How to cope when it's all over?
 

Advice needed for cheering yourself up after finishing 10 months on the road when:
1. My better half is still riding around on the other side of the world and on the loose
2. My bike is half a world away and I don't know whether I'll ever see her again (I know I should have sold her but I couldn't bring myself to, so I'm doing the most stupid thing and trying to import her into Australia)
3. I'm stuck at my folks house in Pensionerville and they've threatened to lock my passport up and throw away the key. So there's no chance of planning my next trip under their watchful eye.
4. No one at home is interested in bike talk (And it's all I've been doing for the last year)
5. Between bank stuff ups and my own lack of funds, I have a huge credit card bill
6. And, well, 'normal' life just seems so dull.

How do you cope with 'settling in' again once you've had that nice shower, and your kit is all washed? :helpsmilie:

A bored and depressed adventure motorbiker,
Michelle

I know how you feel after 2 superb months on (and off) the road.

Talking about it helps a bit but I feel everyone I know now resents me either through envy or boredom. I have been asked to speak at a local Rotary lunch. Deciding on what to tell and show them brings back memories. And a free meal too!

Putting into place the mods to the bike that I found would have been useful, is good for the soul and hopefully the bike too.

But nothing beats getting on with more travel. And planning for it is perhaps as much a pleasure as riding it.

You have to talk seriously to those around you. Surely you are a big girl (in the nicest possible way) and old enough to ASSERT yourself. Tell them you are going again. End of matter. Get that accepted, then work at the debt while planning and preparing.

Good luck and good riding.

64 million dollar question
 

When you find out please let me know..!!!!

Got back in may after 13 months and frankly its doin my head in....you like all of us suffer from wanderlust and thats just the way it is...

We do something about it whilst others only dream... envy resentment anger, the list goes on.. even my family aint that bothered...why should they be ??

Life is an adventure and this is just another episode, things will change and im sure if you want it enough youll be out there again soon.

Chin up head down see you on the road
Good luck
Tim:D

Its over????
 

Hi michelle
Maybe thats the reason you feel blue.....don´t give up.Its never over if you think bikers mode.Of course you feel with concrete legs(no bike,allways at the same place and the guy is free.......) Enjoy the moment that your bike is there and ride and feel again! If someone stands in between just let yourself hear!
Start working and saving money.Write at your blog and help travellers by sharing your experience.That way you are kind of on the road again!
Head up!
Disfruta la vida
KH
I remember when Javier ligthen up your pannier frame in BA.You did a dream ride.....

fresh plans
 

Michelle,

After returning home after a 12 months trip i immediately start planning my next trip which will be in a few years. The last trip was in Africa and that was the result of planning I did after returning from a 6 months Australia trip. The next trip will be to ......? dunno but it will be in about 2 or 3 years, saving up money reading the hubb, reading books, preparing the car, etc. It keeps me going until the inevitable crawls up at me again and I have to go again. Meanwhile you can enjoy the after effect of your trip, write your story, if you have good pictures maybe send some stories to biker magazines (I had 3 stories publisized), give presentations, advise other people who are still in preparation phase etc.

good luck !

Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

Thanks guys
 

I'm feeling a bit better about it all, chatting to some biker friends and escaping my parent's lair has helped. As did organising my photos, now I just have to finish my blog site.

So the next trip to be planned is Australia to the UK, hopefully that will keep me amused until my bike turns up (or I just go and buy a DR650 in preparation). I still think being back in an 'ordinary' life will do my head in so I know I don't have an answer for you Tim. But I guess feeling like this just makes us get back out there faster.

Better get going then, loads of research to be done.

Michelle

And hi Karl, yes, sadly we reached our destination and had to home. Javier's modifications worked a treat on my bike though, for which I am grateful.

I was on the road for a year. I kinda got lucky, as my stop was a bit forced due to family business duties. I was on the road one day, and fully inmersed in work the next day. The change was shocking, but the positive is that it hasn't given me much time to think.

Use your next trip as motivation, and dive in head first into the real world. Sort out your debt, get your things in order, gather up money, and enjoy the mundanity for a while. Change is good. Getting back on the road will be sweeter after being back in routine mode.

Try to find an activity to broaden your horizons again?

I know you`re a biker but maybe using your skills in the meantime would be good. Either a sport, like mountain biking, some voluntary work or training. Doesn`t need to be permanent but a few hikes might be good doing things you maybe didn`t have time for while on the road.

