Archive for the ‘Logistics’ category

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Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah

April 11th, 2010

In a few days, I’ll be traveling to Wisconsin to tell my family about my plans to travel the world. I may be 45, but I’m still going into the trip with a fair amount of trepidation. Since they’re not big travelers, I’m anticipating some interesting discussions.

To facilitate the announcement, I agonized over a nice letter that summarizes my plans and thoughts. Eventually I came up with this:

Dear family,

I’m leaving my job and everything I own to travel the world.

Hugs and kisses, Joel

image credit: Foxtongue via Flickr

I’m hoping that really kind of says it all and we’ll just go back to playing cards with the dulcet tones of Shep Smith and Fox News in the background.

In case it’s not enough, I’ve put together a little list of the questions I figure might come up. » Read more: Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah

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Come Sale Away

April 4th, 2010

Now I know what a gang bang feels like.

The plan

In preparing for my departure, I knew I would have two sales. The first to clear my place of all the miscellaneous crap, the second to shed much of my furniture to limit my storage needs.

Some wonderful friends of mine (we’ll call them Shmoy, Shmill and Shmance) helped me put together the yard sale. I had an ungodly number of books, DVDs, comics and various electronics & camping stuff. They added clothes, cycling equipment and baby gear that’s been outgrown.

photo credit: fpm from Wikimedia Creative Commons

» Read more: Come Sale Away

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Packing List Episode II: Attack of the Clothes

March 30th, 2010

Impossible to see, the future is.

So, I’ve been holding off on posting part 2 of the packing list because I’ve been trying to figure out a way to make it interesting. I thought about writing it in Aramaic, but as it turns out, that’s just not all that funny.

I already posted what I thought was the most interesting part of the list – my bike and gear. Really, do you need to know how many pairs of underwear I’m taking along? Granted, my underwear is pretty awesome – the elastic in the waistband doubles as emergency mountain climbing gear. I’d get into more detail, but you really don’t want to know where I have to tuck the carabiner. » Read more: Packing List Episode II: Attack of the Clothes

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Realize That There Is No Plan

March 21st, 2010

Do not try to bend the spoon — that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth: there is no spoon. – The Matrix

I’d love to tell you all about the wonderful locations that are on my route around the world, but I can’t. Here’s the problem. I’m a habitual over-planner. Seriously, my daily task list includes details like “wake up,” “shave,” and “watch porn” scheduled in 10 minute increments.

This might be where I go.

» Read more: Realize That There Is No Plan

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5 BIG Ways To Save Thousands For a RTW Trip

March 17th, 2010

There have been a lot of tips outlining small ways to save money for a round the world trip. But c’mon, anyone can give up Starbucks and save a couple bucks a day. With all due respect to the wonderful Stephanie at Twenty-Something Travel, I’m going to show you some shortcuts that are like wormholes to a whole new dimension of savings.

  1. Stop buying engagement rings. I can’t emphasize this one enough. I don’t care if you’re a paperboy, you don’t have a clue how much street food 2 months salary buys in Bangkok. Don’t wait until after your fourth one to kick this habit.
  2. Skip over your mid-life crisis. Traveling to Paris on the spur of the moment may be awesome and impetuous, but taking along some cocktail waitress you met after your fifth pint last weekend is overkill. The sex isn’t THAT good. » Read more: 5 BIG Ways To Save Thousands For a RTW Trip

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Posted in Brain Drops, Destinations, Logistics

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Confessions of a Cultural Idiot Part 2: Learn

March 14th, 2010

This is part 2 of a four part series, in which I chastise myself for past experiences and give advice on fixing myself for future travels. Yes, I can give myself advice without being crazy. If you’d like to catch up, you can read Part 1: Eat Stuff.

Lesson #2 for cultural idiots: Don’t just take photos, take inspiration.

I’m setting up a contest on the site called “Identify This Photo.” Because I need serious help with about 7,000 photos that are a total mystery to me. Seriously, I don’t even think I took most of them. My working theory is that they just came with the camera like that generic family in a new picture frame. You may not know them, but damn, they sure look pretty.

Do you know where this is? Me neither.

» Read more: Confessions of a Cultural Idiot Part 2: Learn

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Posted in Destinations, Logistics, Photos, Rants

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Muffin Top – Packing List Part 1

March 10th, 2010

My life weighs 85 lbs. That’s 30 lbs. for the bike and racks plus another 55 lbs. of crap that will be my entire existence when I leave for my round the world (RTW) trip. I’ve named my bike “Muffin Top” because of the way it’s been overpacked. There are some extra items thrown in so I start off with a worst case scenario, pushing me to train with a bit of extra weight before I leave. 

My life in 85 lbs.

» Read more: Muffin Top – Packing List Part 1

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So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed

March 8th, 2010

For this week’s Travel Math Monday, I packed up my stuff to test how much I’ll be hauling around on my bike. In doing so, I realized some interesting comparisons to my current life and what I’m leaving behind. Total weight of everything I currently own: 6375 lbs.

My packing list is coming later this week!

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New project Coming Soon!

February 28th, 2010

I’m going to take a one day break from working on the blog this week and see if I can’t set up an online database where people can try to connect with others while they’re traveling around the world.

I registered www.rtwconnect.com and if it works right, you will be able to search a calendar and destination to see if other travelers are there at the same time to organize a meet-up via Twitter.

I’m far from an experienced web programmer so I may need to bring in some help to make it look pretty and user friendly, but it seems like there’s a need out there for something like this. I know I’d love to connect to other travelers I’ve communicated with while I’m out on the road.

Hopefully, this will be a useful tool and a unique feature for Freedonia Post to offer.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this project is a bit beyond me at the moment so it’ll have to wait a bit until I have time to learn more about some web programming (or bribe a friend to do it for me).

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The 12 pieces of free software I can’t blog without

February 22nd, 2010

There’s a ton of free software on the market, a lot of it total crap or loaded with malware. If you’ve just picked up a new netbook and are ready to head out on the road, here are the free (and spyware-free) gems I use almost daily. A couple are iPhone specific, so my apologies to anyone who can’t find a version that works with their mobile device.

www.icanhascheezburger.com (cut me some slack, I was desperate)

» Read more: The 12 pieces of free software I can’t blog without

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