Gifted Slacker

March was an entirely different sack of squirrels than January and February.

I spent very little money in the first two months of the year. In March I spent about $2,500 on a bike and other assorted gear.

The expense wasn’t too big of a problem. I would save a ton roughing it. Stealth camping is free, and cyclist rates at most campgrounds are less than $15. The biggest drain on my pocket would be food. On a long distance cycling tour conventional wisdom says that you’ll need somewhere around twice your normal amount of calories. (I usually have to eat 3,500-4,500 calories to maintain weight.) That averages out to $30-$40 per day on food and a place to sleep, if you stick to self-prepared, healthy, calorie-dense food with an occasional splurge on a diner-type meal.

After crunching the numbers it became obvious that I could either starve to death on a 9-month round-the-globe trek, or I could cycle across the United States and maybe have enough money to start a new life on the west coast. I settled on the option that didn’t end with me dead in the middle of some desert in Australia.

So across the USA I planned to go. I bought maps and read dozens of trip logs. Launch date: March 31st!

About a week before I left I got a message from a woman on a dating site. She was fascinating, smart, funny, and absolutely gorgeous.

Did it make sense to meet her before I left? I was going to be gone for three months, if not forever. It definitely wasn’t optimal but, still, I was curious.

The night before I left, it turned out that we were planning to be in the same place at the same time. In the end my plans changed and I didn’t get to meet her that night. It was probably a good thing, too. I would have been so nervous between that and starting my trip in the morning it wouldn’t have been a good situation.

The morning of the 31st rolled around and off I went, down to Yorktown, VA to start my trek.

To be completely honest, all of this (i.e., being away from everything I know for 11 months, being completely vulnerable in a way I’ve never been before, signing away a significant chunk of my life to paying back loans, and some things that are too private or that I’m unable to articulate) scares the shit out of me. So much so that I could almost run away and hide.

I try to embrace the idea that life is an adventure, that you have to take big risks for big payoffs, that you have to live without holding back. It doesn’t help.

I’m stressed and worried, but life is great overall and there are some exciting threads open in my life. The only thing I can do is try my best to explore them without fear.

• To School
  • Depart: 17 September 2007
  • Return: 18 December 2007
• To California
  • Depart: 31 August 2007
  • Return: 4 September 2007
• To Missouri (maybe)
  • Depart: 10 August 2007
  • Return: 12 August 2007

It’s January. I’m in a killer funk.

The holidays have passed, I’m recently graduated, and all of my interesting job prospects are falling through. Worst of all, I’m living with my parents. Quitting that cushy programming gig so I could hang around in a coffee shop is starting to feel like a bad decision.

What am I going to do now?

I’ve got some money saved. Perhaps I could travel. Sow my wild oats, and all that jazz. No, I can’t afford to go to all the places I dream of visiting.

Maybe I should start a business. I’ve got hundreds of ideas, some of them aren’t bad, either! No. No, that sounds too much like work.

I know, I’ll wallow in a low-grade depression for two months. Yeah, that’s a great idea. That’s what I’ll do!

So that’s what I did. Mostly.

During January and February my routine was to wake up, hit the gym, and then kill the rest of the day. Exciting, I tell you.

There were a couple highlights. I went on a few dateish type things with a roller-derby girl, which mostly involved hanging out at roller-derby events. That was pretty neat but I didn’t fit in due to my lack of tattoos, an all black wardrobe, and a healthy dose of psychopathic rage. It was a strange and enlightening experience. . .

In February I started kicking around the idea of a long-distance trek, either by bike or on foot. Cheap and exciting. This was definitely the ticket.

I ended up deciding on an around the world bike ride. I did some preliminary planning but basically didn’t get a jump on things until March.

That’s when things really took off.