Category: TRAVEL

I finally made my reservations for me and the bike. Flying out of Montreal, possibly on the same flight as the bike, and landing in Frankfurt, Germany.

Continue reading “Reservations Made, the Trip is a go ! ! ! !”

Just Where Is Bob L ?

I thought I would update you all on my future fiasco, err, I mean adventure.

Continue reading “2018-04-25 Update”

I have continued my bike search. Although it is still possible to take my Triumph or even my Honda, they do have a LOT of miles and it still probably makes more sense to get a different one.

Continue reading “2018-03-26 – UPDATE”

It’s a weird feeling. For 30 plus years I have always saved. There was never any question that funds were never taken out of savings, only put in. Sometimes there was not much left over from expenses to put anything into savings, but money never came out. Those were the rules. That is all about to change.

I think a large part of my stress is not so much about money, but about the new way that money has to be thought of. Before I had to think about how much, if any, was left over to put in savings. Now I have to think about whether there will be enough money in my accounts to last until I die. That means you have to start estimating the time of your own death. A weird feeling indeed.

When will I die? All planning and assumptions of the future revolve around this unknown. Sure, in the past while saving up for retirement I had to make an educated guess at how much I would need in retirement. Sure, that number had some assumptions as to how long I would need my funds to last. But that was different. That was a way to look at a target retirement date. Now, I have to look at a target final day. Add in estimates about future health problems and you have a very morbid line of thought.

2 Months and 8 days to go and I am freaking out. As excited as I am about retirement, as it approaches I am getting stressed. It is such a permanent decision, and any mistakes multiply over time, that it is hard not to be stressed.

I worry about money, about where I will live, HOW I will live, what I will do. I am worried about everything.

I had even decided to pull my papers and not retire this year. That lasted about 5 seconds. I AM going. There is some possibility of changing the date a few weeks later. This was always on the table, as I had chosen the current date of May 10 for two reasons. 1) it was the earliest I could possibly walk out the door if I used ALL my vacation time instead of getting a payout at the end. and 2) I originally planned on heading out of the country early June and wanted about a month to settle things here.

I have been thinking that I might want to change my plans a bit, partly because I have not actually done any planning yet, and partly because my initial plans were a bit too costly. I was going to get rid of almost everything I own, buy a new to me bike and fly it to Germany, then ride for 3 months or 3 years, staying at hotels and Airbnb mostly.

I am now thinking that I should ease into retirement a little slower. Move into a smaller apartment, plan on going to Europe for only a few months, then see what happens. This is not really so much a change in plans as a change in attitude.

But, as anyone that has talked to me in the last month knows, my plans are changing minute by minute depending on my current stress level.

Even if I am on the road for years, I need a permanent legal address in the US. Some of the full-time RV campers get a registration and address in South Dakota as it is still an easy place to do that. In fact, you can do that without ever visiting South Dakota. The best way is to get a family member to let you use their address. My family all live in places like Connecticut and Massachusetts. I really would rather have an address in what I consider the United States. Those other states would cost a fortune in taxes, not to mention a bit of my soul. I am looking in New Hampshire. It is a lot to ask of someone.

Continue reading “PERMANENT ADDRESS”

I have started to get rid of “stuff” and plan on how to get rid of the rest of all this “stuff”. I am naturally a pack rat, but I am also naturally a minimalist. These two conflicting natures often collide in a small storm in my head.

Getting rid of “stuff” is harder than I thought. Part of the issue is the realization that I may not actually like being without a home. I have read many stories and blogs of people who hit the road for what was planned to be years, only to find out that life on the road kinda’ sucks. Not everyone likes continuous motion. Not everyone likes to have all their possessions with them at all times. The problem is that you don’t find out for sure until you actually do it.

Continue reading “GETTING RID OF STUFF”

When something is on someone’s mind, when they spend a lot of time thinking about something, maybe obsessing, they tend to talk about it… A lot.

This can get annoying at the best of times, but none of us are immune to it, so most people politely listen, at least for a while.

Continue reading “YES, I AM A JERK”

This will be an ongoing battle. What to take? Buy there or ship? Nothing is perfect. If you are not starting out with a solid plan, it is even harder. I currently have a 2011 Triumph Tiger 800XC. A good choice for a world tour. Not great, as dealerships are few and far between in some areas, but the world is much smaller these days so a good choice. Except this one has over 70,000 miles on it. More by next year. And it will have experienced 7 New Hampshire winters. There is a lot of rust under the “hood”. With this many hard miles, the bike could not be sold for much. The question then becomes, do I take a high mileage bike, and just dump it if something expensive fails, or do I sell it for practically nothing and buy something expensive, that I will be willing to spend a lot of money to fix? A weird problem.

Continue reading “BIKE CHOICE”

Many people imagine that a life on the road would be awesome. I don’t. I really don’t know how it will be. I have read many stories of people heading off on a world motorcycle tour, or a backpacking/flashpacking adventure, only to find out that life on the road kinda’ sucks. Really. The word travel comes from the Middle English word travail. Travail means a painful or laborious effort. Travail comes from medieval Latin word trepalium which means instrument of torture (hey English majors, don’t contradict me). Yes, travel can be torture. It can also be great. Sometimes at the same time. Many of our most cherished memories of travel are from times when things went horribly wrong.

Continue reading “A Life on the Road, Contemplated”

I guess the first order of business is what to call myself, or how to refer to myself once I retire. Calling myself Homeless, while correct is probably insulting to those unfortunate people that are not homeless by choice. A Hobo is usually considered a migrant worker, wandering around looking for a job. I don’t plan to work. A Tramp works only when forced to, which could be me, but I don’t plan on being forced to work. A Bum fits the not working at all part, but it suggests being poor and lazy, I am not poor. Well, not yet anyway. A Pensioner does not do my travels justice. A Wanderer conjures up that song “The Wanderer”, then I can’t get it out of my head.

Lets try out Vagabond:
noun: vagabond: a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job.
adjective: having no settled home.
verb: wander about as or like a vagabond.

Well, that works. It doesn’t hurt that a friend of mine runs the website VagabondJourney.com and that I have started, but not yet finished the book A Vagabond Journey Around the World (1910) by Franck.

OK. It’s settled, I will refer to myself as a Vagabond, until such time as I don’t.

I will retire in the summer of 2018. Although I had been planning my retirement for 30 plus years, I had not finalized any details. Life throws you curve balls so my initial planning changed over time, but my plans had always included wandering the world by motorcycle, just not solo.

One day in the summer of 2017, while telling people of my impending retirement, I realized that I had not really made any true plans. I did not have the exact date I would leave the office. I planned on becoming homeless and wandering the world in some fashion on a bike, but I did not know where I would start, what bike I would use, or which areas I would hit when. I started to panic. Then I started doing something.

This Blog is all about that.