# Why Stop?



## Rolling Blackouts (Dec 18, 2015)

The asphalt interstates will always be there, and until Capitalism collapses under its own weight, Union Pacific will always operate everywhere indefinitely like the well oiled clockwork machine that is has turned our continental landscape into.
My point being, ditching your possessions, throwing a farewell party, and bugging out into this beautiful world of ours is always a tempting option. In many cases, it is the only option as we, the disenchanted working class, find ourselves refugees in a culture which we despise. The open road offers every potential that stagnation and resignation can't possibly provide for us. But alas, it abounds with a plethora of drawbacks. For every reason to get up and move, there is an equal or greater force that tells us to slow down. It's an issue of opportunity and motivation.
The reasons to travel are painfully apparent to those who know the road - economy sucks? hometown is a wasteland? Warrants? Always wanted to climb that one stupidly challenging mountain in the horizon? Just got out of a lousy relationship and need 5,000km between you and your lover?
Everyone has their reason.
Sometimes it just takes the distant blast of a freight air horn to send shivers down your spine, and make your feet itch straight through your boots, and the next thing you know, you're down at that familiar hop-out wondering what would happen if you don't look back. It's hard to feel the violent vibration of metal mercilessly impacting iron and not drown in a flood of creosote soaked memories.
Just as we find our reasons to migrate, we eventually find reasons to hibernate. On a long enough timeline, our bodies slow down. We get exhausted. We grow weary. We miss people. We miss places. Even the most restless wanderlust soul wants to sow seeds in a garden of their own.

I found my reason to get off the road, and it was the last thing I expected (...a JOB!?). Not a high paying one, but one which makes me profoundly happy - working as a "habitat restoration tech" across a diverse array of obscure, fragile, and protected ecosystems along the California coast. I work my bones to dust 55 hours a week. I'm currently living in my truck. The work ain't making me wealthy, but it does keep me healthy. The standing offers to travel abroad are always lingering in the background, but It will take a lot to move this stone next time around. Despite this, the lure of chaos, new friends, new sunrises, and distant soils will forever hang precariously before me, reminding me of the beauty that exists when one climbs out on a limb and reaches for the question mark. But I pause and remind myself that one cannot hear the hushed voice of the forest when rushing past. 
There is a time for everything. It's just an issue of opportunity and motivation.
Like I said, everyone has their reason.

So Long Ramble Short....Why Did you Stop?
Sick of being constantly harassed by authority for trying to survive? Sick of being woken up by tweakers at 3am? Sick of being sick? Tired of being Tired? All those tickets across all those state lines start catching up with you? Or maybe that album couldn't record itself under that overpass.


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## wizehop (Dec 18, 2015)

Life is ongoing, starting/stopping are never a final thing. I start and stop all the time depending on what I need or want to do....nothing is definitive. Even travelling gets repetitive as fuck. The trick is to live each day as you want, and change as you need, regardless of how you think others expect you to live.


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## Eng JR Lupo RV323 (Dec 18, 2015)

BNSF will always operate everywhere indefinitely like the well oiled clockwork machine that is has turned our continental landscape into. 

FTFY


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## briancray (Jan 1, 2016)

I travel on and off depending on where life takes me in that general moment. I would like to travel 100% of the time, but I still have student loans to payoff and I don't want to fuck over my co-signer. But, like @wizehop said sometimes it's nice to take a break. It's unfortunate my degree was in a field that did not make me happy, but life is a series of experiences and we don't always make the right choice, but have the option to make changes or at least work towards them. I like to work hard for a few months at a time and then travel. I enjoy picking up new skills and I know going into a new job that I most likely won't be there too long, so I never get sucked in. Recently I have started to only work seasonal jobs. I think starting and stopping is normal and traveling however you want is your choice too.


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## Deleted member 2626 (Jan 2, 2016)

Sounds like a great setup rolling nowhere. I too am on and off. I have !ived in a yuppie neighborhood, which sometime the area drives me too public blow outs , for a month now commuting to two diff. Part ti me grocery jobs on bike to pay my dad fully for 2 acres he sold me. When he is fully paid I will continue tramp on and off and work here and there to put money into my shack and land. I was on a cross country trip but came back to work more instead of just getting my understanding father a hundred here and there. I am a sort of misanthrope with a dog and shig people on the roador anywhere really, get to my core and lead me to believe I need some real long term woods solitude or to quit hitching and just walk or that I have control on a slight "mental illness". Good thread man


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