inside your helmet and no can get you no phone no radio nothing. Its you and no one else. You are all that matters if your hungry the world is all about feeding you any thing that is not you ride pass not giving it more notice than rock off the road. If you dont like some place or dont like some role on the gas and your not there.

Works for me for a week then the grind of being near some $%@%^ at work that has some sick need bleed the life and dreams out of people gets me a bit down doing work that soul stealing boring.


Come to think of it anyone realy like the idea of staying in one spot. Your day dreams filled with work, list, doing the same thing the sameway day after day when to get the next cup of coffie? I dont rember a time where I dint think of ways to go somwere else see a mounten and think wonder whats on the other side, check to see if the grass is greener on the other side.

When you are on the road (especially over the border) you get the chance to see different cultures, different way of living and different way of thinking. And that makes you consider yourselfs realities.

I didnt make any of my trips to improve myself.

Just liked traveling like said

But every trip effected me in its own way and in overall ; i learned to distinguish real problems with artificial ones and handle them much easier.

Also my wife tells me i am becoming merrier after each trip...