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egypturnashI think I had a Mid-Life Crisis moment. I fantasized about a laptop, a motorcycle, and a few years spent gadding about hither and yon, crashing at one friend or another's place for a month or two, paying my minimal bills by doing freelance illustration via the net. Put all my crap in storage, go out and experience.
Bet it costs more than I'd think. But still. Tempting.
Bet it costs more than I'd think. But still. Tempting.
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Date: 2004-04-09 02:18 pm (UTC)I don't think it has anything to do with mid-life, and everything to do with not living in a society that encourages exploration. I bet most of your plans for gadgets to take and such was in relation to having everything at your fingertips - just like at home. See?
I mean, now that we have materialism - how can we move about the country freely :P
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Date: 2004-04-09 02:44 pm (UTC)Need someone to teach you how to ride? :)
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Date: 2004-04-09 03:44 pm (UTC)I wonder how I'd look on a motorcycle that matched my hair? Black road armor, shocking pink bike, probably with weird spirally designs painted everywhere...
Skinny cutepunk bikerdyke.
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Date: 2004-04-09 04:20 pm (UTC)It's called, "Being Homeless".
Date: 2004-04-09 03:57 pm (UTC)I spent many a vacation doing the motorcycle-trip thing, and it was good when I could afford a motel room, but it would wear quickly. Staying with friends is good, if you are willing to move on each week - necessary to keep from turning even the best of friends into people who resent you - but having been forced, after a year's unemployment in Redding to seek work south, I heartily recommend the van. I headed towards L.A. with not near enough money to survive a week, let alone establish a residence and find work, but I didn't realise it at the time. I stopped in the Monterey Bay area, drove by a fishing port (Moss Landing), saw lots of boats with lots of antennas, and inside an hour, had two job offers as a marine electronics technician. By Redding standards (paricularly those of someone unemployed for a year) the pay was good, but I couldn't afford to rent an outhouse in that economy. I lived in the Dodge Van with all my worldly possessions, and two german shepherds, while working during the day, and illegally "camping" by the fish canneries, or by the Harbor Master's office, or out on the barrier island, dodging Sheriff's Deputies. Weekends I explored - I had to, the place I worked was closed. I got to spend a couple weekends in Yosemite Valley, cruised up and down Highway 1 so many times that the scenery became boring, and sat and watched the sunset from the lighthouse in Pacific Grove, with families and couples...and after the sun had set, THEY would all get into their cars and go back "home". I would sit there, the ocean turning dark, listening to the waves crash against the rocks, wind turning chill, with no place to go, no place to be - unneeded and unwanted - until Monday morning, when the ship's chandlery opened back up for business.
I did that for 9 months - saved enough to consider buying a small boat as a live-aboard, in the harbor, when out of the blue, a job I had applied for over a year before was mine if I would move to L.A. for it; and now I could afford the luxury of some roots.
Peg, it _is_ an adventure, don't get me wrong. But it is much more stressful than you may imagine. NOONE has a sufficiently large network of friends that they can afford to feel totally secure, and part-time work, catch-as-catch-can, without a home base where you can let your hair (and your guard) down, will make you really squeeze those dollars, moreso than being simply unemployed does. Live on about $12 a day, including fuel for your wheels, Ice for the ice chest, dog-food for the pets, and reliable sources of water that someone won't begrudge you...Oh, and whatever meager food you may yourself eat. For some people, this developes character and discipline, but if you don't have those traits in some measure to begin with, you can find yourself on the road to becoming a forlorne derelict.
And at times, the lonesomeness can crush you.
When you have some income again, by all means, buy a used BMW R80/7, with Luftmeister fairing and saddlebag luggage, and retrofit the loudest set of air horns you can, and do the wanderlust thing. And don't "Rough It"; "SMOOTH IT", and indulge yourself - In fact, set up an "indulgence" account for just that very purpose. Just remember, there's no place like home, and how much simpler life is when you have one to go back to.
Regards,
VulpesRex - who _does_ miss his old R60/5, but not the rest of that life, at least not that much...
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Date: 2004-04-09 04:10 pm (UTC)OT
Date: 2004-04-09 06:11 pm (UTC)Re: OT
Date: 2004-04-10 01:22 am (UTC)Re: OT
Date: 2004-04-10 10:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-09 06:21 pm (UTC)It was an interesting experience and one really great to look back on... fading in the distance of my rearview mirror. I still dream about it sometimes and remember the taste of the hot desert wind at night on my chapped lips but... I don't think I'd do it again. At least not without a benefactor that'd give me a meager living stipend while I traveled to pay for food and occassional lodging. Then it'd probably be a lot of fun. Take photos, sketch places, explore, travel... But with no money it stinks. :)
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Date: 2004-04-10 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-10 02:59 pm (UTC)*If you want to embark on a romantic motorcycle adventure read Pat Califia's 'Doc and Fluff' for inspiration, but don't forget that fiction isn't fact.
*If you want to be gently dissuaded, Hunter Thompson's 'Hells Angels' will do, though it's hardly as relevant now as then.
*If you want to be violently rebuked, query a policeman of his views upon vagrants, new-age travellers and two-wheeled highway users.
-Lawler.