As I mentioned previously, my desire to travel and see all that the world has to offer is currently encumbered only by my schedule and lack of savings. The first step involves eliminating those two issues so that the plans can move forth.
I have been at my current job for… 4 years, 1 month, 28 days, 9 hours, 59 minutes, 12 seconds. This means I have 10 months, 3 days, 1 minute until I reach the looming 5-year mark. But who’s counting, right?
Since day one, I have been contributing money to a retirement plan, for a job I have no intention of staying at long enough to retire from. I’m 23, I’ve got a long ways to go till I plan to retire, or would even be eligible for that matter. This means, when I leave, I have two options for the money. Take it, or leave it. I can take it as cash, minus the taxes, or I can leave it until I reach retirement age. While the second option seems to be the most responsible, it’s a private retirement program run by the county I work for so there’s no more contributing to it unless I invariably come back to work here. Transferring it to a new retirement system might work, if I knew where I was going and what the new retirement system allowed, but even that would come with a loss of money.
So, now you’ve heard me reason through my options, to basically justify the choice I’ve already made, which is taking the money and running. Enter, crazy plans…
What better way to enjoy my new found freedom than feeding a totally impulsive desire to take off into the sunset?!
The destination? 12,000 miles of open road.
I’ll go into more detail as I make more plans, because planning is my character flaw. That’s not to say that planning is ever a bad idea, but overplanning beyond reason can drive one crazy. As if I wasn’t already.
12,000 miles of traveling. If that doesn’t scream mental case, I don’t know what does. Why would someone go through that kind of trouble? Flying is so much more convenient, right?
Flying doesn’t offer the opportunities that a road trip does. There is no real scenery on the inside of an airplane as you crisscross the country, unless you count the people watching as scenery but I could get that at the mall for free. There’s something to be said about packing all that you need for a month and seeing the sights on your own time, where it doesn’t matter if you make your connection and your bags don’t get “accidentally” rerouted to Timbuktu by the cleverly bored baggage attendants.
With 12,000 I could drive from Montana to Sydney, Australia and halfway back. Ok, not literally, because my car is not submersible, nor does it float. Unfortunately… Instead, I’ll stick to the highways and byways of the U.S. and check a few items off the “Bucket List’ along the way.
42. Travel Route 66 from one end to the other.
51. See all of the Pacific Coast Highway.
37. Travel the entire East Coast by car.
10. Visit New York City, and spend more than 8 hours there.
By now, you must have guessed what kind of craziness I’m talking about here. Both coasts, NYC, and Route 66. That would mean literally crisscrossing the country. I’ll post a map for a little visual aid…
Now that you’ve seen the craziness I intend to embark upon, I’ll let you absorb that for a while so that I have some time to plan out my next post.
"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."
— Chris McCandless, "Into the Wild"
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