Articles Archive
The Loneliness of Living on the Road
After 9 years of continuously traveling the world, both with companions and alone, I know that to be able to completely live on the ends of your own intuition - perhaps a working definition of freedom - it helps to travel alone. But to travel alone means wooing the beasts of loneliness and solitude.
Surviving Long Haul Flights with Kids
I’ve lived in U.S. since 1995 and since then I’ve traveled back and forth between the U.S. and Europe with my children (now twelve and eight) at least once a year. From the beginning, many friends here in Seattle would shake their heads in wonder at our seemingly super-human abilities to manage little kids and jet-lag. We don’t have any special abilities and our kids are not any better nor any worse than most children when it comes to flying. But, in our particular circumstances, travelling long distances to be with family was - and is - part of our life and part of our children’s lives. How could we not go to my brother-in-law’s wedding? Or rush to Ireland when my mom was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer?
5 Things That (can) Suck About Long-Term Travel
In my last article, I talked about the highs of travel. While travel is a mostly amazing experience, nomadic living is not always glitter and gold. In fact, if you spend enough time on the road, something bad is bound to happen. Murphy’s Law is never wrong and eventually you find that there are plenty of lows to go with your highs.
3 of the Best Things About Long-Term Travel
As a perpetual nomad, I spend a lot of time traveling. Extended time on the road will leave a person with innumerable highs and intolerable lows. I’ve been moving now for two years and in that time I’ve seen a lot. One of the benefits of travel is that you are constantly experiencing new things and not a day goes by where I am not awed.
Why Travel With Kids is an Enriching Experience
A few weeks ago, my wife Bec and I were enjoying breakfast with a two old friends we hadn’t seen in a while. We talked about what we’d all been doing, and our plans for the future. We mentioned that we’d considered travelling next year, but had changed our minds recently.
They urged us:
“If you don’t go now, you never will. You’ll get pregnant, and then that’s it. You’ll be tied down.”
How Travel Redefines Home
When I first left the country, I was an angry girl; ashamed of my country, annoyed with American tradition & culture, disregarding of my family history, disappointed with my education, and I was no longer on speaking terms with religion.
It was the story of the young shepherd, Santiago, in The Alchemist that filled my spirit with an insatiable fire to move, and specifically to buy my first open-ended ticket to what would eventually accumulate into seven years of adventures abroad. But I still vividly remember the moment when I closed that little book and said, with noted disappointment, to myself, “Wait. The boy ends up where he began?” It was foreshadowing on my life that I was just barely smart enough to note with a squinted and suspicious eye.
How To Travel As Long As You Want Without Going Broke (Interview)
So, you’re pumped. You’ve just learned that $5 a day is all you need to travel forever, and you know it’s for you.
But now you’re wondering: How will you get that $5 a day? And what if you want to earn a little more than that, so you can be a little less frugal or travel in more expensive place?
Wade has been on the road for 9 years, in which time he’s made his way through 40 countries and across 5 continents. Last year, I talked to him about why he’s been travelling so long; this time, I decided to find out how he does it. Or, more specifically, where he gets the money to be able to travel perpetually.
Is $5 a Day Really Enough?
Last week, I wrote about Andy the Hobo Traveler, and his inspiring motto: If you earn $5 a day, you can travel forever.
That article received a strong reaction, and not just from people who were inspired by Andy’s approach to long-term travel. Others were skeptical. One reader, J Nizzle, commented:
“5 bucks a day. I think that is totally possible. If you don’t mind those living conditions. How long can you sleep on the ground? Or better yet in some seedy places that work with a 5 dollar budget. What is the quality of food you are eating? How about not showering for a few days?”
Earn $5 a Day? You Can Travel Forever
“If you can earn $5 a day, you can travel forever.”
That’s Andy the Hobo Traveler’s motto, at least. And he can talk: for close to 11 years, Andy has been perpetually travelling the globe, with no intention of returning home.
For most of us, travel is a finite experience. Our trips may be long, but they always have a Point A and a Point B: a beginning and an end. Most of us return home; some people relocate to a new home; but we always arrive home.
Podcasting on the Road: Tape, Technology and Hats
When I first started my trip, my focus was to do podcasting, not blogging. A year and a half later, and I’ve done much more blogging than podcasting. While I have been able to put up several episodes, I still find the workflow of producing a podcast by myself, on the road, to be a daunting task. In this article I’m going to go through some of what I go through to produce a solo video podcast on the road.
