It takes a certain sort of person to decide to go on a bicycle trip around the world. It's not for everyone. Reactions from people we share the trip with, are varied.
Most people are too polite to say they think we are nuts! Others say take me with you. More often than not people look at us and say "why?"
My best friend Candy exclaimed "Kris, you will be 50 years old!" My response was "so what!"
Why is hard to explain. There isn't any one reason, it's many reasons. Larry and I have worked hard all of our lives and have raised our kids. We feel if we don't go do "something" now, we never will!
I have always had a desire to travel. I've traveled many places in the U.S. (actually been in every state but Alaska), but my most favorite vacation was one I spent with my brother and sister-in-law on their sailboat.
Kent and Diane were living in the Florida Keys for the winter. By chance there was a RE/MAX convention in Miami that year. I always go to the conventions so that year I planned to visit Kent then go to the convention. Well, to make a long story short, I never got to the convention. I enjoyed living on the boat so much, I stayed there my entire vacation.
It was wonderful. All we did each day was take care of our needs. No phone, no appointments no rush. Just relax, eat, clean up and sleep.
I discovered there was a whole "community" living out there on the water. The "boat people" knew each other and many traveled together. Even thought they came from many walks of life (Kent and Diane were very young in comparison to the others) They shared and socialized with each other. It didn't matter that they were separated by water, they would just hop in a dinghy and go visit or borrow an extra fishing pole, whatever was needed. The community was a different world from what I had ever known.
In many ways the bike trip will be like this. All we will need to do is get from point A to point B every day. Clean up, eat and rest. Then do it again.
We will have our own community. We will have a common goal and hopefully help each other along the way. Our backgrounds are different and we range in age from 14 to 80 something. We will be our own traveling neighborhood, a band of modern day nomads, carrying computers, cell phones, pocketmail, altimeters and whatever else we can't live without.
to be continued....
