Not quite covered in previous discussions as I can see so I'm going to pose the following question:-

Do you regard long distance / duration travelling a running away from responsibilities, chores, "real life", taxes, rules, stresses, commitment?

OR

Do you regard it as a "get real" experience, seeing the world and its people on human terms, a running towards life and your true self?

A bit heavy but I'd be interested to hear of your varied opinions.

All the best

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F650GS XL700 Bullet Classic Landie V8 & Ser 1 Santana TDI Astravan Quadzilla 500E & a big 'airy 'oss

I suppose a bit of each really, for me its a 'one finger up' to responsibility, something I have never subscribed to.
My usual answer to questions concerning something I may, or may not have done is, 'Was not me I was not there'!.

So without responsibility for my answer I have been told it was your first option!

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'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'
Never confuse the map with the journey.

Those "questions" are not mutually exclusive, not opposite ends of a single scale, and definitely not the only options to whatever the more fundamental question is which spawned those questions.

For lack of a better stated question I have to answer you: Purple.

Ask a better question I'll give a better answer.

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Traveling The World Since: 2011
Blog: The Seductive Life (General Travel)

I think it depends where you are in life. There are a lot of people who want to go travelling but are unable to do so due to finances, family committments or work committments and there are a lot of people who shun family ties, work committments etc. just so that they can go travelling whenever they want to or have saved enough money to do so.

Everyones reasons for travelling are different - some people just want the once in a lifetime adventure although they are rarely satisfied to leave it at that. There are others who eke out an existance on the road for as long as possible so they don't have to make choices in 'real life' and take on responsibilities.

I think it's a good question and it has been in my mind from time to time the last 20 years.

Personally I don't travel if I feel like I'm running away from something. I find it better to solve the problem(s) and go later. It works for me, but each to their own.

I have never thought of myself as running away from anything, I like to have things at home in order before setting off and not have to come back to problems I have left.
For me it is looking for new experiences, meeting new people and seeing new places, although I do enjoy the feeling of freedom that comes with travel it is not everything.

Perhaps a bit of both depending on the trip.

Most week long or so trips are all about the fun, meeting some people, discovering new places, just being out on the bike.

Having said that we are also planning a much longer trip in less then 3 years that will require some running away from job and…well mainly work I suppose. Great question as I've been sitting here really thinking about it. I have to say that work is causing us both some unhappiness of late and in that regard it feels like we will be running away from it. Having a deadline for our trip helps in that we both know that we are both done with the work. But that's about the only thing I feel like that with.

But I can see how taking a long extended trip would allow someone to simply run away from whatever issues they were having. I could see myself doing it in a different circumstance, for sure. I'm sure it depends on the individual, what, if any, ghosts or skeletons they have. I think perhaps sometimes the journey can start for one reason and turns into something completely different along the way. Sometimes running away is exactly what we need.

For me personally it's about leaving the status quo behind. About not being one of the sheep. Nice home, mortgage, accumulation of stuff, I mean we go to work to make money so we can pay off our stuff. For a lot of us, the stuff begins to own us very quickly. Pretty soon 20 years has passed and we've done nothing meaningful, rush rush rush everywhere, don't have time for much and then end up too frail to truly enjoy the rest of our lives. I mean a great deal of people already do that. We're all born and we're all going to die. It's the in between that we have a say in.

Ultimately it doesn't really matter why you feel propelled to go out on your journey, as long as you simply go.

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Not running away , infact going on a long trip creates problems.
me .... i just do it to fill up my life's hard drive full of memories of something i love doing.
I would hate to be dribbling in my rocking chair thinking "what if "

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Interesting question! "Running towards life" is a great expression. I love to travel and I can, so I do. I'm not necessarily running away, although there are times when I'm in the middle of nowhere or somewhere that I feel I have escaped the rat race and materialism for a while and that feels good.

For me the short, mostly unplanned, trips are sometimes "running away". Just a weekend on the bike to clear my head.
Longer trips are to see the world, meet people en see interesting things (and make a lot of photo's because that is my other passion beside motorcycles and traveling)

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Jan Krijtenburg

My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide

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For me it is both; running forward in life.

Freedom is important to me and travelling is the ultimate form of freedom. Life is short and you have to do whatever makes you happy; that varies from person to person.

I always create the possibility to travel to be able to: learn foreign languages, enrich myself with impressions and interaction with people, eat nice food, see places, broaden my horizon and to go where I want to go. These experiences make me a happier person.

Ofcourse it is a bit of running away from daily/average responsibilities for me. But I know that a life without responsibilities does not excist.

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Luc

I have worked for 33 years, got the kids through school/university & now independent (more or less), wife has her own life (more or less), money in the bank, so for me it is about doing something I have wanted to do for ages. I feel i have met my obligations (more or less) and now am ready to move on, so my "Gap year" in South America is about blowing the cobwebs away before deciding what to do next.

By the way - the kids approve, although it is fair to say the wife is not too sure about it all!

This year we bought a camper van.
My wife only works part time.
We have found a nice quiet campsite less than 30 miles from home.
My wife often escapes there with our two youngest (1 and3) for a couple of days - in this case it is running away.
'She can't see how untidy the house is so she can't worry about it'.
When she is home she doesn't get a lot of chance to sort the house out as the aforementionned youngest run around behind her undoing all her work and they are very good at it!

Running away ? maybe, its certainly escaping the daily work / home routine that grinds you down. Getting up each day and doing exactly what you love is awesome. The longest trip i have been on (so far) is only 2 months and it was everything i hoped it would be. What surprised me was that i came back with a renewed enthusiasm for work / home / life. it does of course wear off which means planning another trip ASAP. Andy