How to plan your next travel adventure
Tips from the horse's mouth.
Step 1: Seek expert advice
Many expert travelers, who also happen to be expert bloggers — or the other way around — will readily share various advice on the topic of traveling. “Nomadic, journey, exotic, yearning, hamster wheel, new life” and other dramatic lexicon will extol the romantic side of giving up life in said wheel for a new one (life that is, not wheel).
And you just know that large numbers of the blog audience will follow the author’s advice, turning their back on jobs, mortgage payments and a cozy existence to hit the road for extended periods of time. Of course, this is obvious from the comments section of these blogs: “Just decided to sell everything and go! It is the way to do it. Make a decison to avoid regrets later,,, its so worth it!!”, pleads reader Chris. Well, I got news for you, Chris: you convinced me! Later that day:
Step 2: Put forth before family council
Me: “Honey, do you remember when we were moving from NYC to Colorado and how I wanted us to move to Alaska instead?” Wife: “Yes, so? This was 10 years ago?..” Me: “Well, we’re buying a camper and leaving to South America for 2 years. And we’re taking your mother to help with the kids.” Wife: “You’re joking!?!” Me: “Yes, but only about your mother.” Wife: “How does that have anything to do with Colorado and… awww, forget it! You’re an idiot.”
Step 3: Make an informed decision
So it was decided. A grand road trip spanning 2 grand continents (unless you’ve been educated in Burundi, where the Americas count as one continent*) over the course of 2 years. Kids included, mother-in-law excluded, in the snug comfort of a truck camper. The plan was plain, succinct and reasonable, I think.
Step 4: Plan carefully
Having the decision out-of-the-way, it was time for more practical matters. For one should know there is a myriad of details surrounding the intricacies of such an undertaking. Naturally, people such as Chris already know that, but things were not so clear for us. For instance, how would we, in our soon-to-be camper truck, cross the Panama Canal, which as everyone but students in Burundi knows, cuts across the Isthmus of Panama, separating the Americas into two distinct continents? Or what to pack for 2 years. But that’s another story.
To be cont'd.
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