Failing that send hate mail to your better half about how it will suck when he finally finishes up!

PS I am at Javier`s right now, with a bike that doesn`t start.
And I met a cute girl, it might be hard to get rolling, starting to sound like it`s over! just joking.

Surround yourself
 

It's the people that avoid 'normality' that always make me feel much better when I have to face the rude 'reality' of getting back after an adventure.

Luckily, my current adventure, in Australia, is just beginning, and I am going to do my very best to be a traveller here for as long as possible.

I will be well chuffed with myself if I find a way to make travelling my normality. Stuff the office job and that whole stupid consumer approach to life. Bleugh! I want to be dusty, smelly (okay, maybe not too smelly) and smiley for ages!

I'm in NSW for a few more days, heading up to QLD. If you're anywhere nearby, I will give you a ride up to the Birsbane HU meet on the 8th September. That ought to cheer you up and fuel your travel plans!
(I'm on 4 wheels this time around, while my bike is taken on new adventures by a new owner. *sniff*)

Very wise words. I would follow them to the letter.

Patrick:mchappy:

Have you any aspirations to pursue at all? A career in something that would blow your skirt up and NOT make you gag? Is there anything at all worth living and working towards, other than bike travel? Any skills, degree's, talents and such that are unique and marketable?

Could you see yourself living abroad for good? Can you parlay Adventure riding into a paying endeavor a la Lois On The Loose? (uh, bit of competition last I checked) And How's that work in your 60's?

And if you keep traveling, what would you do once you achieve Nirvana? Do you have a goal regards travel?

That's the part I had trouble with.
I discovered "paradise" several times in my travels, and stayed for years in some cases. I got bored. It was too easy. Too perfect. Too nice.

In 1972 I started traveling in Mexico and Central America. Lots of surfing and hanging out. I imported stuff in both directions to make traveling money. Worked very well for about three years. (no, not dope:eek3: )

I sold off everything to start, gave up my house. Just a storage space to hold a few keep sakes and my bike. For the next seven years I traveled in search of inspiration, Nirvana and the Garden of Eden. In my 3rd year of travel I blagged a job in the Antarctic from some guys I'd met in Ushuaia. You like adventure? Go work on the ice for two years. Down there we made some films which rekindled my interest in film production.(I had taken film classes briefly at UCLA) So this lucky break was kind of life changing.

Once back home I went through what you're going through.... but I knew I didn't want to travel any more. (I even made a crappy Super 8 film about this depression and indecision, which included spectacular aerial footage from the Antarctic. (the only good part!)

I bummed around California a while, worked in radio and played in bands (which I had done when I was very young) Bands suck and don't pay and the whole business side are liars and crooks.

Somehow ended up doing sound for movies and TV. I liked it and I didn't suck at it. And the checks always cleared the bank. I've done it for the last 20 years and now only work occasionaly on worth while documentaries and small feature films.

One reason I got into this type of work was the travel. Doing documentaries has allowed me to see a lot of the world....and get paid well doing it. All over the US, Latin America, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Ghana, Ethopia, Sudan, Italy, Germany, Holland, France, Spain and more.

Back in my travel years in Latin America I was on a constant search for the Garden of Eden. I found several. I noted these as possible future homes or places of refuge if the USA crumbled..... I am now exercising that option. The walls are coming down here soon, and elsewhere. Take cover. Buy Gold.:helpsmilie:

Forget your boyfriend. Do something for yourself, something you could be good at and something that's fun. Don't avoid hard work if the product is
something to be marginally proud of.

Hey, I know! Join the Marines! :rofl:

Patrick
:mchappy:

Give me a break!

Try reconnecting the battery.

I have put a lot of thought into this one
 

The only answer that keeps coming to mind is to plan the next one, gives you something to look forward to.

I don't think any of us ever come home and fit straight back into "normal" life, whatever that is. An extended trip tends to make you sit back and reassess your life and think what the &*%# am I doing here sitting in an office day in day out???

Remember that the only reason we ever go to work is to finance the next adventure, so chin up, make as much money in as short a time as you can, and travel 'til you drop!

Glen

Erm, cheers Pat!! I'm sure you meant well. Anyway, she's the one in Oz while I've got to try and get a visa sorted out from the UK, I know where I'd rather be right now. I'll be back home in a few days too and other than catching up with family and friends, I ain't looking forward to it too much either!