September 17, 2009 - Reflections

While there are no long road trips in the near future going to happen, i take time to reflect on a time when the road trips happened one after the other... It was funny in that while on one trip, i was already planning the next. I would try and cut a few corners to make sure that the savings would be applied to the next trip. I had 4 weeks of vacation time and with my work, i could pay other drivers to work in my place. We have different days off which made it easy and flexible to do this. This was very helpful when i went to the Florida area in 2003 and the cross country trip in 2004. Along time ago in Winnipeg, i met a paramedic who was travelling across Canada. He did it for 10 years and had enough so what he did was to take a cooking course so that he could get a job anywhere. He moved to one city after another, worked, rented some short term furnished accomodations, saw all the sights in the area and then moved on. What a great idea! Then i was mentoring one of the new drivers and he had done basically the same thing with his family or this guy went from country to country chalking up having lived now in 18 of them! His tip was to try and work for a multinational company and they take care of the visas for you. Well, you can do whatever suits your fancy. I am always on the lookout for creative ideas. I thought the Rv lifestyle was good too. My problem is that i like a good shower and not wild about those fast sailor showers. One year to the early out retirement for me. Have been looking at the many options to try and line up the best ones. I will have to sell off some of the real estate and clear off the debts to go fulltime travelling. I already had a taste of the freedom, it really is hard to be landlocked now.